Hindenburg Covers

Hindenburg transported large amounts of mail and valuable freight in addition to providing passenger service.  Hindenburg’s maiden flight to North America included 1059 kg of mail, primarily first flight covers destined for stamp collectors.  Later flights between Germany and North America carried between 90 and 236 kg of mail, including commercial mail as well as philatelic items, and flights within Germany and Europe also carried philatelic mail for collectors and zeppelin enthusiasts.

Note: The “Sieger numbers” mentioned below refer to the Zeppelin Post Katalog published by the Sieger-Verlag of Lorch/Wurttemberg.  The Sieger catalog is invaluable not just as a philatelic reference to zeppelin mail, but also as a historic resource, since the catalog contains a comprehensive list of all flights by German commercial zeppelins from LZ-1 through LZ-130.

First Flight to South America

Hindenburg first flight cover, Europe to South America, March 31-April 4, 1936. (Sieger 402A)

First Flight to North America

Hindenburg carried its largest volume of mail (1059 kg in 60 mail sacks) on its first flight to North America.  The majority of this mail was philatelic (i.e., created as souvenirs, or for stamp collectors) rather than commercial, and because of the large quantity of mail, these covers are not generally valuable unless they are unique in some way, but they are wonderful (and easy to find) souvenirs of this historic flight.

Letter written by Lady Drummond Hay to Clara Adams, and posted on board.

Hindenburg first flight cover, Germany to the United States, May 6-9. 1936. (Sieger 406D)

Registered mail, first flight from Germany to America, May 6-9. 1936. (Sieger 406D)

First flight from Germany to America, May 6-9. 1936. (Sieger 406D)

Posted on board Hindenburg during first flight from Germany to America, May 6-9, 1936. (Sieger 407B)

First Return Flight from North America

These covers are also relatively common, as Hindenburg carried 824 kg of mail on this flight.

First return flight from America to Germany, May 12-14, 1936. (Sieger 409)

First return flight from America to Germany, May 12-14, 1936. (Type III backstamp, Sieger 409C)

Forged Hindenburg Cover

Forgeries of mail from Hindenburg’s first flight to North America are rare, because these covers are generally not valuable enough to justify forging.  But a well known forgery was created in 1938 by a German stamp dealer named Julius Bock, who claimed that these covers were flown to North America and back to Germany; in fact, they never saw the inside of a zeppelin.  Bock made the glaring error of franking the covers with the wrong amount of postage (.55 Rpf, a rate for printed matter that was not valid on this flight).  There are also errors in the lettering of the postmarks applied to these forged covers.

Forged cover sold by Julius Bock in 1938.

Genuine postmark on left, forged Bock postmark on right; notice shape of the "M" in Nordamerika and the "3" in 36. (click all images to enlarge)

Sixth North American Flight

Frankfurt to Lakehurst, August 5-11, 1936, mailed from the Olympic Games in Berlin and postmarked "Olympisches Dorf." (Sieger 428C)

Eight North American Flight

North America Flight, September 17-24, 1936. Posted at Nurnberg with NSDAP Party Day cancel, with enclosed letter. (Sieger 437B)

I welcome comments and emails, but please note that for various reasons I don’t like to offer an opinion on the value or authenticity of zeppelin covers or other items of airship memorabilia.