This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/7/2025
TLS on the letterhead of Hidenburg Postmaster F. W. von Meister, Special U.S. Representative, Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, 8.5 x 11 in., dated May 8, 1937—just two days after the catastrophic crash at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The certification attests that the airship Hindenburg carried mail on its final voyage, departing Frankfurt on May 3, 1937, including a letter for A. C. Church, which was destroyed “together with other mail aboard when the Airship met with an accident shortly before landing in Lakehurst on May 6, 1937.” Boldly signed at the conclusion by M. Zabel, Postmaster Max Zabel served as one of the airship's navigators on its final flight. Zabel was in the control car when the airship caught fire and crashed. He escaped by jumping from a window as the airship was falling. He was also the Postmaster for the ship.
A poignant and historically significant artifact issued in the immediate aftermath of one of the most infamous air disasters of the 20th century, directly tied to the destruction of mail carried aboard the doomed airship.
With One of a Kind Collectibles LOA