Signed letter of appreciation from Hermann Göring dated November 2, 1933, letterhead “The Reich Minister of Aviation” under blind-embossed national eagle: “On the occasion of the 50th ocean voyage of the airship 'Graf Zeppelin' to whose success you have substantially contributed. [..] I expect that the crew of the airship, decorated with the old German colors black-white-red and the proud symbol of the swastika, will continue to take active part in the construction of the New Germany on their further voyages”. Signed in ink in his own hand “Göring”, folded once and in envelope, addressed “To Flight Engineer Mr. R. Halder, aboard the airship 'Graf Zeppelin'”. Somewhat foxed.
Private and partially annotated photo album with 110 photographs (dimensions between 7 x 9 and 20.5 x 26 cm) from various voyages from 1928 to 1936: from the North America flight 1928, two photographs of Z.R.3 “Los Angeles” (formerly LZ 126) at Lakehurst and at the mooring mast of USS Patoka, LZ 127 and LZ 126 in the hangar at Lakehurst, overflight of the Azores, “Graf Zeppelin over New York”. From the around-the-world flight 1929, overflight of the Reichstag building, Siberia, Stanovoy Range, Yellow Sea. Ground photographs from Kasumigaura and Tokyo, including theatrical performance, rice plantation, fishing, over Texas and New York. From the triangular voyage to South and North America 1931, overflight of Trinidad, Miami, Chicago, Akron, “Washington City”. From the propaganda flight on the occasion of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, overflight of the stadium and Berlin, ground photographs of LZ 127 at the stadium.
Landscape-format album with sand-colored linen binding, album pages loose and no longer in chronological order. Album “In memory of the first Zeppelin South America flight May 1930 - German Colony Pernambuco”, leather binding with correspondingly gold-embossed title and manufacturer's label from Pernambuco, twelve photographs (dimensions approx. 12 x 17 cm) of cities, buildings and landscape, seven of them aerial photographs.
Album with over 160 photographs (dimensions between 7 x 9 and 18 x 23 cm) from the first South America flight, “Finger of God” (Tenerife), Cape Verde, Pernambuco harbor, from the landing at “Campo Zeppelino”, passenger gondola, mooring mast, banana plantation, natives, visit to a brewery and a sugar cane factory, Olinda monastery, cruiser Karlsruhe in harbor, Governor's Palace, crew excursion, in Rio de Janeiro before Sugarloaf Mountain, aerial photographs of “Bahia” and Vitoria, Rio with Sugarloaf Mountain, Copacabana, overflight of Tangier, Gibraltar, Seville, Barcelona with the World's Fair grounds and Lisbon. From the Palestine flight 1931, overflight of Nice, Rome with the Vatican, active Vesuvius, Patras, pyramids near Luxor, group photo on camels during an excursion to the pyramids, over Jerusalem. From a London flight, overflight of London, docks, Tower Bridge, government quarter. From the Nordland/Polar flight 1931, overflight of Norway with the Lofoten Islands, Bergen, Bear Island, “hot springs in Iceland”, approach to Reykjavík, the (Vatna-)Jökull, landing in Leningrad, tundra, drift ice, Franz Josef Land, including a photograph of Hugo Eckener and Prof. Rudolf Lazarevich Samoilovich who participated in the polar flight, as well as a group photo of the crew before LZ 127 in the hangar.
Album with over 40 partly large-format photographs from the early period of the Zeppelins as well as the construction phase of LZ 127, including LZ 10 “Schwaben” and LZ 7 or 8 “Deutschland”, LZ 11 “Victoria Luise”, interior views of the envelope, controls, construction and covering of the framework, construction of the passenger gondola, engines, in the hangar with and without national insignia, group photo of the crew and photo of Reich President von Hindenburg. Album with 46 photographs, mostly from Halder's training with the Luftwaffe.
Also picture set of the Mediterranean flight of LZ 127 in 1929, 22 photos and map, small brochure “Airship Graf Zeppelin” with information for passengers, small picture set “LZ 130”, Zeppelin calendar 1933 with 47 of the 52 weekly sheets (loose), 25 photographic postcards of various airships, aerial photographs of Friedrichshafen, portrait of Count Zeppelin and the bodies of the victims of the LZ 129 “Hindenburg” disaster of 1937 laid out in Lakehurst with comment on verso “The great funeral ceremony before they were brought aboard the S.S. Hamburg. May 11, 1937”. Also a postwar album with mostly contemporary printed photos or newspaper articles about Zeppelin aviation.
Absolutely unique and significant photographic estate of a crew member and flight engineer of the “Graf Zeppelin”.

481841

Letter of Recognition from Hermann Göring to Machinist Richard Halder and His Extensive Photographic Estate from Aboard LZ 127 “Graf Zeppelin” (1928–1936)

This extraordinary collection documents one of the most captivating chapters in aviation history: the golden age of the great Zeppelin airships. At its heart is a signed letter of recognition from Hermann Göring, in his capacity as Reichsminister der Luftfahrt (Reich Minister of Aviation), dated November 2, 1933, addressed to machinist Richard Halder aboard the airship LZ 127 “Graf Zeppelin.” Accompanying this remarkable document is an extensive photographic estate that chronicles nearly the entire operational history of what was then the world’s most famous airship.

LZ 127 “Graf Zeppelin”

The LZ 127 “Graf Zeppelin” stood as the flagship of German lighter-than-air aviation. Between 1928 and 1937, it completed 590 flights covering nearly 1.7 million kilometers, including 136 South Atlantic crossings. Operated by a crew of 36 officers and men, the airship undertook legendary voyages that made headlines across the globe — among them the round-the-world voyage of August 1929, numerous South and North American flights, the Arctic flight of 1931, and the Palestine flight of that same year.

Machinist Richard Halder

Richard Halder served as a machinist (Maschinist) aboard the “Graf Zeppelin” and participated in many of the airship’s most significant voyages. His service is documented from at least 1929, when he was among the crew of the legendary round-the-world flight. He remained with the airship through 1936 before transitioning to the new giant airship LZ 129 “Hindenburg,” where he was assigned to engine car No. 2 alongside fellow mechanics Eugen Schäuble and August Deutschle. Halder’s technical skill is documented by an incident during a South American flight of the Hindenburg, when he discovered a broken connecting rod bearing bolt on one of the engines — a finding that demonstrated the critical importance of experienced mechanics in maintaining these vast machines.

The Göring Letter of November 2, 1933

The centerpiece of this estate is the letter of recognition from Hermann Göring on the occasion of the 50th ocean crossing of LZ 127. The document bears the letterhead “Der Reichsminister der Luftfahrt” beneath a blind-embossed national eagle (Hoheitsadler) and is signed by Göring personally in ink. While acknowledging Halder’s contribution to the success of this voyage, the letter carries an unmistakable political message: Göring references the airship’s decoration with the “old German colors black-white-red and the proud symbol of the swastika” and expresses the expectation that the crew will “take active part in building the New Germany” on their future voyages.

This document stands as a powerful testament to the Nazi co-optation of technological achievement for political purposes. When the Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, Germany’s Zeppelin airships were rapidly transformed into propaganda instruments. Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring invested millions of Reichsmarks into Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. The Graf Zeppelin was deployed for propaganda flights including the May 1, 1933 celebrations, the Nuremberg Rally of September 1933, and the visit to the Chicago World’s Fair in October 1933 — the airship’s fifth and final trip to the United States. The 50th ocean crossing referenced in Göring’s letter took place around October–November 1933, shortly after the Chicago visit.

The political takeover of Zeppelin operations deepened further when the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR) was formally established as a Nazi-controlled entity to operate German airships. This move sidelined Hugo Eckener, the veteran leader of Zeppelin operations, placing Ernst Lehmann in charge instead.

The Photographic Estate

The accompanying photograph collection is of extraordinary historical value. It comprises several albums and individual images that document nearly the full span of the Graf Zeppelin’s operational career. A private, partially annotated photo album contains 110 photographs from various flights between 1928 and 1936, including the 1928 North America flight with images of the Z.R.3 “Los Angeles” (formerly LZ 126) at Lakehurst, the 1929 round-the-world voyage with aerial views of Siberia, the Stanovoy Mountains, and the Yellow Sea, the 1931 triangular flight to South and North America, and the propaganda flight during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

A further album contains over 160 photographs from the first South America flight, the 1931 Palestine flight with aerial views of Rome, the Vatican, an active Vesuvius, and Jerusalem, a London flight, and the renowned Arctic/Polar flight of 1931 featuring images of the Norwegian Lofoten islands, Iceland, Franz Josef Land, and a photograph of Hugo Eckener together with Professor Rudolf Samoilowitsch, who participated in the Polar expedition. A dedicated album commemorating the first Zeppelin South America flight of May 1930, presented by the German colony in Pernambuco, adds twelve further photographs.

Of particular significance for the history of technology is an album containing over 40 photographs from the early years of Zeppelin aviation and the construction phase of LZ 127, showing historic airships including LZ 10 “Schwaben” and LZ 11 “Victoria Luise,” along with interior views of the hull, controls, and framework construction.

The End of an Era

The collection also contains a haunting witness to the end of the Zeppelin age: a photograph of the coffins of the Hindenburg disaster victims of May 6, 1937, laid out before being transported aboard the SS Hamburg, with a handwritten note on the reverse dated May 11, 1937. Following this catastrophe, the Graf Zeppelin was grounded and ultimately scrapped in March 1940 on Göring’s orders — a bitter irony given the letter of recognition from the same man that forms the heart of this collection.

This estate represents a truly unique documentation of Zeppelin aviation from the personal perspective of a crew member, weaving together technological pioneering with the political history of the twentieth century.