Guillaume de Syon offers a captivating history of this technological wonder, from development and production to its impact on German culture and society. De Syon chronicles the various ways in which the airships were used - transport, war, exploration, and propaganda - and details the attempts by successive German governments - autocratic, democratic, fascist - to co-opt Count Zeppelin's invention. Between 1900 and 1939, Germans saw the Zeppelin as a symbol of national progress, and de Syon uses the airship to better understand the dynamics of German society and the place of technology within it. Though few people actually flew in any of the 119 Zeppelins ever built, the rigid airship captivated universal attention: for Germans, it was the wonder of the age.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Visions of the Sublime -- Balloons into Dirigibles -- The Floating State -- From Enthusiasm to Obsession: The First Zeppelin -- Building a Zeppelin Culture -- Collapse and Recovery -- The Machine above the Garden: Airship Culture in Imperial Germany -- "Zeppelinism" and Its Expressions -- How German Is It? -- Finding a Use for the Airship -- Zeppelin Myth and Reality in the Great War -- Zeppelinitis -- Technology and War Planning -- Demonizing the Dirigible -- Fantasy and Fact of Zeppelin Operations -- The Airship as a Business Tool in Weimar Culture -- Rescuing the Airship from Oblivion -- Nostalgia and Fund-raising -- Symbol in the Best and Worst of Times -- Ideologies of Science and Adventure: The Arctic Airship -- Polar Dreams -- Conflicting Projects -- Selling Science as Entertainment -- Political Zeppelinism: Manipulating Airship Culture, 1933-1939 -- Nazifying the Airship -- Airship Travel Comes of Age -- Helium, Hydrogen, and Humble Endings.