• Colonel Franz Ritter — A
Luftwaffe Colonel assigned by
Joseph Goebbels to board the
Hindenburg as a security officer in response to the bomb threat. Ritter won the
Knight's Cross as the chief of intelligence during the
Bombing of Guernica. His son Alfred was in the Hitler Youth and died the previous year falling from a synagogue after vandalizing it with slogans. In early versions of the screenplay, the character was known as "Fritz Kessler." Ritter is based upon Colonel Fritz Erdmann who was aboard the final flight, though there is no evidence that he nor the other two Luftwaffe officers were aboard as a security officer to investigate a bomb threat. • Ursula von Reugen — Ursula is a
Baltic German countess and old friend of Ritter, who lived in her estate in
Peenemünde. After it had been taken over by the Nazis, she boards the
Hindenburg to fly to America. She previously became acquainted to Ritter through her deceased husband who was in the same flying club with him; she went to live on her estate after he died in a plane crash. Her young daughter, Trudi, is deaf and goes to a school in
Boston, living with her friends. • Karl Boerth — A rigger, and the saboteur of the airship. Boerth was a former Hitler Youth leader, but claims he became inactive because he helped build the
Hindenburg. His girlfriend, Freda Halle, worked with foreigners in a French bank in
Frankfurt, and her ex-lover was killed fighting for the
Republicans in the
Spanish Civil War, leading the Gestapo to investigate. •
SS/
Gestapo Hauptsturmführer Martin Vogel — The antagonist of the film. Vogel is an undercover Gestapo agent posing as the official photographer for the airship. Initially, Vogel works cooperatively with Ritter, but after Ritter dismisses the suspicious behavior of some of the passengers and has apparent sympathies for Boerth and the Countess, Vogel begins to work behind Ritter's back. He also has a romantic interest in a young girl, Valerie Breslau, referring to her as a "Jewish model." Vogel is loosely based on Karl Otto Clemens, who was a semi-official photographer for the
Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei (a passenger list shown in the film lists him as "Otto Vogel") as well as Luftwaffe Major Hans-Hugo Witt, but there is no evidence that either Clemens or Witt were connected with the Gestapo. • Rigger Ludecke — A rigger who also works for the Gestapo, helping Vogel catch Boerth. • Captain
Max Pruss — The ship's commander. Unlike the real Pruss, he acts dismissively towards safety concerns voiced by Ernst Lehmann. In fact, the real Pruss may have been under Lehmann's pressure to rush the landing of the airship. • Captain
Ernst Lehmann — Senior observer who has been a zeppelin captain since before World War 1. He is on the flight at the request of Ritter, and also to appeal to the United States Congress to supply Germany with
helium for their airships. He is portrayed as being wary of the Nazis, more conscious of the ship's safety than Pruss and on good terms with Dr. Eckener. In actuality, the real Lehmann was well known as a Nazi supporter (or at least pretended to be) in order to advance his career and the fortunes of the Zeppelin Company. However, in 1929 Lehmann filed a
declaration of intent to become a United States citizen, but changed his mind when he was given charge of the
Hindenburg in 1936. In the film Lehmann mentions reluctantly dropping leaflets from the
Hindenburg during a propaganda flight. In reality, he was eager to oblige in this undertaking, to the extent that he attempted to launch the ship in unfavorable wind conditions, resulting in damage to the lower fin. Infuriated, Hugo Eckener, Lehmann's superior in the Zeppelin Company, angrily berated him for endangering the ship to appease the Nazis, resulting in Propaganda Minister Goebbels blacklisting Eckener in the press, despite his being honored as a hero both in Germany and abroad. • Reed & Bess Channing — Broadway show promoters and composers, who also own a Dalmatian named Heidi. They took the
Hindenburg because Mrs. Channing was pregnant for the first time and did not want to risk the turbulent seas on the . Reed Channing and Joe Späh perform a concert for the passengers, satirizing the Nazi regime, which offends Captain Pruss who abruptly leaves. The Channings are very loosely based upon the Adelts, journalists who were closely affiliated with the Zeppelin Company. In reality, German acrobat Joseph Späh owned a dog, a German Shepherd named Ulla. There was also another dog aboard. The dog in the film survives the disaster. Neither of the two dogs aboard the last flight actually survived, and there was no passenger on board the last flight who was known to be pregnant. • The Breslaus — A family of German-Americans, consisting of Albert and Mildred Breslau and their three children Valerie, Peter, and Paul. Albert Breslau was to sell some diamonds hidden in a pen to get funding for his grandmother's family, the Milsteins, out of Germany because they were
Jewish. Breslau refused to do this but the pen was given by a Zeppelin staff member to Valerie Breslau before the flight. The family is based upon the Herman Doehner family that was aboard on the last flight (though the Doehners were not Jewish, and while Mrs. Breslau and all three Breslau children survive in the film, Mr. Doehner died in the crash and his daughter Irene died later of burns). •
Joseph Späh — A German-American
Vaudeville acrobat who comes under suspicion for making unaccompanied visits to see the Channings' dog and drawing detailed sketches of the ship's interior as an idea for a theatre show. The real Späh made unaccompanied visits into the hull to visit his own dog, and was accused of sabotaging the airship by some members of the
Hindenburg crew. • Edward Douglas — A German-American advertising executive who was a
cryptographer during World War I. He uses that past experience, during his trip aboard the
Hindenburg, to keep track of a rival ad executive sailing aboard the ocean liner . The first person to reach New York City wins a lucrative contract for their agency to handle the advertising for a soon-to-open German branch of
General Motors, which has acquired
Opel. Although Douglas was a real passenger aboard the Hindenburg on the last flight, this subplot is only mentioned in Mooney's book and has been dismissed as fictional by some airship historians. In addition, Opel was completely acquired by General Motors by 1931. •
Hugo Eckener — Renowned airship commander and head of the Zeppelin Company, known to be hostile to the Nazi regime. In the film, he claims to have refused to name the LZ129 after the Führer, but in reality, Hitler did not want the zeppelin named after him because he didn't like airships, considering them impractical and dangerous and didn't want his name attached to something that might be destroyed. • Captain Fellows — The U.S. Navy commanding officer at the
Lakehurst Naval Air Station, based on Commander
Charles E. Rosendahl. He is assisted by Lieutenant Hank Truscott, who is based on Lieutenant George F. Watson. • Bosun Hoban — The leader of the landing ground crew, based on Frederick "Bull" Tobin who was credited with coordinating rescue efforts for survivors immediately after the crash. ==Cast==