Eugen Schäuble

Crew Member

Age: Unknown

Hometown: Neu Isenburg, Germany

Occupation: Engineering officer

Location at time of fire: Engine gondola #3, starboard forward

Survived

Eugen Schäuble was one of three engineering officers who worked under the Hindenburg's Chief Engineer Rudolf Sauter, the other engineering officers being Wilhelm Dimmler and Raphael Schädler. Schäuble had been flying as a mechanic (and later an engineer) on Zeppelins since at least the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin's early years, and was part of the Graf Zeppelin's crew on the round-the-world flight in 1929. He transferred over to the Hindenburg when the new airship went into service in 1936.

Eugen Schäuble and several friends at Lakehurst in 1936.

As the Hindenburg came in to land at Lakehurst on May 6, 1937, Schäuble was at his standby-watch landing station in the engineering center, along with mechanic Robert Moser. Dimmler came in, and offered to relieve Schäuble. Dimmler's off-watch landing station was in engine gondola #3, and since Schäuble had family waiting on the ground to greet him, Dimmler thought Schäuble might prefer to be in one of the engine cars where he might wave to his relatives as the ship landed. Schäuble gladly accepted Dimmler's offer, and climbed out into the forward engine car on the starboard side to watch the landing. His 14 year-old niece, Eleanor Enssle, was booked on the ship's return flight and he tried to spot her and her parents in the crowd assembled near Hangar #1, to the northeast of the mooring circle.

Eugen Schäuble's location at the time of the fire (diagram is top view of the ship.)

As he stood on the gangway leading from the engine gondola to the ship, watching for his family below, Schäuble felt the ship give a heavy shake, and like many other crew members, initially thought that a rope had broken. However, he then saw fire erupting from the hull of the ship, just above and aft of the rear starboard engine gondola and moving forward. He hung on and jumped as the ship neared the ground. He ran a short distance from the wreck and then stumbled. Wilhelm Steeb, a mechanic trainee who had been stationed in the starboard forward engine car and who was running just behind Schäuble, stopped and made sure that Schäuble was all right. Schäuble replied that he was, then got up and continued running. He made it clear, relatively unscathed.

Three of the men from engine gondola #3, German Zettel, Eugen Schäuble, and Wilhelm Steeb (shown in probably just about that order, left to right) stumble away from the Hindenburg as it settles to earth. Their engine car can be seen lying on the ground just to the right of them.

Over by the hangar his relatives, the Enssles, were devastated by what they had just witnessed. As surviving members of the ship's crew began assembling in the hangar, the Enssles tried to find out if Schäuble had survived or not. Finally, they decided to drive over to the air station's infirmary to see if he was over there. On the way over, the car's headlights illuminated a man walking on the side of the road. "Stop the car!" shouted Mrs. Enssle, "That's Eugen up ahead!" Schäuble was dazedly walking nowhere in particular and, according to the later recollections of his niece Eleanor, when he saw his relatives he broke down and wept.

Schäuble was relatively unhurt in the disaster which claimed the lives of, among others, fellow engineering officer Wilhelm Dimmler, who had very likely saved Schäuble's life by switching landing stations with him at the last minute. Schäuble stayed in America another three weeks, giving testimony to the Board of Inquiry on May 19th, and finally sailed home to Germany a week after that along with other surviving crewmates, on the steamship Bremen. The next year, when the Hindenburg’s sister ship, the LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin was commissioned, Schäuble flew once again as an engineering officer.

Eugen Schäuble survived the war, and later retired near Frankfurt.

Wilhelm Dimmler

Crew Member

Age: 33

Hometown: Friedrichshafen, Germany

Location at time of fire: Engineering room, amidships

Died, either in the wreck or in the infirmary




Wilhelm Dimmler was one of three engineering officers who worked under Chief Engineer Rudolf Sauter, the others being Eugen Schäuble and Raphael Schädler. Like his fellow engineering officers, Dimmler had been flying as a Zeppelin mechanic for almost a decade, having been hired away from his machinist job at Maybach Motorenbau in May of 1928 to work for Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. He worked through the summer as LZ put the finishing touches on their new airship, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, and when the Graf Zeppelin made her first flights in September of that year, Dimmler served aboard her as an engine mechanic. Therafter, Dimmler made most of the Graf Zeppelin's flights, including the round-the-world flight in 1929 and the Arctic flight in 1930. He was transferred to the LZ 129 Hindenburg when the new ship entered service in March of 1936, serving as a chief mechanic.

Dimmler was aboard the Hindenburg's first North American flight of the 1937 season. At the beginning of the 1937 flight season, Dimmler had been promoted to 4th Engineer, and now reported directly to Chief Sauter. As the Hindenburg came in to land at Lakehurst at the end of the flight on May 6th, Dimmler was on watch and scheduled to take a landing station in engine gondola #3, forward on the starboard side of the ship. However, Schäuble had family waiting for him in the crowd gathered in front of Hangar #1, and (according to the later recollections of Schäuble's niece Eleanor Ennsle) Dimmler offered to trade landing stations with him so that Schäuble might catch a glimpse of his relatives as the ship approached the mooring mast.

Wilhelm Dimmler's location at the time of the fire (diagram is top view of the ship.)

Dimmler, therefore, remained in the keel of the ship, and was with mechanic Robert Moser in one of the engineering rooms amidships when the fire broke out a short while later. As the ship's hull collapsed to the ground, Dimmler was likely trapped by wreckage and unable to escape.

Wilhelm Dimmler died either on the airfield or in the infirmary shortly after the fire.



Thanks to Herr Manfred Sauter of the Freundeskreis zur Förderung des Zeppelin Museums e.V., whose memorial article on the Hindenburg crew members who lost their lives at Lakehurst (Zeppelin Brief, No. 59, June 2011) provided additional details on Dimmler's career, and to Dr. Cheryl Ganz for providing me with a copy of the article.

Raphael Schädler

Crew Member

Age: Unknown

Hometown: Neu Isenburg, Germany

Occupation: Engineering officer

Location at time of fire: Engine gondola #4, portside forward

Survived



Raphael Schädler was one of the Hindenburg's engineering officers, along with Eugen Schauble and Wilhelm Dimmler, and was directly subordinate to Chief Engineer Rudolf Sauter. Schädler had been flying on Zeppelins as a mechanic since the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin's first flights in 1928, and was aboard for the Graf's round-the-world flight in 1929. Since the Hindenburg's maiden flight in 1936, Schädler had made every trip.


Raphael Schädler (center) along with his fellow Hindenburg engineering officers - Wilhelm Dimmler (left) and Eugen Schäuble (right). Photo circa 1930, when the three were engine mechanics on the Graf Zeppelin.
(photo courtesy of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmBH Archive)

Schädler was therefore aboard the Hindenburg on her first North American flight of 1937 in his usual capacity as engineering officer. The flight proved uneventful, and he was on standby watch at the time the ship approached Lakehurst. When the signal for landing stations sounded shortly after 7:00 PM, Schädler made his way to engine car #4, which was the forward engine on the port side of the ship. Chief Mechanic Eugen Bentele was already there, supervising a new trainee from Daimler-Benz named Theodor Ritter. Schädler was running a little late when the landing station signal sounded, so he had gone straight for the nearest engine car, which happened to be #4, and which was already idling when he arrived at his station. On his last four-hour watch, which had ended at noon, he had inspected all four engine cars and determined that everything was in order and running in a completely normal fashion. Similarly, he didn't notice anything unusual about the landing maneuver itself. As the Hindenburg approached the mooring circle, the engine telegraph in car #4 transmitted an order to set the engine to "full astern" briefly, then back to "idle astern".

Schädler in engine car #4, view looking aft through propeller. Photo from an earlier flight. (photo courtesy of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmBH Archive)

Raphael Schädler's position at the time of the fire (diagram is top view of the ship.)

What happened next was a blur to Schädler. He suddenly looked out the back of the gondola and saw that the ship was on fire, and then felt the ship begin to drop to the ground. He remembered being rather far forward in the engine gondola near the side window, but never remembered jumping. He suddenly found himself lying on the ground outside the gondola feeling as though his chest had been crushed, and was having trouble breathing. Navigator Eduard Boetius found Schädler lying there, helped him up and found some members of the ground crew to take Schädler to a truck bound for the air station's infirmary.

Schädler, smoking a cigarette, being carried to a
truck after his escape from the wreck.

Once at the infirmary, Schädler's name was written down and eventually placed among the survivors on the blackboard in the press room in the large Zeppelin hangar. He appeared on some of the earliest survivor lists sent out on the news wires, often with his name misspelled almost beyond recognition - in many newspapers, for example, he was listed as "Ray Fields Stahler."

Raphael Schädler was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, where he spent some weeks recovering from his injuries. He was interviewed in his hospital bed by investigators from the US Commerce Department's Board of Inquiry on May 25^th, 1937. He subsequently returned to Germany, and the next year flew as part of the crew on the maiden flight of the LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin. He survived the war and lived out his life in Frankfurt.