DELAG
Shortly after the conflict, DELAG quickly set about relaunching commercial zeppelin operations, however, it was delivered a major setback when two of its airships were surrendered during 1921 as a part of Germany's war reparations.
Its introduction enabled DELAG to launch regular, nonstop, transatlantic flights several years before airplanes would be capable of sufficient range to cross the ocean in either direction without stopping.
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin himself distanced himself from this commercialisation of the airship: as an aristocrat and ex-officer, he regarded the concept as being a vulgar tradesman's enterprise.
Given this performance, it was realised that scheduled inter-city services would not be feasible, and that the company would be limited to offering pleasure cruises in the vicinity of their bases.
The airship was first prevented from returning to its base in Düsseldorf and then, caught by a thunderstorm, was first carried up to a height of 1,100 m (3,500 ft) and then, heavy from loss of hydrogen caused by the rapid ascent and from rainwater on the envelope, forced down into the Teutoburger forest.
[6] The destruction of the Deutschland left DELAG with only a single operational airship, LZ 6, which had been constructed during the previous year with the hope of its being bought by the army; it was subsequently enlarged and modified for passenger-carrying purpose.
Operating from Baden-Baden, successful flights were made almost daily between late August and mid-September but, on 14 September, it was destroyed in a fire while in its hangar.
Hugo Eckener, the captain, attributed the accident to his "weak-kneed" decision to let the eagerness of the passengers to fly overcome his reluctance to take the ship out in the existing conditions.
On 28 June 1912 Schwaben was destroyed in a hangar fire attributed to static electricity produced by its rubberised cotton gasbags, but was soon replaced by LZ 13 Hansa, which was completed on 30 July.
[citation needed] Even more damning was a stipulation in the Treaty of Versailles under which Germany was not allowed to construct military aircraft and the only airships permitted had to be less than 28,000 m3 (1,000,000 cu ft).
Prior to the treaty's enactment, Zeppelin Luftschiffbau had plans to develop larger airships, with DELAG being the intended principal operator of such enhanced types.
[21] Shortly thereafter, DELAG began operating the airship, which enabled the company to launch regular, nonstop, transatlantic flights several years before airplanes would be capable of sufficient range to cross the ocean in either direction without stopping.
Nazi Germany decided that the zeppelin would be an able platform for conducting prominent aerial propaganda campaigns; these were alleged to have had a noticeable effect upon the general populace.
While Eckener officially served as the head of both entities, in practice, Ernst Lehmann, who was less opposed to the Nazi regime, operated the DZR himself.
