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2.1 count zeppelin’s biographyandbackground 9
land. While stemming from a centuries-old lineage of nobility, his father’s
line did not provide wealth but a very traditional and socially
respected background. His mother’s lineage, however, a wealthy
industrialist family, provided financial means and a completely different,
liberal mindset. As a recent biographer [49, 795] notes, his
mother’s father had given Girsberg as a present to his parents – so
ironically, the family’s aristocratic lifestyle was financed by bourgeois
money. His education is described as broad and very down to earth:
as a boy, Zeppelin worked on the estate in all kinds of roles, herding
cattle, serving in a pub, etc. but also being taught fencing and shooting
by his father. He was thus brought up in both conscience of his
noble roots and patriotism as Württembergian as well as liberal influences
of his mother [11]. In 1855, he joined Württemberg’s military.
By that time, Germany as a nation did not yet exist but was nothing
more than a confederation (German Confederation, »Deutscher
Bund« in German) of a multitude of different regional states - one of
those was Württemberg. His career was exemplary and he became a
famous war hero after a spectacular success of a reconnaissance mission
in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/1871 in which Württemberg
fought as an ally to Prussia. This war led to the unification of Germany
as a national state by founding the German Empire in Versailles
on January 18th, 1871. From 1882 until 1885 Zeppelin was commanding
officer of a cavalry regiment in Ulm, where he was made colonel
in 1884. From 1885 on, he was military attaché to the envoy of Württemberg
in Berlin and became his successor as envoy in 1887. Filling
this position for two years, he returned into military service in 1889.
As a patriotic Swabian he regarded the Prussian dominance in the
newly founded empire with suspicion. When Germany as nationstate
came into being after the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, Prussia
had taken the leading role in the newly formed country. Having
grown up in Württemberg and served as military officer during his
entire career (and not only fighting alongside Prussians but also during
the German war of 1866, in which Württemberg fought alongside
Austria against and was defeated by Prussia), his Württembergian origin
did not serve him well in the Prussian-led German Reich. One of
his last acts as envoy was the writing of an essay harshly criticizing
the Prussian command over the united German army – ultimately
putting Württembergian military under Prussian control [11, 98 f.].
This piece caused uproar in Berlin, up to the emperor himself criticizing
Zeppelin [49, 798]. As a consequence of the disapproval his
remarks caused, Zeppelin was displaced from the command post he
had returned to after his service as envoy and was retired against his
will. After a bad outcome in a review of his command – presumably
as a reaction of the administration to his writing [11, 101 ff.] – he had
to resign from military service in 1890 at age 52.