Only 36 passengers flew on Hindenburg’s first North American flight of 1937, far less than the ship’s 72-passenger capacity. (Although the return flight to Germany was sold out, largely to passengers who wanted to make a dramatic arrival in Europe before attending the coronation of King George VI on May 12th.)
The following information is taken from the Passenger Manifests submitted to the Philadelphia field office of United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. (For historical reasons, no corrections have been made; the information is presented exactly as it appears on the INS manifests, even if incomplete or known to be inaccurate.)
[A list of the officers and crew on the last flight can be found here.]* Indicates that the passenger died as a result of the crash.
Leonhard Adelt
Age: 55
Nationality: German
Occupation: Writer
Residence: Berlin, Germany
Birthplace: Germany
Languages spoken: German, English
Gertrud Adelt
Age: 36
Nationality: German
Occupation: Wife
Residence: Berlin, Germany
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Languages spoken: German, English
Ernst Rudolf Anders *
Age:
Nationality: German
Occupation: Merchant
Body returned S.S. Hamburg, 5/13/37
Peter Ferdinand Lammot Belin
Age: 24
Nationality: United States
Address: Washington D.C.
Birger Brinck *
Age:
Nationality: Swedish
Occupation: Writer
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Body returned S.S. Drottningholm, 5/15/37
Karl Otto Clemens
Age: 27
Nationality: German
Occupation: Photographer
Residence: Bonn, Germany
Birthplace: Bonn, Germany
Languages spoken:
Sailed S.S. Europa, 5/16/37, Tourist Class
(click to enlarge)
Hermann Doehner *
Age:
Nationality: Mexican
Occupation: Merchant
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Matilda Doehner
Age: 41
Nationality: Mexican
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Mexico City
Birthplace: Argentina
Languages spoken: English, German, Spanish
Irene Doehner *
Age: 14
Nationality: Mexican
Occupation: Daughter
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Walter Doehner
Age: 10
Nationality: Mexican
Occupation: Son
Residence: Mexico City
Birthplace: Mexico City, Mexico
Languages spoken: German, Spanish
Werner Doehner
Age: 8
Nationality: Mexican
Occupation: Son
Residence: Mexico City
Birthplace: Darmstadt, Germany
Languages spoken: German, Spanish
Burtis Dolan*
Age: 47
Nationality: United States
Address: 734 Kenesaw Terrace, Chicago
(click to enlarge)
Edouard Douglas*
Age: 39
Nationality: United States
Address:
Fritz Erdmann *
Age:
Nationality: German
Occupation: Colonel (German Air Ministry)
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Body returned S.S. Hamburg, 5/13/37
Otto Ernst *
Age: 77
Nationality: German
Occupation:
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Body returned S.S. Bremen, 5/22/37
Else Ernst
Age: 63
Nationality: German
Occupation: Housewife
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Moritz Feibusch *
Age: 57
Nationality: United States
Address:2601 Lincoln Way, San Francisco
George Grant
Age: 64
Nationality: British
Occupation: Agent
Residence: London, England
Birthplace: London, England
Languages spoken: English
Klaus Hinkelbein
Age:
Nationality: German
Occupation: First Lieutenant (Berlin, Air Ministry)
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Sailed S.S. Europa 5/16/37
(click to enlarge)
George Hirschfeld
Age: 35
Nationality: German
Occupation: Merchant
Residence: Bremen, Germany
Birthplace: Bremen, Germany
Languages spoken: German
Marie Kleemann
Age: 62
Nationality: German
Occupation:
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Erich Knoecher *
Age:
Nationality: German
Occupation: Manufacturer
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Body returned S.S. Hamburg, 5/13/37
William Leuchtenberg
Age: 64
Nationality: United States
Address: 2 West 86th Street, MNew York City
Philip Mangone
Age: 52
Nationality: United States
Address: 145 East 58th Street, New York City
Margaret G. Mather
Age: 59
Nationality: United States
Address: c/o Mrs. Louise Turner, Princeton NJ
Nelson Morris
Age: 46
Nationality: United States
Address: 38 Dearborn Street, Chicago
Herbert James O’Laughlin
Age: 28
Nationality: United States
Address: 91 Bonnie Brae, River Forest, Illinois
Clifford Osburn
Age: 40
Nationality: United States
Address: 400 West Madison, Chicago
John Pannes *
Age: 60
Nationality: United States
Address: 11 Woodland Drive, Plandome, L.I.
Emma Pannes *
Age: 56
Nationality: United States
Address: 11 Woodland Drive, Plandome, L.I.
Otto Reichhold *
Age:
Nationality: German
Occupation: Merchant
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Body returned S.S. Hamburg, 5/13/37
Joseph Spah
Age: 32
Nationality: German
Occupation: Acrobat
Residence: Douglaston, NY USA
Birthplace: Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorrain
Languages spoken: German
Emil Stoeckle
Age:
Nationality: German
Occupation: Employe
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Sailed S.S. Europa 5/16/37
Hans Vinholt
Age: 64
Nationality: Danish
Occupation:
Residence:
Birthplace:
Languages spoken:
Sailed S.S. Europa 5/16/37
Rolf von Heidenstamm
Age: 52
Nationality: Swedish
Occupation: Businessman/Chamberlain
Residence: Stockholm, Sweden
Birthplace: Paris, France
Languages spoken: Swedish
Hans Hugo Witt
Age: 36
Nationality: German
Occupation: Major (German Air Ministry)
Residence: Barth, Pomerania, Germany
Birthplace: Rostock, Germany
Languages spoken: German
Department of Commerce Inquiry
The following list of passengers appeared as part of the Accident Investigation report published by the the United States Department of Commerce in the Air Commerce Bulletin of August 15, 1937 (vol. 9, no. 2):
* Indicates those who died in accident.
Adelt, Gertrude Berlin, Germany
Adelt, Leonhard
* Anders, Ernst Rudolf, Dresden, Germany
Belin, Peter,Washington, D. C.
* Brink, Birger
Clemens, Carl Otto, Bonn, Germany
* Doehner, Hermann, Mexico City, Mexico
* Doehner, Irene
Doehner Matilda
Doehner, Walter
Doehner, Werner
* Dolan, Curtis, France
* Douglas, Edward, New York
* Erimann, Fritz
Ernst, Elsa, Hamburg, Germany
* Ernst, Otto C.
* Feibusch, Moritz, Lincoln, Nebraska
Grant, George, London, England
Heidenstamm, Rudolf von
Herschfeld, George, Bremen, Germany
Hinkelbein, Claus
Kleeman, Marie
* Knoecher, Erich, Zeulenroda, Germany
Leuchtenberg, Wm., New York
Mangone, Philip
Mather, Margaret
Morris, Nelson
O’Laughlin, Herbert
Osbun, Clifford, Chicago, U.S.A.
* Pannes, Emma, New York
* Pannes, John
* Reichold, Otto, Vienna, Austria
Spaeh, Joseph
Stoeckle, Emil
Vinholt, Hans, Copenhagen, Denmark
Witt, Hans
Update to previous comment: Clifford Osburn (spelled correctly) is on the PASSENGER list. FYI, I have a letter he wrote to my mother arranging to be picked up. I think his plan was to land, then take a small plane to a different airfield to meet my mother.
Clifford OSBUN in death list should be spelled OSBURN. He was my mother’s second cousin. I was told he had died in the crash but this is the first time I found him on a death list …probably because of confusion due to misspelled last name.
I’m researching a story that publisher Martin Goodman would be on the flight, but missed or cancelled it and went by plane instead. Is there any evidence that this story is true?
I was their in my mother’s arms, and my father was on the field during the crash.
(I’m in the process of research and brainstorming a plot for a historical fiction novel, so my inquiry here is to try and find vague or otherwise believable spots where I could slide in the fictional elements for my story.) The crash itself will simply be the instigating event that sets the plot in motion. I’m hoping to write a character who falls from the Hindenburg, somehow survives, but now has amnesia, and walks away from the crash. Preferably a woman. One avenue I’ve been trying to research, is if all the people on the death list were actually matched up with bodies found AND identified? Or was there any guess work that had to be done that could potentially be where I can write in my character who slips through the radar with no identification, who I may not even need to have pinned to the crash event.
I realize this is all very heavily placed on conjecture, but I’m hoping someone more learned on this event may be able to pinpoint the kind of ‘I could tinker with that’ information that I can use to shape the fictional elements of my future story.
If you have something adjacent to add, I’m still open to shuffling my narrative, but my priority is in the first paragraph.
Thank you.
I am reading your novel now. I would like to opportunity correspond with you. My grandfather, Burtis Dolan was a passenger who died on the Hindenburg.
We’re any of the passengers famous? As in scientist or chemist? I thought I’d seen somewhere some were professionals.
I’d like to know that too. I was told that the Titanic and Hundengerg, happened for a reason. To cover something up. Or distract from something else going on? Sure would like to know it there were important people on it. Someone wanted gone, like on the Titanic. John J. Astor.. and a few others. People in government wanted them gone
Who told you that? 😂
Why do people believe all the conspiracy theories?
It costs thousands to make the trip. I believe $8500 per person … every passenger on it was an elite rich person.
It was emblazoned with NAZI symbols… no need for conspiracy – just look around and listen to people talk TODAY about the NAZIS almost 100 years later and then ask yourself how much more ANGRY people were about their agenda back then.
The damaged, un-insurable sister ship, the Olympic is believed to have sunk, not the Titanic. Lloyds of London paid out for the loss and influential people against the Federal Reserve Bank died with the sinking, both placed as motive for the accident. Pictures at the bottom of the ocean show the “MP” of the name on the ship, which do not exist in the name Titanic. A similar nefarious motive for the Hindenburg as non-accidental, is also being suggested, the reason for my inspection of the above article!
No serious person believes that RMS Olympic is the ship that sank in 1912.
I’d like to know, too, because in the famous radio broadcast, Herb Morrison mentions casually that “a number of notable personages are on board,” without giving any further details.
WAS anyone of any note aboard?
Actor and a boxer. Google it.
Actor Douglas Fairbanks and boxer Max Schmeling did fly on Hindenburg, but not on the flight that crashed.
Joseph Spaeh aka Ben Dova, circus artist and actor.
There was an actor named Douglass Fairbanks and a boxer named Max Schmeling…
Those two signed a postcard for the ship’s captain.
If that’s what you needed.
But it wasn’t on that flight.
There is a typo in the second list which only contains the names. The List contains “* Angers, Ernst Rudolf, Dresden, Germany” but his family name was not Angers, it was Anders, as it is correctly mentioned in the list above. His heirs own a large factory that produces tea bags that still exists (founded in 1882). I worked for that company some years ago.
Thank you for finding that typo; it has been corrected. Thanks. 🙂
One of the Navy ground crew saw a large section of the rear canvas near the fin go into a rippling wave effect just before the first flame burst through. It’s in his testimony in the inquiry. Anyone know about his observation?
Two members of the U.S. Navy noticed the fluttering of the fabric; Lieutenant Richard W. Antrim discussed it on pages 676-679 of the transcript of the testimony, and Boatswain’s Mate R. H. Ward discussed it on pages 815-819.
I was watching PBS presentation on the Hindenburg and I had a question of how many people died and who they were this answered my question thank you very much
You could have just read Wikipedia for that.
Hello, what is the name of the person who died on the ground?
Allen Hagaman was the civilian ground crew member who was killed in the crash.