Association for the promotion of airship travel

The German Association for the Promotion of Airship Travel , founded on September 8, 1881, was Germany's first aeronautical organization and later led to the establishment of the Prussian airship detachment . From 1889 the spelling was changed to German Association for the Promotion of Aviation .

founding

The founding of the association was largely driven by the Berlin writer Wilhelm Angerstein. The founding efforts were strengthened by the experience of the massive French balloon use during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. After the creation of numerous aviation associations in Germany, the name was changed in 1903 to the Berliner Verein für Luftschifffahrt . The purpose of the association was to promote aviation in every way and to work towards solving the problem of making dirigible airships with all possible support, but in particular to maintain a permanent test station… .

Club magazine

Title head of the first German aviation magazine

From 1882 the magazine of the German Association for the Promotion of Airship Travel appeared as the first German specialist magazine for aviation, from 1888 under the title Zeitschrift für Luftschifffahrt . The Flugtechnischen Verein Wien becomes co-editor. From 1890 the magazine also became the organ of the Munich Aviation Society . In 1892 the title was changed to Zeitschrift für Luftschiffahrt und Luftschiffahrt und Physik der Atmospheric Physik .

From 1900 the association accepted the magazine Illustrierte Aeronautische Mitteilungen as an organ of the association, which appeared with the subtitle Deutsche Zeitschrift für Luftschiffahrt .

Members and Activities

Well-known members included the airship pioneers Paul Haenlein and Friedrich Hermann Wölfert , the meteorologists Richard Aßmann , Arthur Berson and Reinhard Süring , the military airshipman Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld and the glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal .

From 1888 to 1899 the association carried out the Berlin Scientific Aviation , a series of 65 manned and 29 unmanned balloon ascents, which provided valuable scientific results, especially in the field of meteorology.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Braun: The rise and fall of airship travel - an economic historical analysis. eurotrans-Verlag, Regensburg 2007, ISBN 3-936400-22-9 , p. 127.