Founding fathers
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who only became a technician and inventor at the end of his military career, at the age of 52, rapidly became a visionary of his times. Along with his technical inventiveness, he was well known for his ability to motivate people for his audacious projects, even in the face of adversity.
A new technology center emerged around the turn of the 20th century in Friedrichshafen. Prominent figures, such as Claude Dornier, Karl Maybach, Alfred Colsman, Hugo Eckener and Count Alfred von Soden-Fraunhofen, came to Lake Constance to work with Zeppelin. Not far from Friedrichshafen, in Manzell, on Lake Constance, the first airship, LZ 1, rose into the skies for its first test flight on 2 July 1900. Zeppelin and his colleagues continued to refine the technology, and two further airships were developed and then scrapped. The Count endured a severe setback in 1908. After an emergency landing in Echterdingen, near Stuttgart, the airship LZ4 was destroyed by fire.
By then, however, public interest was prodigious. Funds were raised all over Germany after the accident. The Count used the surprisingly high sum– almost six million marks – to put his plans on a firm financial footing; he set up the Zeppelin Foundation to administer this money and founded Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH. More companies were created in the subsequent seven years. The successor companies still operate in Friedrichshafen, along with many other companies formed during this period. Zahnradfabrik was opened in 1915. Its gear wheels and transmissions – precision-manufactured according to a new patent – were designed to optimally transfer power between the Zeppelin airships’ engines and propellers. Today, ZF Friedrichshafen AG is the largest company to have grown from Zeppelin’s legacy. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin became a world-famous celebrity before his death following an operation in Berlin on 8 March 1917, at the age of 79.
