RE-SEARCH, the new Fellowship for Artists of the ZF Art Foundation, goes to Christelle Oyiri in 2025

In 2026, the Zeppelin Museum celebrates its 30th anniversary in the harbour train station. The museum takes this occasion as an opportunity to turn to its own history through the exhibition “Perceived Truths. Zeppelins and National Socialism,” reappraising the entanglements between the political use of Zeppelins and Nazi Germany. Central to the exhibition are so-called “perceived truths“, a phenomenon based on subjective, emotionally shaped assumptions: statements that we have heard somewhere and never questioned, which have solidified over time and consistently replace verifiable facts. They run throughout the exhibition and the museum as a guiding thread, serving as a framework for deconstructing romanticized narratives surrounding Zeppelin history.

Perceived truth: Zeppelins were apolitical. Perceived truth: Technology is neutral. Perceived truth: There were no Nazis in Friedrichshafen. Perceived truth: Zeppelins served international understanding. Perceived truth: Museums are neutral.

How do images convey power? How do they shape history? How do they manipulate us? The exhibition Image and Power. Zooming into Zeppelin Photography is the first to comprehensively explore the Zeppelin as a photographic motif. It marks a new starting point in the examination of the visual history of the airship and demonstrates how the image of the Zeppelin was employed as a tool of political propaganda during the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and the Nazi dictatorship. As a symbol of conquering the skies, technological superiority, military power, and global connectivity, it became a visual vehicle of imperial ambition. By the example of this deliberate staging of visual media, Image and Power. Zooming into Zeppelin Photography poses the highly topical question of the power of images.