On August 10, 2018, the Zeppelin Group's long-standing CEO would have turned 150 years old. To mark the occasion, the Friends of the Zeppelin Museum are dedicating an exhibition at the Zeppelin Museum to the controversial advocate of the Zeppelin airship. The exhibition sheds light on the various phases of Eckener's life using numerous documents and objects from the collection of the Circle of Friends for the Promotion of the Zeppelin Museum.

When Hugo Eckener was born in Flensburg in 1868, nobody could have guessed what heights he would reach in the distant future. He was already a keen traveler during his student days and moved from Munich to Berlin and via Leipzig to Friedrichshafen. He first came into contact with Count Zeppelin following critical articles (including in the Frankfurter Zeitung, later the FAZ) about airship travel. A personal conversation in 1909 finally brought him to the Zeppelin. Thus began an unprecedented journey that made the outstanding airship pilot from the small town of Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance a welcome guest all over the world.

Eckener initially worked as a press advisor for Zeppelin. In 1911, he became captain of airships and managing director of the Deutsche-Luftschifffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG). During the First World War, Eckener was responsible for training airship pilots for the navy. After the death of Zeppelin and the handover of the airships LZ 120 Bodensee and LZ 121 Nordstern, Eckener looked abroad for interested parties for rigid airships. On October 12, 1924, Eckener took off with the airship LZ 126 to cross the Atlantic. This airship was part of the German reparations payments to the USA and landed safely in Lakehurst on October 15. With this transfer of the "American airship" (ZR III), Eckener made a name for himself worldwide. He made aviation history. There were grand receptions and numerous honors for him and his Zeppelin crew. Politicians from various countries, such as Paul von Hindenburg, Theodor Heuss and the American presidents Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt, received him. He met Charles Lindberg, had contact with Sven Hedin and Fridtjof Nansen and was in contact with foreign correspondents of major newspapers, such as Lady Drummond-Hay of the Hearst Press.

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