Max Pruss

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Max Pruss (13 September 1891 - 28 November 1960) was the commander of the LZ 129 Hindenburg on its last voyage and a surviving crew member of the zeppelin disaster.

Biography

Max Pruss was born in 1891 in Sgonn, East Prussia (now Zgon, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland). He joined the German Navy in 1906 and completed airship training during World War I, serving as an elevatorman on the German Zeppelins. Pruss received command of the Hindenburg in 1936 on the third flight to Rio de Janeiro.

Hindenburg disaster

Pruss was commander of the airship during the Hindenburg disaster of 6 May 1937. This was his first time commanding a trip to Lakehurst. Pruss and several crew members rode the Hindenburg down to the ground as it burned, then ordered everybody out. He carried radio operator Willy Speck out of the wreckage, then looked for survivors until rescuers were forced to restrain him. Pruss, however, suffered extensive burns and had to be taken out by ambulance to Paul Kimball Hospital in Lakehurst. The burns were so extensive that he was given last rites, but although his face was disfigured for the rest of his life, his condition improved over the next few months. Pruss was unable to testify at investigative committees, but officially he was not held responsible. Pruss maintained that the disaster was caused by sabotage, and dismissed the possibility that it was sparked by lightning. Hugo Eckener criticized Pruss's handling of the landing approach, expressing his belief that sharp turns ordered by Pruss caused gas to leak, although Pruss claimed that such turns were normal procedure, and that the stern heaviness experienced during the approach was normal due to rainwater being displaced at the tail. However, it has been suggested that Pruss believed in the sabotage theory because of the guilt faced due to this rushed landing.

After the Hindenburg

Pruss returned to Germany around October 1937, where he served as commandant of Frankfurt Airport as World War II broke out. By this time he was already urging the modernization of Germany's remaining Zeppelin fleet, and during a 1940 visit of Hermann Göring to Frankfurt Airport this was the subject of an alleged quarrel between Pruss and Göring. In the 1950s Pruss tried to raise money for new Zeppelin construction, citing the comfort and luxury of this mode of transportation.[1] He died in 1960 of pneumonia after a stomach operation. Pruss would not see his dream realized until over 30 years later with the construction of a new airship at the Friedrichshafen complex by Zeppelin Neue Technologie (NT).

Portrayals

In the 1975 film, Pruss was portrayed by Charles Durning. This portrayal is inaccurate because Pruss is portrayed as ignoring the advice of Ernst Lehmann, saying "I'll do the worrying on this trip". In the docudrama Hindenburg: The Untold Story he was portrayed by Albert Welling. In the 2011 RTL television movie he is portrayed by Jürgen Schornagel.

Bibliography

  1. ↑ Waibel, B. (2002): Das Projekt LZ 132. Wiederbelebung der Zeppelin-Luft Schiffahrt in den fünfziger Jahren?, in: Meighörner, W. (Hrsg.): Luftschiffe: Die nie gebaut wurden, Friedrichshafen, S. 139-149.

References

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