Zeppelin-Weltfahrten II.Buch. . . .

Item Details

[Dresden, Germany]:, [Bilderstelle Lohse],, [1933]., Softcover

First Edition., VG-

Oblong folio. 13.5 x 9.5 in. [36 leaves (unnumbered)], printed in sepia on tan paper. With 155 (of 156) silver gelatin cigarette card photos neatly mounted, all w/ brown printed borders, 1 tipped-in raised embossed bronze-foil reproducing the Naval Airshipmen’s Memorial in Wielhelmshaven, 1 colour map, text maps, photo plate of Hermann Goering, colour plates, preserving original tissue guards. Photo-illustrated flexible covers, red spine, red lettering, cover art of Graf Zeppelin flying over a steamship (minor edgewear, slight scuffing, minor wear & bumping at lower right corner), still a VG- exemplar.

First edition of this follow-up cigarette card collectors photo album for the around-the-World voyages of the Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 along with opening chapter devoted to World War I Zeppelin operations. This album focuses as well on the 1930-1931 Arctic Voyages across the Polar Ice, Archangel, and over the Soviet Union, including aerial views of Leningrad, as well as traveling over Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland -- the Polar flight was largely paid for with approximately 50,000 stamp collector letters; the Mediterranean flights to Rome, North Africa, Palestine, and back; as well as airship trips to Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Germany from 1929-1933. One very nice series of images capture the opening of the transatlantic trips to South America 1931-1932. 

This album also chillingly represents the first ties of the Graf Zeppelin as a Nazi propaganda tool soon after the National Socialists came to power in 1933 with the colour plate here illustrating the new Nazi Government markings, and the flight over Nuremberg for the notorious May 1, 1933 Nazi May Day celebration. From 1931-1936 the Graf Zeppelin would cross the South Atlantic 136 times as part of the first regularly scheduled, nonstop, intercontinental airline service in World History. Following the 1937 Hindenberg disaster, the Graf Zeppelin only made one additional flight June 18, 1937, and was later broken up in March, 1940 at the orders of Hermann Goering.