Friedrichshafen: the small German city that helped conquer the skies
For this edition of Urban Scrawl, I wanted to take you somewhere personal: my hometown of Friedrichshafen, a city of around 60,000 people on the German shores of Lake Constance / Bodensee where I spent all of July.
At first glance, it is an unlikely industrial powerhouse. Across the lake rise the Swiss and Austrian Alps; vineyards and apple orchards surround the city, and ferries criss-cross the water. But Friedrichshafen has an extraordinary history of invention, destruction and reinvention and its influence reaches much further than its size suggests.
It began with a man who wanted to fly.
In 1900, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin launched his first rigid airship, LZ 1, from a floating hangar on Lake Constance. When his fourth airship was destroyed by a storm in 1908, the project appeared finished. Instead, something remarkable happened: people across Germany donated more than six million Goldmarks (the equivalent of roughly AUD $75 million today) to keep his vision alive.
Zeppelin used the money to establish the Zeppelin Foundation and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen and an entire industrial ecosystem grew around his idea.
ZF Friedrichshafen was founded in 1915 to manufacture gears and transmissions for airships. Claude Dornier began working for Zeppelin before establishing the aircraft business that would bear his name, pioneering all-metal aircraft and extraordinary flying boats. Maybach Motorenbau, the predecessor of today’s Rolls-Royce Power Systems/MTU business in Friedrichshafen, also emerged from this industrial network.
The Dornier Museum and an original Maybach Pullman Limousine from 1942
Then came the Hindenburg Disaster.
Built in Friedrichshafen, LZ 129 Hindenburg operated passenger services across the Atlantic before catching fire while landing in New Jersey in 1937. The dramatic images became some of the most recognisable of the 20th century and effectively came to symbolise the end of the great passenger-airship era.
But while the age of passenger airships was coming to an end, Friedrichshafen’s industrial importance was not. The engineering expertise and manufacturing capacity that had grown from Zeppelin’s vision would soon become part of Germany’s wartime economy, with devastating consequences for the city.
During the Second World War, Zeppelin, Dornier, ZF and Maybach were integrated into Germany’s wartime economy and armaments production, making Friedrichshafen an important target for Allied bombing. Eleven air raids destroyed around 60% of the city. Its wartime industrial history also includes forced labourers and concentration-camp satellite sites – a dark chapter that remains an important part of the city’s story.
The most devastating airstrike on the city happened to be on this very day, 18th August 1944
After the war, Friedrichshafen had to start again.
Thousands of refugees and displaced Germans arrived, my grandparents among them, while industry desperately needed workers. New neighbourhoods and thousands of homes were built, often specifically to house the growing workforce of companies such as ZF and Maybach.
Housing, population and industry grew together – and Friedrichshafen became prosperous again.
Perhaps its most unusual legacy, however, is the Zeppelin Foundation. Graf Zeppelin had stipulated that if his foundation could no longer pursue airship construction, its assets should ultimately benefit the people of Friedrichshafen.
Today, the foundation is owned and administered by the city and, on top, owns almost 94% of ZF Friedrichshafen, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers. Dividends from its industrial holdings help support education, childcare, culture, health, aged care and other community services.
In other words, an airship experiment begun on Lake Constance more than 125 years ago is still helping fund the quality of life of the people who live there today.
At the same time, Zeppelin’s airships are still in use for atmospheric and climate research, geophysical and mineral exploration in Africa, remote sensing and earth observation, television and communications platforms and passenger tourism.
From engines to people
More recently, Friedrichshafen has been rethinking another form of mobility: the car.
Parts of the city centre have been redesigned around slower traffic and more space for people. On the Friedrichstraße, bicycles increasingly share the roadway with slow-moving vehicles (down to 20Km/h), allowing former cycle paths to become pedestrian space. Alongside broader efforts to encourage walking, cycling and public transport, it is another small reinvention for a city whose identity has always been closely connected to mobility.
And perhaps that’s the interesting contradiction of Friedrichshafen today. Global engineering companies still operate here, yet it remains a remarkably green and compact place where you can cycle to work, walk along the lakefront or swim in the Bodensee with the Alps on the horizon.
Germany’s lakeside secret
For Australians planning a European summer, Lake Constance probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind – but really, and somewhat biased of course, it should be.
A favourite holiday destination among Germans, the region remains surprisingly under the radar internationally. Lake Constance sits between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, surrounded by vineyards, orchards, mountains and beautiful cycling routes.
Friedrichshafen makes a great base. You can swim in the lake, cycle the waterfront, visit the Zeppelin Museum and Dornier Museum or, remarkably, still board a modern Zeppelin and fly over the Bodensee today.
Just down the road is Meersburg, one of the lake’s most popular destinations, with its medieval old town, castle and surrounding vineyards.
For a rather small city, Friedrichshafen has left an unusually large mark on the world. It wears its history lightly, yet traces of it are everywhere. For Australians travelling through Europe, this beautiful little corner of Germany is absolutely worth a stop.
Final Musings
Perhaps there is a lesson for Perth in Friedrichshafen’s story too. Cities are never finished. They can rebuild, reinvent and rethink what they value – even after their identity has been shaped by industry for generations. A strong industrial economy and a green, people-friendly city don’t have to be contradictions.
But Friedrichshafen’s history also offers a more sobering reminder. The industries that bring a city prosperity and strategic importance can also make it vulnerable when the world becomes less stable. As Perth takes on an increasingly important role in defence, energy and critical minerals, that is worth keeping in mind.
The balancing act is not to shy away from industry, but to make sure the prosperity it creates ultimately builds a city that is resilient, liveable and benefits the people who call it home.
Published as part of Committee for Perth’s member-exclusive newsletter, Urban Scrawl.
