Graf Zeppelin

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1930

During the late twenties, one of the intercontinental air communication projects sponsored by Germany was a line of airships connecting Europe with South America that would inevitably pass through the skies of the Archipelago.

In 1928, there was an airship, the Graf Zeppelin (Great Zeppelin LZ-127), that accomplished such a feat. It was the largest aircraft of its time, with a total length of 236.53 metres, a volume reaching 105,000 m³, and a capacity to transport around 60 people, including passengers and crew.

In May 1930, the Great Zeppelin began its journey from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Seville and from there a triangular trip to Rio de Janeiro, Lakehurst (New York), and back to Seville; the journey would last almost three weeks. A commercial stopover of the airship in the Canaries was not planned, but despite this, it was authorised to drop mail by parachute to the islands as it passed over the sky of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. On 21 May 1930 at 04:30 in the early morning, in the dead of night, the airship passed through our sky unseen on its first journey through these parts.

From that moment on, the Graf Zeppelin repeated this route (Germany-Brazil), passing non-stop over the sky of Santa Cruz in May, August, and September 1932. It was a highly demanded journey due to the speed with which the route was covered. It should be noted that while a ship needed several weeks to cover the distance between Germany and Brazil, an airship like the Graf Zeppelin needed around five days.

In 1935, another airship would pass over our capital; on this occasion, it is known for certain that it dropped a sack of mail, tied to a parachute, over the site currently occupied by the San Ildefonso school, on La Salle Avenue.

The passage of these gigantic aircraft through our skies aroused great admiration among the local population, attracting the attention of many people who spent the day and part of the night on their rooftops, hoping to see one of these majestic flying machines.  

Airships, as a means of transport, lost their heyday when on 6 May 1937, the LZ-129 Hindenburg caught fire over an airfield near New York City, killing 36 people in the accident. From then on, a widespread fear of using airships as transport for passengers or even goods was established. These great machines began to pass into history.

Numerous flights of the Graf Zeppelin crossed the Canarian skies throughout the early years of the 1930s. And although none made a stop here, some graphic testimonies remain of its spectacular presence.

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