Werner Doehner
Engineer who as an eight-year-old escaped the Hindenburg airship when it exploded in flames in 1937
WERNERDoehner, who has died aged 90, was the last survivor of the Hindenburg airship disaster in 1937. At the time of the tragedy, Doehner was eight and travelling aboard the Zeppelin with his family. His father Hermann (50), who had been born in Prussia, was the general manager of a pharmaceutical company based in Mexico City.
He had had business in Hamburg and, having flown in a dirigible before, suggested to his German-Argentine wife Matilde that they and the children travel home to Mexico aboard the Hindenburg. The pride of Nazi Germany had completed its maiden season the year before.
Matilde Doehner was nervous about the journey, but her husband persuaded her that the airship would save them two days, crossing the Atlantic in half the time that a liner could. Nor did it lack in the luxuries, with its comforts including a dedicated smoking room and a baby grand piano, made of aluminium to save weight.
When LZ 129 left Frankfurt on May 3, 1937, bound for America with about 100 passengers and crew, the Doehners were accompanied by
Werner, his brother Walter (10) and their sister Irene, who was 14. The children’s two older brothers, Hermann and Kurt, were studying — the latter in Darmstadt, where Werner Gustav Doehner himself had been born on March 14, 1929.
He recalled how enormous the Hindenburg had seemed when they boarded, especially its tyres and the four huge propellers which could push it along at 80 mph. At more than 800ft long it was the largest aircraft then built, held aloft by 7,062,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas stored in 16 giant bags or cells. A toy tank that Werner had been given by a great-aunt was speedily confiscated by a steward since it gave off sparks.
Strong winds meant that the ship was half a day behind schedule when it reached America on May 6.
A few hours later, delayed still further by thunderstorms, the Hindenburg prepared to moor at Lakehurst, New Jersey. There, passengers were waiting to make the return trip — many of them heading for the coronation of George VI in London.
Suddenly, the Zeppelin lurched and tilted, and the family were flung against the back wall of the dining room.
Those on the ground saw the airship — then perhaps 100 ft above them — burst into flames at the rear and begin to fall. Within 30 seconds, the skyliner had been consumed by an inferno.
As the dining room became a fireball, that part of the ship levelled up as it dropped, and Matilde Doehner was able to push Walter out of an observation window. When she tried to do the same to Werner, he cannoned off the frame, and by the time she succeeded with a second attempt, his hair and face were on fire.
He fell about 20 ft before being caught by a steward, Fritz Deeg.
Matilde then went back for Irene, but she refused to go without her father, and her mother had no choice but to jump without her; she broke her pelvis on landing.
Irene was subsequently found in the wreckage by another steward. She was in a state of profound shock and her burns were so bad that a nurse fainted on seeing them.
Irene died the next day in hospital, while Hermann Doehner’s body was identified from his wedding ring. He was one of 35 passengers and crew who perished — another person was killed on the ground — but 62 escaped.
The newsreel footage and the evocative commentary ensured that the disaster was seen around the globe and thereafter lodged in the collective memory (a photograph of the Hindenburg ablaze was used for the cover of Led Zeppelin’s
debut LP more than 30 years later).
The official cause of the accident was ascribed to hydrogen being set alight by a static spark but there have been many other theories since, including sabotage.
As they recuperated in hospital in New York, the Doehners became for a time the face of the tragedy. Reporters and photographers invited themselves into their rooms and took pictures of them — including Irene — lying burned in their beds.
Matilde Doehner gave interviews until she became exhausted. Nurses later praised her strength in keeping up her sons’ morale despite her own injuries and the loss of her husband and daughter.
At first, until the swelling subsided, there were fears for
Werner’s sight. He had also been badly burned on his hands and legs — he could recall a nurse bursting his blisters with a needle. After three months of treatment he was moved to another hospital for skin grafts. The family eventually returned home to Mexico the following year. Walter Doehner would die of cancer 20 years later, aged 30, and Matilde Doehner in 1981.
After taking a degree in electrical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Werner went to work for the Comision Federal de Electricidad, the country’s state-owned utility.
He continued to pursue a career in the energy sector, in Ecuador as well as in Mexico, and in 1984 joined General Electric and moved to Philadelphia. Doehner retired in 1999 and lived in Colorado until moving to New Hampshire last year.
His interests included Native American culture, model aircraft, opera and skiing. He met his wife Elin on a skiing trip to Germany and they were married in 1967.
They had a son, Bernd, who recalls being taken by his father to the air station at Lakehurst, but not being shown the memorial to the disaster, of which he says his father repressed memories. Werner Doehner had been its sole remaining survivor since 2014.
His wife and son survive him.
Werner Doehner died on November 8.