One Perfect Day in Friedrichschafen: Zeppelin Museum and Flight Plus the Dornier Museum

The Rhine River takes a long and lazy trip through Europe from its beginnings in the Swiss Alps. The Alpine Rhine descends from the mountains through a valley to the north, forming the border between Switzerland and Lichtenstein. And then, it takes a hard left turn where it gets lost in a lake before becoming the High Rhine as it marches toward Basel. This lake, better known as the Bodensee (or Lake Constance), marks the border between three countries with Switzerland on the south, Austria on the east, and Germany on the north. It’s on those northern shores that you’ll find a gem of an aviation destination with a checkered past, Friedrichschafen.

The town of Friedrichschafen is home to two historic aviation companies: Zeppelin and Dornier. We visited both museums and went for a ride on a Zeppelin during our action-packed day this summer.

It’s hard to have a bad start to the day when you wake up to this:

We were staying in the Allgäu at the Lindner Hotel Oberstaufen. I felt like I was in a Ricola commercial, and the sound of the cowbells was remarkably soothing. But there was no time to waste. We had a 45 minute drive ahead to get to Friedrichschafen and our first stop.

Zeppelin Museum

Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH was founded in 1993, nearly 50 years after the end of World War II when the original Zeppelin company effectively disappeared. The first Zeppelin had a dark history. There was not only the disaster of the Hindenburg exploding on arrival in New Jersey, but the company was also involved in producing V-2 rockets for the Nazis during World War II.

The new company was considered a reincarnation with a more benign purpose, to produce a new generation of Zeppelins for commercial use. This now includes the ones that Goodyear flies instead of its previous generation blimps. (A Zeppelin has a hard internal structure unlike a blimp.)

On the shores of the Bodensee right next to the ferry terminal lies the Zeppelin Museum.

The building houses a lengthy history of Zeppelins along with a detailed look at their use, including the Hindenburg and its disaster.

Inside, there is a portion of a life-size mock showing what it was like to fly on a Zeppelin back in the day. Here I am in the lounge.

There are also rotating exhibits which have absolutely nothing to do with Zeppelins. When we were there, there was a pretty cool interactive gaming area as well as an art installation upstairs. We spent about 2 hours in the museum and that was enough for us. Had I been there alone, however, I probably could have used another hour.

To visit:

Zeppelin Museum website Open 9a – 5p daily in summer, 10a – 5p every day but Monday in winter Zeppelin Museum FriedrichshafenSeestraße 2288045 Friedrichshafen Dornier Museum

Once we finished up at the Zeppelin Museum, we had lunch in the town, and then we made our way up to the Dornier Museum which is about 15 minutes away on the airport grounds. I enjoyed this museum far more.

Claude Dornier worked as Count von Zeppelin’s right-hand man, but he eventually left and created an aircraft company of his own, Dornier Flugzeugwerke.

Like Zeppelin, Dornier developed aircraft for Nazi Germany. It also used forced labor from the camps. Clauder Dornier was a non-political engineer at heart, but he did eventually join the Nazi party in 1940 for fear of losing his company. All of this was discussed in the museum. I find German museums in general are very good at not skirting over their awful histories.

But the bulk of the museum was dedicated to the history of the company as well as static aircraft displays. The history is very well-presented using a mix of photos, words, and videos that projected on the back of the model cases.

Though Dornier was known best for its massive seaplanes before the war, most people today know the company — if they know it at all — for its Dornier 228 and 328 aircraft. Inside the museum, however, there is a large group of airplanes from the earlier history:

Outside we found those newer aircraft, including this Dornier 228:

There’s also a Dornier 328JET out there which you can walk through:

Of course, you can still do that today in commercial service with a select few airlines, including Advanced Air and Denver Air Connection in the US.

If you need a break — which we did — there’s a restaurant in the museum with a great view of the runway at Friedrichschafen Airport (FDH). All-in, we spent two hours here, but I could have done much longer and paid much closer attention.

To visit:

Dornier Museum website Open 10a – 5p every day but Monday Claude-Dornier-Platz 188046 FriedrichshafenDeutschland Flying a Zeppelin

Once we finished up at the museum, we drove to the other side of the airport where Zeppelin has its hangar.

Here, Zeppelin has built a terminal where people can come to fly a Zeppelin. In fact, the company does flights all over Germany depending upon the time of year, but it consistently has the most flights from its home in Friedrichschafen.

It should be noted that flights are not cheap. We ended up doing a 45 minute flight which was around $500 a person. But then again, how often would we have a chance to fly a Zeppelin? If you do this, book in advance, because it fills up.

In the terminal, you check in at a counter and receive a boarding pass. There is a restaurant with a large patio where you can await your flight.

About half an hour before the flight, they call everyone in for a safety briefing. German speakers get a fancy video in a theater, but those of us who speak English get a much shorter version from one of the staff.

When it’s time to board, you get on a van which takes you an absurdly short distance where you wait for the Zeppelin to arrive. There were two Zeppelins flying that day, and we ended up on the one that wasn’t painted in Goodyear colors.

Boarding is a delicate dance. Two people get off and then another two get on until the entire cabin has been turned over. This keeps it in balance and means they can do very quick turns.

Once loaded up, we were off on our climb to about 1,000 feet.

The scenery was spectacular as we made our way to the west on this flight. Here we are passing over Hagnau am Bodensee.

After passing by Meersburg Castle, it was time to come back. That’s when we had a little fun.

The flight deck is wide open for everyone in the cabin, and well, the view is pretty good up front.

We began our descent as we approached the airport. You can see the other Zeppelin on the left in this photo:

But wait, what was this? We had a nice surprise as we came in with a Condor aircraft in the “sea” colors preparing to depart:

We soon touched down and made our way back into the terminal building.

To visit:

Zeppelin Flight website 30 to 120 minute flights operate all day from Apr to mid-Nov Messestraße 13288046 FriedrichshafenDeutschland

It was a great day, but we weren’t done. We traveled southeast along the lake to the small island of Lindau where we had dinner and enjoyed the sunset.

After that, it was time to head back to the hotel and the sounds of cowbell to lull us to sleep.