She was the greatest airship in history, the pride of Germany and the personal triumph of her designer Hugo Eckener. The airship Hindenburg was the epitome of luxury air travel in the 1930s. As big as the Titanic, she flew across the Atlantic majestically. The history of airship travel was fraught with both tragedy and technical brilliance, but it was felt that with the Hindenburg, the airship had come of age. Yet it was also the era of National Socialism and a growing fear of war. To the anger of her designer, the Hindenburg became a propaganda weapon. Her fate would capture the imagination and lead to much speculation as to the cause of the accident. Tonight, Andrew Lound will capture a lost age and examines what might have caused the loss of the world’s greatest airship. His talk will be accompanied with audio recordings, archive video and music.

Photo: The Hindenburg after its first commercial flight - to Rio in April 1936. There is a temporary repair of the lower fin after an accident during a tour of Germany the previous month. Credit: Wide World Photos, first published by Brooklyn Daily Eagle May 8, 1936.