[2] In the mid-1930s, the DZR was a commercial airline based in Frankfurt that operated zeppelins in regular transatlantic revenue service, including the famous LZ 129 Hindenburg.

Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (LZ) chairman Hugo Eckener, who had intended to run against Hitler in the 1932 presidential election, was already disliked by the Nazis.

When Eckener later resisted the new Nazi government's efforts to use zeppelins for propaganda purposes, Reich Minister of Aviation Hermann Göring insisted that a new agency be created to extend Party control over LZ Group.

In exchange for this, the DZR agreed to ownership apportioned as follows:[7] The first chief executive officer of DLZ was Ernst Lehmann and Hugo Eckener was appointed chairman, a position he accepted because it left him with a degree of influence over the zeppelins.

[7] One of their first tasks was a complete reorganization of the transatlantic travel agency system in Germany, which was then a monopoly run by the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

On 19 March 1936 the airship LZ 129 Hindenburg was licensed to carry passengers and handed over to the DZR, allowing the airline to maintain regular South and North American routes.

At the start of the 1937 fiscal year, the Supervisory Board and shareholders' meeting of 16 December 1936 voted to order yet another airship (LZ 131) for the price of 6.3 million RM, demonstrating high confidence in the future.

[12] On 6 May 1937 the LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and exploded while mooring in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 people as well as CEO Ernst Lehmann.

[14] Finally, a delay by the DZR to apply for an import license during a politically favorable moment in 1938 meant that it was deprived of the gas when relations between the US and Nazi Germany deteriorated soon after.

In any event, helium's high cost would probably have made future operations of the huge zeppelins unprofitable, particularly in competition with the new flying boats.

The DZR Board concluded in its annual report for 1939 that public interest in zeppelins remained strong, if they could be shown to be safe, and a series of demonstration and airmail flights were authorized by the Air Ministry and the Reichspost.

[20] The first production Zeppelin NT airship (SN 02) was christened Bodensee on 10 August 2001 by HRH Carl, Duke of Württemberg, bearing the same name as the LZ 120 from the 1920s.

In June 2003 the DZR flew to Thuringia for the first time and in July it visited the city of Bad Homburg 90 years after the first imperial airship stopped there in 1913.