Airship Graf Zeppelin Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and Lufthansa Airmail Brochure

Description

Scarce Deutsche Luftpost (German Airmail) 1934 mid-season regulations for transatlantic express mail service between Europe and South America affecting Graf Zeppelin mail service beginning in July. The Graf Zeppelin, having established the first regular passenger and mail service in 1932, was subjected to service agreements favoring Lufthansa and Air France, which were flying mail across the shortest South Atlantic points with flying boats incapable of carrying passengers. The agreement with France was in exchange for increased Lufthansa, not Zeppelin, flight privileges over French territory. While this did not affect the Graf Zeppelin's passenger service, it did decrease mail subsidies which made flight operations more costly, shifting mail to the German and French flying boats which had previously been carried by the airship. Possibly the motive was to coerce Luftschiffbau Zeppelin to transfer flight operations to a nationalized Zeppelin airline which would come into effect at the start of the 1935 season. This four-page brochure outlines the new regulations affecting Graf Zeppelin's letter and postcard carrying, cost schedules for mail between Europe and South American countries and times and days by which mail must be posted to make flights. Brochure is in very good condition for approximately 85 years with horizontal fold across the middle. Thanks for looking at this and my other auctions.