Airship Hindenburg Collection. Werner Doehner, Hindenburg Disaster Survivor. Last passenger still alive that witnessed the disaster

Werner Doehner, was just 8 when the airship suddenly began to tilt. “Instantly, the whole place was on fire,” Doehner told the Associated Press. “My mother threw me out the window. She threw my brother out. Then she threw me, but I hit something and bounced back. She caught me and threw me the second time out.” Doehner, his brother and his mother all survived — but his father and younger sister were not so lucky. To this day, Doehner is still so pained by the memories he rarely grants interviews.

Doehner was eight years old and was travelling with his parents, Hermann and Matilde, and his siblings, 10-year-old Walter and 16-year-old Irene. The Doehner boys were the youngest of the 36 passengers on board during that flight.
Today, Doehner lives a quiet life as a retiree in Colorado. He declined to comment on this story beyond saying, “I lead a private life. That happened in the past and I’d prefer it stay there.” (manchester-nj.patch.com)

The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers, 61 crew), there were 35 fatalities; there was also one death among the ground crew.

The disaster was the subject of spectacular newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness report from the landing field, which was broadcast the next day. A variety of hypotheses have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The incident shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the end of the airship era.After opening its 1937 season by completing a single round trip passage to Rio De Janeiro in late March, the Hindenburg departed from Frankfurt on the evening of May 3 on the first of 10 round trips between Europe and the United States that were scheduled for its second year of commercial service. The United States' American Airlines, which had contracted with the operators of the Hindenburg, was prepared to shuttle fliers from Lakehurst to Newark for connections to airplane flights.
Except for strong headwinds which slowed its passage, the Hindenburg's crossing was otherwise unremarkable until the airship's attempted early evening landing at Lakehurst three days later on May 6. Although carrying only half its full capacity of passengers (36 of 70) and 61 crew members (including 21 training crew members), the Hindenburg's return flight was fully booked with many of those passengers planning to attend the festivities for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London the following week.

The airship was hours behind schedule when it passed over Boston on the morning of May 6, and its landing at Lakehurst was expected to be further delayed because of afternoon thunderstorms. Advised of the poor weather conditions at Lakehurst, Captain Max Pruss charted a course over Manhattan, causing a public spectacle as people rushed out into the street to catch sight of the airship. After passing over the field at 4 p.m., Captain Pruss took passengers on a tour over the seasides of New Jersey while waiting for the weather to clear. After finally being notified at 6:22 p.m. that the storms had passed, the airship headed back to Lakehurst to make its landing almost half a day late. However, as this would leave much less time than anticipated to service and prepare the airship for its scheduled departure back to Europe, the public was informed that they would not be permitted at the mooring location or be able to visit aboard the Hindenburg during its stay in port.

Around 7:00 p.m. local daylight saving time, at an altitude of 650 feet (200 m), the Hindenburg approached the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. This was to be a high landing, known as a flying moor, because the airship would drop its landing ropes and mooring cable at a high altitude, and then be winched down to the mooring mast. This type of landing maneuver would reduce the number of ground crew, but would require more time.  At 7:09 the airship made a sharp full speed left turn to the west around the landing field because the ground crew was not ready. At 11 minutes past it turned back toward the landing field and valved gas. All engines idled ahead and the airship began to slow. Captain Pruss ordered all engines full astern at 7:14 while at an altitude of 394 ft (120 m), to try to brake the airship. 7:17: The wind shifted direction to southwest, and Captain Pruss was forced to make a second, sweeping sharp turn, this time towards starboard. 7:18: The airship made another sharp turn and dropped 300, 300, and 500 kg of water ballast in successive drops because the airship was stern-heavy. Six men (four of whom were killed in the accident) were also sent to the bow to trim the airship. 7:21: At altitude 295 feet (90 m), the mooring lines were dropped from the bow, the starboard line being dropped first, followed by the port line. The port line was overtightened as it was connected to the post of the ground winch; the starboard line had still not been connected. At 7:25 p.m., a few witnesses saw the fabric ahead of the upper fin flutter as if gas were leaking. Witnesses also reported seeing blue discharges—possibly static electricity—moments before the fire on top and in the back of the ship near the point where the flames first appeared. Several other eyewitness testimonies suggest that the first flame appeared on the port side just ahead of the port fin, and was followed by flames which burned on top. Commander Rosendahl testified to the flames being "mushroom-shaped". One witness on the starboard side reported a fire beginning lower and behind the rudder on that side. On board, people heard a muffled explosion and those in the front of the ship felt a shock as the port trail rope overtightened; the officers in the control car initially thought the shock was due to a broken rope.

Airship Hindenburg Collection. Werner Franz, the last surviving crew member of the zeppelin Hindenburg. He was a 14 year-old cabin boy on the Hindenburg's final voyage

Werner Franz was a 14-year-old cabin boy when he survived the destruction of the "Hindenburg" in 1937. Franz was cleaning china in the officers' quarters when the 804-foot-long German ship, held aloft by hydrogen, caught fire over Lakehurst, N.J. He escaped by breaking through the cloth of a nearby hatch.
 He is now the only survivor of the Hindenburg"s crew that survived the 1937 disaster.


The following story is from the Stars and Stripes archives, published in 1987:

THE HINDENBURG'S 15-year-old cabin boy was cleaning china in the officers' quarters when an explosion in the rear of the 804-foot airship shook it from front to back.
Fifty years-later, Werner Franz remembers exactly what happened.
"All the china came flying out of the cabinets," he said.
Franz ran out into a passageway. There was no time to be scared.
"It happened so fast, it was like a movie passing by," he said. "You act instinctively.
As the ship began to lurch at its mooring, he grabbed a girder and dangled in the air.
"As I hung there, I had a vision of my life passing by," he said.
The Hindenburg was engulfed in flames, the tail crashing to the ground and the nose settling more slowly as Franz made his way, coughing and choking, to the nearest hatch.
Pull cords opened the thick cloth covers of the hatches, but Franz didn't use one. "I just jumped," he said. "The cloth broke through. When the cook (Xaver Meier) saw me jump out of the hatch, he jumped out after me."
Franz stumbled away from the burning airship.
"When I got out, there were so many people running around screaming," he said. "I was in a daze. Some of the landing crew went inside the ship to help the crew and passengers get out."
Franz normally would have been in a landing detail that required several crewmembers to move to the nose of the ship as ballast. "This time six or eight men were sent to the front by the captain — all died," he said.
News of the Hindenburg disaster quickly reached Germany.
"My parents knew right afterwards what had happened — it was on the radio wires," he said. "At first I was on the death list. An hour later they updated it."
Franz and the other surviving crewmen spent 14 days at the air station, living with the Lakehurst airship crew.
The Germans were then driven to New York and put on a ship for Bremerhaven.
"The healthy ones came back first, and the badly burned ones came back later," he said:
Most of the crew transferred to the Graf Zeppelin I, built before the Hindenburg, upon returning to Germany. The Graf Zeppelin made 40 flights, delivering mail and making publicity appearances. It carried no passengers, and was dissembled in Frankfurt in 1940.
Franz chose to work in the airship ticket office in Zeppelinheim, Germany, then started an apprenticeship as an instrument maker. He joined the German air force in 1941.
Now retired, Franz lives in Bad Soden, a town near Frankfurt. He said six or eight Hindenburg crewmembers are still alive. All live in Germany, except one man who lives in Austria or Switzerland, he said. Franz keeps in touch with some of them.
"Most have contact, know where the others live," he said. "We had close ties between us all."
Franz said he prefers to remember the thrill of being a young boy traveling by airship to South America rather than the disaster. He was chosen for airship duty by an official of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (Airship Construction Company Zeppelin) who looked for prospective crewmembers at the Frankfurter Hof hotel, where Franz worked as a waiter.
When the opportunity to join the Hindenburg crew came, Franz was ready. "It's a one-shot deal," he said. "You don't turn down a chance like that!"
He made three trips between Germany and South America in 1936 and one in 1937. All of the crewmembers were considerably older than he was — the rest of the crew survivors are in their 80s. "But they took me in as one of them," he said.
An official review board determined the Hindenburg disaster to be freak accident. Franz, however, like many others, believes sabotage was involved. "To have the gas released from a hole, then you need a spark, to have all those things at the same time, just as you're landing ..."
But he believes the question is academic now.
"It doesn't really matter," he said. "It's already happened. It will always be a question."
 
The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board^{[N 1]} (36 passengers, 61 crew), there were 35 fatalities; there was also one death among the ground crew.
The disaster was the subject of spectacular newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness report from the landing field, which was broadcast the next day. A variety of hypotheses have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The incident shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the end of the airship era.

At 7:25 p.m. local time, the Hindenburg caught fire and quickly became engulfed in flames. Where the fire started is unknown; several witnesses on the port side saw yellow-red flames first jump forward of the top fin, around the vent of cell 4. Other witnesses on the port side noted the fire actually began just ahead of the horizontal port fin, only then followed by flames in front of the upper fin. One, with views of the starboard side, saw flames beginning lower and farther aft, near cell 1. No. 2 Helmsman Helmut Lau also testified seeing the flames spreading from cell 4 into starboard. Although there were five newsreel cameramen and at least one spectator known to be filming the landing, no camera was rolling when the fire started.
Wherever it started, the flames quickly spread forward. Instantly, a water tank and a fuel tank burst out of the hull due to the shock of the blast. This shock also caused a crack behind the passenger decks, and the rear of the structure imploded. Buoyancy was lost on the stern of the ship, and the bow lurched upwards as the falling stern stayed in trim.

As the Hindenburg's tail crashed into the ground, a burst of flame came out of the nose, killing nine of the 12 crew members in the bow. There was still gas in the bow section of the ship, so it continued to point upward as the stern collapsed down. The crack behind the passenger decks collapsed inward, causing the gas cell to explode. The scarlet lettering "Hindenburg" was erased by flames while the airship's bow descended. The airship's gondola wheel touched the ground, causing the bow to bounce up slightly as one final gas cell burned away. At this point, most of the fabric on the hull had also burned away and the bow finally crashed to the ground. Although the hydrogen had finished burning, the Hindenburg's diesel fuel burned for several more hours.

The time it took for the airship to be destroyed has been disputed. Some observers believe it took 34 seconds, others say it took 32 or 37 seconds. Since none of the newsreel cameras were filming the airship when the fire started, the time of the start can only be estimated from various eyewitness accounts. One careful analysis of the flame spread by Addison Bain of NASA gives the flame front spread rate across the fabric skin as about 49 ft/s (15 m/s), which would have resulted in a total destruction time of about 16 seconds (245 m / 15 m/s=16.3 s). Some of the duralumin framework of the airship was salvaged and shipped back to Germany, where it was recycled and used in the construction of military aircraft for the Luftwaffe, as were the frames of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II when both were scrapped in 1940.

The disaster is well recorded due to the significant extent of newsreel coverage and photographs, as well as Herbert Morrison's eyewitness radio report for station WLS in Chicago, which was broadcast the next day. Heavy publicity about the first transatlantic passenger flight of the year by Zeppelin to the U.S. attracted a large number of journalists to the landing. (The airship had already made one round trip from Germany to Brazil that year.)

Morrison's broadcast remains one of the most famous in history. Parts of it were later dubbed onto the newsreel footage, giving the impression that the words and film were recorded together. His plaintive "Oh, the humanity!" has been widely used in popular culture. Part of the poignancy of his commentary is due to its being recorded at a slightly slower speed, so that when it is played back at normal speed, it seems to have a faster delivery and higher pitch. When corrected, his account is less frantic sounding, though still impassioned.

Airship Hindenburg Collection. Dr. Horst Schirmer, the son of Dr. Max Schirmer - an engineer and aerodynamicist that designed important features of the ship. He flew aboard Hindenburg as a child

Dr. Horst Schirmer is the child of Dr. Max Schirmer, who was an engineer and aerodynamicist who designed important features of the ship, and who flew aboard Hindenburg as a child.

Dr. Schirmer is one of the few people still alive who actually flew on the Hindenburg - but not during its fateful crash in 1937.

When he was just 5 years old, Dr. Horst Schirmer's father, Max, walked the little boy into a hangar in Germany and stood him under the 804-foot bulk of  Hindenburg.
The aeronautical engineer wanted to show his son how lighter-than-air hydrogen made the 15-story tall dirigible he had helped design float, as if it was weightless. "You can lift this ship up," Max Schirmer said, putting the boy's hand on the bottom of the control car. "Push."
"So I lifted the ship," Horst Schirmer recalled. ...

LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; Registration: D-LZ 129) was a large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) on the shores of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company (Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei). The airship flew from March 1936 until destroyed by fire 14 months later on May 6, 1937, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. Thirty-six people died in the accident, which occurred while landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States.
Hindenburg was named after the late Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934), President of Germany (1925–1934).
The Hindenburg had a duralumin structure, incorporating 15 Ferris wheel-like bulkheads along its length, with 16 cotton gas bags fitted between them. The bulkheads were braced to each other by longitudinal girders placed around their circumferences. The airship's outer skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the gas bags within from radiation, both ultraviolet (which would damage them) and infrared (which might cause them to overheat). The gas cells were made by a new method pioneered by Goodyear using multiple layers of gelatinized latex rather than the previous goldbeater's skins. In 1931 the Zeppelin Company purchased 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) of duralumin salvaged from the wreckage of the October 1930 crash of the British airship R101, which might have been re-cast and used in the construction of the Hindenburg.

The 1936 transatlantic season

The Hindenburg made 17 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean in 1936, its first and only full year of service, with ten trips to the United States and seven to Brazil. In July 1936, the airship also completed a record Atlantic double crossing in five days, 19 hours and 51 minutes. Among the famous passengers who travelled on the airship was German heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling, who returned home on the Hindenburg to a hero's welcome after knocking out Joe Louis in New York on June 19, 1936. During the 1936 season the airship flew 191,583 miles (308,323 km), carried 2,798 passengers, and transported 160 tons of freight and mail, a level of success that encouraged the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Company to plan the expansion of its airship fleet and transatlantic services.
The airship was reportedly so stable that a pen or pencil could be stood on a table without falling. Its launches were so smooth that passengers often missed them, believing that the airship was still docked to its mooring mast. The cost of one way passage between Germany and the United States was US$400, an especially considerable sum in the Depression era. Hindenburg passengers were generally affluent, including many public figures, entertainers, noted sportsmen, political figures, and leaders of industry. The Hindenburg was used again for propaganda purposes when it flew over the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on August 1 during the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. Shortly before the arrival of Adolf Hitler to declare the Games open, the airship crossed low over the packed stadium while trailing the Olympic flag on a long weighted line suspended from its gondola.
During 1936 the Hindenburg had a special Blüthner aluminium grand piano placed on board in the music salon, although the instrument was removed after the first year to save weight. Over the winter of 1936–37, several alterations were made to the airship's structures. The greater lift capacity allowed ten passenger cabins to be added, nine with two beds and one with four beds, thus increasing the total passenger capacity to 72. In addition, "gutters" were installed to collect rain for use as water ballast: taking on rainwater ballast to compensate for the weight of fuel consumed during a voyage was more economical than venting hydrogen.
Another change was the installation of an experimental aircraft hook-on trapeze based on the system similar to the one used on the U.S. Navy Goodyear-Zeppelin built airships Akron and Macon. This was intended to allow customs officials to be flown out to the Hindenburg to process passengers before landing and to retrieve mail from the ship for early delivery. Experimental hook-ons and takeoffs were attempted on March 11 and April 27, 1937, but were not very successful, owing to turbulence around the area where the hook-up trapeze had been mounted. The loss of the ship ended all prospects of further testing. 

The final flight: May 3–6, 1937

After making the first South American flight of the 1937 season in late March, Hindenburg left Frankfurt for Lakehurst on the evening of May 3, on its first scheduled round trip between Europe and North America that season. Although strong headwinds slowed the crossing, the flight had otherwise proceeded routinely as it approached for a landing three days later.

The Hindenburg's arrival on May 6 was delayed for several hours to avoid a line of thunderstorms passing over Lakehurst, but around 7:00 pm the airship was cleared for its final approach to the Naval Air Station, which it made at an altitude of 650 ft (200 m) with Captain Max Pruss at the helm. Four minutes after ground handlers grabbed hold of a pair of landing lines dropped from the nose of the ship at 7:21 pm, the Hindenburg suddenly burst into flames and dropped to the ground in just 37 seconds. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew died, as well as one member of the ground crew, making a total of 36 lives lost in the disaster.

The exact location of the initial fire, its source of ignition, and the initial source of fuel remain subjects of debate. The cause of the accident has never been determined conclusively, although many hypotheses have been proposed. Escaping hydrogen gas will burn after mixing with air and will explode when mixed with air in the right proportions. The covering also contained material (such as cellulose nitrate and aluminium flakes) which Addison Bain and other experts claim are highly flammable when combined in the right proportions. This theory is highly controversial and has been rejected by other researchers because the outer skin burns too slowly to account for the rapid flame propagation and hydrogen fires had previously destroyed many other airships. The duralumin framework of Hindenburg was salvaged and shipped back to Germany. There the scrap was recycled and used in the construction of military aircraft for the Luftwaffe, as were the frames of Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin II when they were scrapped in 1940.