Zeppelin Monument

One must only want and believe in it, then it will succeed. So reads the inscription on the 13m tall bronze column in the city gardens. The Zeppelin monument honours and gives thanks to the highly regarded Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Count Zeppelin is largely responsible for ensuring Friedrichshafen’s ability to develop into a significant economic power during the industrialisation of the 20th Century. His vision to ascend an airship into the sky characterised the city and brought it to international attention. Count Zeppelin was born in Constance in 1838. In 1900, the Count flew his first Zeppelin into the sky at Manzell bay. The 126m long airship managed to stay in the air for an entire 18 minutes until it landed on Lake Constance. Following this, the count was often in financial difficulties in the continuation of his project. When the airship LZ 4 was destroyed near Echterdingen in 1908, the German people donated a total of 6 million Reichsmark to the continuation of airships.

Thanks to this astounding contribution, Count Zeppelin acquired enough capital to initiate his Zeppelin project and push on with his dream. For a while, there were even scheduled Zeppelin flights – through all of Germany and even as far as America and Brazil! The Swabians, and particularly the people of Friedrichshafen, were rather proud of their Count Zeppelin, and they still are today – that’s why they had this monument built in his honour. Zeppelins also became popular for military purposes, and once they were on the market, they were constantly being bought for military deployment. About 100 Zeppelins were built during the years of the First World War. The Count died in 1917. You can learn more about the life and work of Count Zeppelin in the Zeppelin museum.

The nearby Zeppelin fountain, made out of sandstone, is another monument remembering the vision of the Count. Originally, the fountain was situation in front of the town hall in the old town about 100 years ago. The statue of the naked boy standing on a globe holding a Zeppelin, luckily managed to survive the devastating bomb attacks of the Second World War intact. It was put into storage for a long time, until a reconstruction of the original fountain was erected on Friedrichstrasse.