I never knew that the German inventor of the rigid-frame airship named for him, Count (Graf) Ferdinand von Zeppelin, had spent time in the United States during the American Civil War. But it turns out there are a lot of things I didn’t know about the illustrious count before now.

Count Zeppelin was, after all, a military man of noble birth, so I suppose it should not be a surprise to learn that the native of Württemberg crossed the Atlantic in 1863 to serve as an observer with the Union’s Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Nevertheless, it did surprise me when I accidentally discovered this bit of German/American historical trivia.

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born in this building in Konstanz, Grand Duchy of Baden in 1838. Today it is the Steigenberger Inselhotel on the German shore of Lake Constance. PHOTO: Harke (Wikimedia Commons) CC-BY-SA 3.0

As a young first lieutenant in the Württemberg army, Count Zeppelin spent several months in the US, traveling as far west as Michigan and Minnesota (where he made several tethered gas balloon ascensions), after having met President Abraham Lincoln and then serving as an military observer in Virginia.

But we should start at the beginning.

Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin (whew!) was born on 8 July 1838 into a family whose nobility and name can be traced back to the obscure tiny village of Zepelin (yes, one p, and originally Cepelin) located near the town of Bützow in the northern German region of Mecklenburg (now part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). Remote to this day, the rural community still exists, and a memorial marker for the count was placed there in 1910. But the noble von Zeppelin family had left Zepelin behind by 1792. And in any case Count Ferdinand was not born anywhere near Zepelin or Mecklenburg.

Ferdinand’s father was Friedrich Jerôme Wilhelm Karl Graf von Zeppelin (1807–1886), a Württemberg minister of state in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and textile factory owner. His mother was Amélie Françoise Pauline (born Macaire d’Hogguer) (1816–1852). In 1837 the family moved from Sigmaringen to Konstanz, which was Amélie’s hometown, located on Lake Constance (der Bodensee), where the Rhine exits the lake near the border with Switzerland.

So it happened that Ferdinand was born in Konstanz, or more precisely, on a tiny island (246×100 m) known as Dominikanerinsel in what is today the Steigenberger Inselhotel. The island and the hotel today are right next to the Old Town of Konstanz. When little Ferdinand was born there, the building was a former Dominican monastery (until 1785) that, along with the island, had come into the possession of his mother’s Macaire family in 1813. And that’s why the Zeppelin family was living there when Ferdinand was born in 1838. At the time, Konstanz was in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

Two years later Count Friedrich’s father-in-law gave the couple Schloss Girsberg, a manor house in nearby Emmishofen, as a Christmas present. Young Ferdinand grew up in the Emmishofen mansion (in Switzerland) with his older sister Eugenie von Zeppelin (1836-1911). His brother Eberhard was born there in 1842. All the children received private tutoring at home.

Captain Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin as adjutant to the King of Württemberg around 1895, in an etching by Franz Robert Richard Brendámour (1831–1915). PHOTO: Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)

Beginning in 1853, at the age of 15, Ferdinand von Zeppelin continued his education in Stuttgart, where he attended the Polytechnikum (now the University of Stuttgart). Two years later he began his military career as a cadet at a military academy (Kriegsschule, “war school”) in Ludwigsburg (near Stuttgart), training to become an officer in Württemberg’s army (Württembergische Armee). In 1858, now 20 years old, Ferdinand had the rank of lieutenant when he was granted leave to study science, engineering and chemistry at the University of Tübingen.

Count Zeppelin’s Amerikareise
In 1863, now assigned to the Württemberg engineering corps at Ulm, the 25-year-old army officer thinks that much could be learned from the ongoing Civil War in the United States. He asks for and receives permission from King Wilhelm I of Württemberg to go to the US to serve as a military observer during the War Between the States. Zeppelin would spend almost six months in the New World, from 6 May to 19 November 1863, when he boarded the Cunard liner China in New York for his return voyage to Europe.

For his Amerikareise (American journey) Zeppelin traveled by steamer to New York City, sailing across the Atlantic by way of Ostend and Liverpool. After his arrival in New York, he traveled to Washington, DC, with a brief stop in Philadelphia. By 21 May Zeppelin was in Washington, staying at the Willard Hotel.

At this point we can clearly see how the count’s nobility, rank, and privilege afforded him access that other mere mortals did not have. First, Zeppelin was introduced to the Hanseatic ambassador, Rudolf Schleiden, whose long experience in Washington meant that he could help grant the count access to the capital’s social and political elite. Thus Zeppelin came to know many foreign and American officials. It was no less than Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase who helped arrange for the count to meet with President Abraham Lincoln. Learning of the count’s wishes, the president gladly helped him get a military pass as a noncombatant observer with the Union forces in Virginia.

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (seated in center) in an 1863 photograph of foreign observers with Union troops in Virginia. To the right of Zeppelin is Lt. Fredrik Anton Ulrik Rosencrantz, a Swedish-born officer who served as a Union soldier, spoke German, and helped Zeppelin get oriented. The other three men are Americans. Sitting on the grass, far left, is Major Benjamin Ludlow. Next to him, wearing a straw hat, is Lt. Colonel Dickinson, Assistant Adjutant General to Gen. Hooker. Standing is Captain Ulric Dahlgren, serving at the time on Meade’s staff. PHOTO: Alexander Gardner, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)

Zeppelin spent over a month in Virginia with the Army of the Potomac. On 27 June, General Hooker was relieved of command, and the count probably left soon after that. He was not present for the Battle of Gettysburg in early July. By mid-July he was back in New York City, and the next chapter of his American journey was about to begin. On 16 or 17 July he boarded a train headed west. In those days, “West” meant Wisconsin and Minnesota.

According to letters he sent home to his father and family, the first part of Zeppelin’s westward journey took him to “magnificent” Niagara Falls and on to Lake Erie. He commented about “the grandeur of the American continent”.

In a letter dated 25 July 1863, the count writes of his impressions of cities along the way. “Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, are our stopping points. All are cities brought into existence as if by magic during the very recent past to satisfy the demands of traffic on the great waterways.” He mentions that he is traveling with two Russians. One was Alexander Davidow of the Russian Embassy in Washington, whom he had met there. The other was a former Russian officer named Ponomarew. The three of them were about to embark on the steamer Traveller in Cleveland to explore Lake Superior on five-day cruise.

Zeppelin’s First Balloon Ascension
After leaving their luxurious ship in Superior, Wisconsin, the party began a rugged river canoe trip that lasted 18 days, ending in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was in St. Paul (and not earlier in Virginia, as erroneously claimed by some sources) that Zeppelin would have his first tethered balloon ascension to an altitude of about 700 feet – courtesy of a fellow German named John H. Steiner. Steiner was a “famous aeronaut” who went across the country offering balloon rides for five dollars (about $120 USD in 2023). On 19 August 1863, Zeppelin experienced his first ascent right in the middle of downtown St. Paul, in an empty lot.

Zeppelin knew that observation balloons were being used by Union forces. Steiner also told him about his own military flights and tests back east. The count would later claim that his US balloon flight inspired his efforts to develop a more stable aerial platform for military and civilian purposes.

Zeppelin’s time in the American “West” was coming to an end. From St. Paul he traveled by train to Chicago. His next letter home was written in New York City, dated 1 September. He would remain in the US for about two more months. After going as far north as Newport, Rhode Island, the count used his diplomatic contacts to arrange passage to “enemy territory” in Charleston, South Carolina on a French gunboat named Tisiphone. Zeppelin wanted to observe how the Union forces were conducting the blockade of that port city. He arrived in Charleston on 10 October. Three weeks later he returned to New York aboard the steamer Arago on 31 October.

Zeppelin Returns to Europe
After a few more weeks in New York City, Count Zeppelin boarded the Cunard Line’s China on 19 November 1863 to return to Europe. He would continue his military career during two European conflicts. He served with distinction in the Austrian War (1866) and again in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the war that led to a united German Empire (Deutsches Reich) in 1871.

Zeppelin would not end his career as a soldier until 1891, when he retired as a general at the age of 52. He was now free to begin work on the technical innovation he is famous for: the steerable rigid-frame airship that became known as a zeppelin. The path to dirigible success was neither easy nor fast. In August 1895, Zeppelin received his first patent for a zeppelin design, but the first LZ 1 airship didn’t fly until July 1900, and it was not ready for prime time. Zeppelin continued his development and test flights in the skies over Lake Constance, in Friedrichshafen, near his birthplace in Konstanz.

Count Zeppelin died in 1917, before the end of the First World War. He did not live to see zeppelins flying passengers successfully for many years across the Atlantic between Europe and North and South America until 1937, when the Hindenburg crashed in flames in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Postscript

The Zeppelin NT
At the airport in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance you can arrange to fly in a modern zeppelin, the Zeppelin NT (New Technology). For a ticket price starting at €290 per person for 30 minutes, you can fly over the lake and the Friedrichshafen region for 30 minutes (from April to mid-November). Longer flights of up to two hours are available.

Friedrichshafen is also home to the Zeppelin Museum – with its exhibits and documents related to zeppelin history.

– HF