Max Pruss

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Max Pruss (born September 13, 1891 in Sgonn , Sensburg district (today Zgon , Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship ), † November 28, 1960 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German airship operator . He was the commander of the LZ 129 "Hindenburg" on its last voyage and a surviving member of the crew of the Lakehurst zeppelin disaster .

Early years

Pruss was born the youngest of twelve children. The father worked in a factory, the mother took care of the children and the house. In 1898 Pruss moved with his parents and five siblings to Bielefeld and attended the IV. Citizens' School there. After graduating from school, he became part of the Imperial Navy in 1907 as a member of the “Ship's Boy Division”. During the First World War he received training on various airships, for example. B. on the LZ 11 , LZ 30 and LZ 54 . He also served under the command of Hugo Eckener on the LZ 126 during the transfer to the USA in 1924. In 1936 he was a member of the NSDAP .

The Hindenburg

After serving as a watch officer on the Hindenburg under Captain Ernst A. Lehmann , he was given command of the Hindenburg in 1936. On the 1936 voyage from Lakehurst to Frankfurt am Main and the voyages to Brazil, he was the captain in charge.

Likewise, Pruss was in command of the Hindenburg airship during the disaster on May 6, 1937. It was the first time that he commanded a trip towards Lakehurst. Pruss and several crew members were in the command gondola when the ship started to burn from the stern. After a while, the Hindenburg hit the ground with its bow and burned out completely. Only at this point did Pruss order everyone to jump out of the command gondola. He helped the unconscious and critically injured radio operator Willy Speck († May 8, 1937) out of the wreck and looked for survivors until rescue workers were forced to hold him back.

Pruss was apparently unaware of his own serious injuries. He was admitted to Lakehurst Hospital, where his condition was considered so serious that he received the final rites . Surprisingly, he recovered in the months that followed, but his face was forever disfigured. Nevertheless, he was not yet able to testify before the committees of inquiry that were supposed to clear up the accident. He was not charged, although Hugo Eckener criticized him for ordering several sharp turning maneuvers, possibly causing a gas leak, before landing. Pruss was of the opinion that such maneuvers could be carried out safely, and blamed sabotage for the crash. He also pointed out the possibility of a lightning strike as the cause, as a thunderstorm had risen shortly before landing.

World War II and later years

Pruss returned to Germany in October 1937, where he became the commandant of Frankfurt Airport . He retained this function (then as a member of the Luftwaffe ) during the Second World War . When Hermann Göring visited Frankfurt Airport in 1940, Pruss pushed for the modernization of the German airship fleet, but was not heard.

In the 1950s, Pruss was the driving force within the so-called Frankfurter Kreis, which tried to raise money for the construction of new airships, relying on the comfort and luxury of this mode of transport. The most advanced were the plans for the airship LZ 132 , but due to a lack of interest from potential investors, it never got beyond the conception phase. Shortly before his death in 1960, he raved about the advantages of airships in an interview. After a stomach operation, he died in 1960 at a pneumonia . Only about 30 years after his death were new airships built in Friedrichshafen with the Zeppelin NT type .

Representation in the film

In the American film Die Hindenburg from 1975 he is played by Charles Durning . However, the film has been criticized for not accurately portraying the actual situation or for containing too many speculations. In the German two-part TV series Hindenburg (2011), Pruss is portrayed by Jürgen Schornagel .

Others

In the area of ​​the Rebstock site in Frankfurt, where the first Frankfurt airport was from 1912 to 1936, a street is named after him today. It was also entered in the Golden Book of Aviators introduced in 1938 by the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and Reich Minister of Aviation, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring ( "... in recognition and in memory of those men of aviation [...] who are boldly, had distinguished intrepid actions ” ). His grave is in the Südfriedhof in Frankfurt am Main- Sachsenhausen (grave location: A-54/56).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ May 6, 1937: The "Hindenburg", driven by Bielefeld captain Max Pruss, goes up in flames in Lakehurst , bielefeld.de, accessed on May 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ Barbara Waibel: The LZ 132 project. Revival of Zeppelin airship travel in the 1950s? In: Wolfgang Meighörner (Ed.): Airships that were never built , Friedrichshafen 2002, ISBN 978-3-86136-076-6 , pp. 139–149.
personal data
SURNAME Pruss, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German airship
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Sgonn , District of Sensburg (today Zgon , Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship )
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1960
Place of death Frankfurt am Main