De Syon, 2002, Zeppelin!

Guillaume de Syon. 2002. Zeppelin! Germany and the Airship, 1900–1939. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-6734-7. pp. xi+295. In paperback 2007, 312 pp.

From review by Scott Palmer, expert on Russian aero history, in Technology and Culture, 43:4 (Oct 2002), pp 816-817. ([1])

• Theme: "public's widespread and durable fascination with the airship", associated with cultural, social, and political factors
• Uses many and diverse sources, including archival documents, periodicals, memoirs, and cultural artifacts. It is "an authoritative history of the German airship" and should be a "standard reference."
• Count von Zeppelin made "tireless efforts" to get government subsidies for his projects, partly by appealing to patriotism and creating a Zeppeling mystique
• That's one source of the "Zeppelin spirit" of "Wilhelmine Germany": Count von Zeppelin and his flying machines became national symbols of progress and modernity
• Both popular fascination and fear are associated with large scale projects such as aircraft, rockets, bridges, and dams. Their symbolism departs from the real artifacts. "De Syon adopts David Nye's concept of the technological sublime [to relate] airship technology and German culture." "The technological sublime refers to the process by which products of technological gigantism are sublimated into a nation's consciousness through constant interaction . . . ."
• By 1914 dirigibles were widely accepted as a powerful symbol of German nationality.
• For a variety of reasons both domestic and foreign observers exaggerated their contribution to the military effort in WWI.
• The company struggled in the 1920s Weimar period. Hugo Eckener "endeavored to reinvent the mission and meaning of the airship" then. And the Nazis tried to harness the mystique too.

Original title	Zeppelin! Germany and the Airship, 1900–1939
Simple title	Zeppelin! Germany and the Airship, 1900–1939
Authors	Guillaume de Syon
Date	2002
Countries	DE
Languages	en
Keywords	airship, Zeppelin, LTA, dirigible
Journal	JHU, T&C
Related to aircraft?	-1
Page count	300
Word count
Wikidata id