German Zettel

Crew Member

Age: 36

Hometown: Buchschlag, Hessen, Germany

Occupation: Chief mechanic

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

Survived


German Zettel had been a Zeppelin mechanic since 1928, when he was employed by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. Prior to this, Zettel had apprenticed at the Maybach motor company, and was eventually assigned to the Zeppelin engine division. He became familiar enough with Zeppelin engines that he could, he said, "assemble them in the dark." He was subsequently hired by Luftshiffbau Zeppelin.

He flew as an engine mechanic on the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, including the round-the-world flight in 1929. Zettel continued to fly aboard the Graf Zeppelin until 1936, when the LZ-129 Hindenburg was commissioned and Zettel transferred to the new ship, making all flights from the first test flight March 4, 1936 onward.

German Zettel (left) with fellow mechanic Raphael Schädler in the portside aft engine car of the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin
(photo courtesy of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmBH Archive)

German Zettel (left) and one of his crewmates at one of the mechanics' workstations alongside the Hindenburg's lower keel walkway.
(photo courtesy of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmBH Archive)

German Zettel was one of the chief mechanics aboard the Hindenburg on its first North American flight of 1937. His primary duty on that trip involved overseeing engine #3, starboard side forward, and supervision of the other mechanics assigned to that engine car. The engine behaved normally throughout the trip, and as the flight neared its end and the signal for landing stations sounded at approximately 7:00 on the evening of May 6th, Zettel was on watch in engine gondola #3, along with mechanic trainee Wilhelm Steeb. Chief Engineer Rudolf Sauter had also been in gondola #3 observing, but when landing stations were signaled for, Chief Sauter left the car to take his landing station in the ship's lower tail fin. Fellow mechanic Jonny Dörflein, answering the call to landing stations, arrived in the engine car shortly thereafter, and took over on the engine throttle. Flight engineer Eugen Schäuble then appeared in the doorway to the gondola, but remained out on the catwalk leading to the ship, and watched the landing maneuver from there.

As the Hindenburg made its final approach to the mooring circle at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Zettel was standing between the engine and the outer wall of the gondola, observing operations. He also occasionally glanced back at engine #1, aft of them, and noted that it was also running satisfactorily. As the ship approached the mooring mast, engine #3 was reversed on orders from the control car, and then set to the idle forward position.

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

Shortly after this, Zettel felt a jolt and looked aft, out the back of the gondola. He saw that the ship was in flames above the #1 engine car. The ship almost immediately went down by the stern, and as he hung on, he saw Dörflein shut the engine down. The engine car hit the ground, and the impact caused Zettel to fall to the floor between the engine and the outer wall of the gondola. He got immediately back to his feet and jumped out through the outboard window, ran away from the ship for about 60 feet, then turned back around to look and saw the ship's framework collapse over the engine gondola. Glancing forward toward the bow, Zettel saw Captain Lehmann and another member of the command crew emerging from the ship somewhere near where the control car had been.

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.

Zettel managed to escape the Hindenburg wreck with only minor injuries. He gave testimony to the Commerce Department’s Board of Inquiry on May 19th, returning home a couple of days afterwards with a group of fellow crew members on the steamship Bremen. The next year, Zettel joined a number of other Hindenburg crew survivors on the maiden flight of the Hindenburg’s sister ship, the LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin, stationed in the #2 portside aft engine.

German Zettel later retired in Friedrichshafen, and passed away in the 1980s.

German Zettel circa 1984

Eugen Bentele

Crew Member

Age: 28

Hometown: Friedrichshafen, Germany

Occupation: Chief mechanic, engine gondola #4

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

Survived


Eugen Bentele was one of 20 engine mechanics onboard the Hindenburg for its final flight. Born in Friedrichshafen on October 18, 1909, Bentele took on an apprenticeship with Maybach-Motorenbau when he was 14. He spent the next four years working 52 hour weeks, learning the theory and practice of building and maintaining engines. In the four years following his apprenticeship, from 1927 through 1930, Bentele worked in various departments throughout the Maybach company, and in his last year there he worked on VL-2 airship engines, both assembling them, and testing them on a test rig. He was among the Maybach fitters who, in May of 1929, worked through the night to assemble three new VL-2's for emergency shipment to the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, which was stranded in France, four of its five engines broken down.

In April of 1930, Bentele received a call from August Grözinger, Flight Engineer for the LZ-127. "Bentele," Grözinger said, "you know your way around a VL-2 engine. Do you fancy working on an airship?" It was an easy decision for Bentele, and in May of 1930 he officially joined Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin, at first in the Propulsion System Testing and Wind Tunnel Department. He was also supposed to act as a replacement onboard mechanic, should one of the LZ-127's usual mechanics fall ill or otherwise be unable to make a flight. Bentele waited an entire year for his chance to take part in a flight, and finally on May 12, 1931 he made his first flight as an engine mechanic.

Eugen Bentele (l.) and another mechanic, probably Wilhelm Fischer, in the starboard aft engine gondola of the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, in the early 1930s. (photo courtesy of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmBH Archive)

After this three-day touring flight over Germany, Eugen Bentele was aboard the Graf Zeppelin for numerous flights between 1931 and 1935, both over Germany and on longer trips to South America. In 1936, Bentele took part in the first test flight of the LZ-129 Hindenburg, and was onboard for the majority of the 63 flights the Hindenburg made between March 4, 1936 and May 6, 1937. During the 1936-37 winter break, Bentele did two months of compulsory military service. As he later wrote: "After strenuous flight duties on the Hindenburg from March to mid-December 1936, those of us crew members who had not performed military service were "voluntarily" called up into the armed forces. I was mustered out after eight weeks of infantry training with the Luftwaffe, and the medical corporal could not fail to notice that I had put on weight after eight weeks infantry service - a whole kilogram. This could only have been due to getting regular sleep."

Eugen Bentele, along with German Zettel and Josef Schreibmüller, served as a chief mechanic onboard the Hindenburg for its first North American flight of the 1937 season, having just been promoted to the position earlier that year. His primary duty involved overseeing engine #4, portside forward, and by the end of the flight he had experienced no difficulties or problems whatsoever with his engine. As the Hindenburg approached the mooring area at Lakehurst at the end of the flight on May 6th, Eugen Bentele was on duty in engine gondola #4, along with flight engineer Raphael Schädler and mechanic trainee Theodor Ritter, who was manning the telegraph to the control car. Bentele watched the landing lines drop and saw the ground crew attach one of the lines to an engine driven capstan winch and begin to pull the ship down.

Eugen Bentele's location at the time of the fire.

It was shortly after this, as Bentele had his attention on his engine and was waiting for another order to come through from the control car, that he felt a powerful shock run through the ship. He heard nothing but "a sort of a crackling crash" over the sound of the engine running, since he had cotton in his ears as he usually did while he was on duty in the engine gondola, and his initial thought was that one of the landing lines had broken. When he turned and looked out the rear of the engine car, however, he suddenly saw that the ship was already on fire from the stern almost as far forward as his engine gondola. He realized that it would be suicide to try and jump at that point, as the ship was still almost 200 feet above the landing field. So he and his comrades held on and waited for the ship to drop closer to the ground, hoping that the ship's aluminum framework wouldn't melt and drop the entire engine gondola to the ground.

The stern of the ship began to drop, after the relative eternity of a few seconds, and Bentele realized that his planned escape route through the side window of the gondola was blocked by Ritter and Schädler. He therefore held on tightly to the girders across the roof of the gondola, waiting for his chance to jump. As the tail of the ship hit the ground, with the bow pointing up at roughly a 45-degree angle, the section of hull between the foward and aft engine cars began to telescope in upon itself, effectively slowing the descent of the forward engine cars. Bentele was never sure what happened next, as the next thing he recalled was lying on the ground next to the propeller, at the edge of the burning wreckage. He assumed that he'd either jumped without thinking about it, or that with the engine car tilted at such an extreme angle as it was, he had been thrown over the engine and out the back of the gondola when it struck the ground.

Eugen Bentele (arrow) begins to pick himself up off of the ground behind engine gondola #4.

Bentele runs clear of the fire as the Hindenburg settles to the ground.

Bentele immediately began to run from the ship, and when he'd gotten about 150 feet from the wreckage, he felt his back and his neck getting very hot, and put his hands over the back of his neck to protect it, and immediately felt the back of his hands begin to burn. Thinking he was on fire, Bentele threw himself down on his back, only then realizing that the heat was coming not from his coverall, which wasn't burning at all, but rather from the radiant heat from the flames devouring the ship behind him. He quickly picked himself up and ran another 500 feet or so, until he was well away from the fire, then turned around to look for any of his fellow crewmates who might have also escaped. At first, he didn't see anyone. Then gradually others began to emerge from the smoke and vapors surrounding the now-grounded ship.

Bentele then checked himself over, and realized that other than the burns on his hands and on the back of his neck, he was almost completely unhurt. He went off to find the air station's infirmary, as the few burns he had were beginning to hurt quite a bit. When he arrived, he saw how many of the surviving passengers and crew (including Captains Ernst Lehmann and Albert Sammt) were already there waiting, many of them with burns and injuries far more severe than his. Bentele walked over and sat down on a car, trying to gather his thoughts. He realized that his wife (whom he had married two months earlier) would be incredibly worried when she heard of the disaster, so he went to the base radio facility and the officer on duty gladly sent a telegram for him. His wife received the telegram in Walldorf hours later at 6:45 AM Central European Time. At first, she wasn't sure what the message, "Am unhurt", was in reference to, though she obviously recognized the signature "Moggele" as being her husband's nickname. It was only later, when news of the disaster was broadcast on the radio, that she realized the full import of the message.

Eugen Bentele's telegram to his wife, May 6th, 1937. "Bin unverletzt – Moggele."

As word of the disaster spread throughout the Lakehurst area, ambulances from nearby towns began to converge on the air station, picking up survivors and taking them to area hospitals. Bentele ended up sharing a ride with his fellow mechanic Richard Kollmer, and they were taken to Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Asbury Park. After a full examination and X-rays, it was determined that, in addition to the second-degree burns, Bentele had four broken ribs. He could count himself lucky, however, as other friends of his from among the Hindenburg's crew, such as radio operator Herbert Dowe and Chief Electrician Philipp Lenz, were in much worse shape than he was, and others, he knew, never made it out of the ship at all.

Bentele spent three weeks in Fitkin Hospital, during which time he was treated very well by the staff, as were all of the Hindenburg survivors. Bentele later wrote: "After a fortnight I was already in such good health that my nurse invited me for a drive round the surrounding area. Whilst we were driving along and talking, she asked me to take the steering wheel whilst she looked up a word in her dictionary (my English was very poor). So I steered through the countryside and small towns without her knowing that I'd never driven a car before. In America, where everyone drives, I could hardly say, "I might be able to fly an airship, but I can't drive a car..."

Three weeks after the disaster Bentele, along with eleven other surviving crew members who were well enough to travel, sailed back to Germany onboard the steamship Bremen. Bentele immediately noticed the difference between flying over the ocean on a Zeppelin and sailing across the ocean on a ship, as onboard the Bremen even mild ocean swells would almost make him seasick, whereas this was never an issue onboard the Zeppelins.

Bentele made one last Zeppelin flight, on the third flight of the LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin, September 22, 1938. After this, he worked as a fitter in the test department of Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin, which had begin to switch over to the construction of various equipment for the German military, such as the Tiger tank and parts for the V2 rocket. One project that Bentele took part in was a series of trials to convert diesel engines for use underwater in submarines. After the war, Luftshiffbau-Zeppelin was made to repair vehicles for the French military, and Bentele was foreman of the division which dealt with transmissions, axles, and steering systems. By 1957, Bentele was once more working as a designer, as Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin was once again able to produce industrial components. He stayed with the company until 1980, when he retired from Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin after 50 years. Bentele then spent his time traveling with his wife and indulging in his passion for mountain climbing - which he continued to do regularly until he was well into his 80s, at which point he finally decided that he had to cut back on his mountaineering (and on his skiing as well) due to his age.

In the early 1990s, Eugen Bentele wrote a short, but fascinating, autobiography called "The Story of a Zeppelin Mechanic". In it, he traced his career from his apprenticeship with Maybach, through his years as an engine mechanic on the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg, touched upon his impressions of the Hindenburg disaster itself, and then wrapped up with a brief summation of his post-Zeppelin life. It is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the day to day operations of the old passenger Zeppelins, and was of great help to me in fleshing out this biographic profile.

("The Story of a Zeppelin Mechanic" is available HERE at the Zeppelin Museum's online store. They sell an excellent English translation of the book, though the original German edition is currently unavailable.)

On December 12, 2003, Eugen Bentele passed away in Friedrichshafen at 94 years of age. He was one of the last of the old-time Zeppelin crewmen and, along with former cabin boy Werner Franz was, at the time of his death, one of only two remaining Hindenburg crew survivors.

Eugen Bentele, circa 1992

Josef Schreibmüller

Crew Member

Age: 35

Hometown: Elmenau, Germany

Occupation: Chief mechanic

Location at time of fire: Engine gondola #1 - starboard aft

Died, either in wreck or in infirmary



Josef Schreibmüller was one of the Hindenburg's chief mechanics, along with German Zettel and Eugen Bentele. Born in Elmenau (just east of Friedrichshafen) on July 15th, 1902, Schreibmüller had been a Zeppelin mechanic since July of 1929, when he was hired by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin to serve as an engine mechanic on the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. The following month, Schreibmüller was aboard for the Graf Zeppelin's record-breaking flight around the globe. Subsequently, he made virtually every Graf Zeppelin flight until March, 1936. At that time, he transferred to the new ship, the LZ 129 Hindenburg, where he served as a chief mechanic.

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

Schreibmüller was aboard the Hindenburg's first North American flight of 1937, and stood watch in engine gondola #3, starboard side aft, rotating watches with mechanics Walter Banholzer and Rudi Bialas. As the ship came in to land at Lakehurst on May 6th, Schreibmüller and Banholzer were at their landing stations in engine car #1 when the fire broke out. Unfortunately, with the engine gondola #1 slung low under the ship's hull as it was, the whole thing ended up with a large section of the hull collapsing over it when the ship's stern hit the ground.

Josef Schreibmüller was trapped in the engine car and was fatally burned. He either died in the wreck, or in the air station's infirmary shortly thereafter.

Thanks also 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 Schreibmüller's career, and to Dr. Cheryl Ganz for providing me with a copy of the article.