Max Pruss (13 September 1891 – 28 November 1960) was the captain of the Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg on its last voyage and a surviving crew member of the disaster.

Pruss, along with other airship crewmen, maintained that the disaster was caused by sabotage, and dismissed the possibility that it was sparked by lightning or static electricity.

Although Master Zeppelin Captain Hugo Eckener did not rule out other causes,[3][4] he criticized Pruss' decision to carry out the landing in poor weather conditions, expressing his belief that sharp turns ordered by Pruss during the landing approach may have caused gas to leak, which could have been ignited by static electricity.

[5] Pruss returned to Germany around October 1937, where he served as commandant of Frankfurt Airport as World War II broke out.

Pruss did not see his dream realized, as his death was over 30 years before the construction of a new airship at the Friedrichshafen complex by Zeppelin Neue Technologie (NT).

The Hindenburg is featured in the series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction as the setting of a story in which a married couple ride on the airship while recounting to friends of theirs how years ago they escaped certain death when they missed a trip on the doomed Passenger Liner RMS Lusitania.