Our origins

The name and origin of the Zeppelin Group reach back to the early 20th century, when Ferdinand Count Zeppelin broke through an historic barrier with the construction of his first airship. His invention transformed humankind’s dream of flight into reality, enabling people to forget the boundaries of their countries. In 1908 Count Zeppelin founded Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH – the airship construction company – in Friedrichshafen and gave the entire company to the newly-founded Zep-pelin Foundation. This ownership structure exists to the present day.

The success of airship technology transcended far beyond the boundaries of Germany and Europe. Count Zeppelin’s original airship company was also the rootstock of other enterprises which are globally active today, among them Maybach-Motorenbau (now MTU and Tognum AG respectively), Dornier, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG, which like the Zeppelin Group is owned by the Zeppelin Foundation.