Werner Gustav Doehner Wiki – Bio
Werner Gustav Doehner, who was 8 years old at the time, was one of 62 passengers and crew who escaped the 1937 fire. Werner Gustav Doehner, the final remaining survivor of the Hindenburg disaster, has died. He was 90.
Werner Doehner, last survivor of the Hindenburg disaster, dies at 90 https://t.co/V1rkvu6Hm0
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) November 16, 2019
Werner Gustav Doehner Age
Doehner was 90 years old at the time of death
Werner Gustav Doehner Death Cause
Werner Gustav Doehner passed away in Laconia, New Hampshire last Friday, more than eight decades after the German airship caught fire and was destroyed while docking in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937.
Werner Gustav Doehner Family Response At the time of disaster
At the time of the disaster Doehner was eight years old and vacationing with family. He recalled later that his mother threw him and his brother out of the ship and jumped after them; they survived but Doehner’s father and sister were killed
What is Hindenburg disaster?
The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. Onboard were 97 people (36 passengers and 61 crewmen); there were 36 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen, 1 worker on the ground).
Last Hindenburg disaster survivor dies at 90 – New York Daily News https://t.co/N0UrwnnCMn
— Ryan Sword (@rsword) November 16, 2019
Werner Gustav Doehner Recall of memory
Back in 2017, Doehner gave a rare interview with the Associated Press, recalling the moment flames began to flicker on top of the airship as hydrogen, exposed to air, fueled an inferno.
“He did not talk about it,” said his son Bernie Doehner. “It was definitely a repressed memory. He lost his sister, he lost his dad.”
Bernie Doehner said his father took him to visit the naval station years later but not the Hindenburg memorial itself.
As the 80th anniversary approached in 2017, Werner Doehner said that he and his parents, older brother and sister were returning from a vacation in Germany on the 804-foot-long zeppelin to Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. His father headed to his cabin after using his movie camera to shoot some scenes of the station from the airship’s dining room. That was the last time Doehner saw him.
Hindenburg disaster Cause of accident
The U.S. Commerce Department determined the accident was caused by a leak of the hydrogen that kept the airship aloft. It mixed with air, causing a fire.
‘The theory that a brush discharge ignited such mixture appears most probable,’ the department’s report said.
How Werner Gustav Doehner Was Survived?
Doehner was tossed from the airship along with his brother by their mother after he sustained severe burns to his face, arms and legs. Doehner’s father, sister and 34 others died in the fire.
The last Hindenburg disaster survivor has died at 90.
Doehner, who was 8 years old at the time, was one of 62 passengers and crew who escaped the 1937 fire. https://t.co/96hazsstxz
— Jim Rucker (@chicojimj) November 16, 2019
The family had been on their way back to their home in Mexico City.
“We were close to a window, and my mother took my brother and threw him out. She grabbed me and fell back and then threw me out,” he said. “She tried to get my sister, but she was too heavy, and my mother decided to get out by the time the zeppelin was nearly on the ground.”
Werner Gustav Doehner Fast Facts You must need to Know
- Werner Gustav Doehner was one of the 97 people on board the Hindenburg airship when it caught fire while docking in New Jersey in May 1937
- Doehner’s sister and father were among the 35 people who were killed in the tragedy
- The LZ 129 Hindenburg first took to the skies in 1936, known as the largest aircraft ever built and the pride of Germany’s Third Reich.
- The Hindenburg disaster was captured on camera by stunned news crews who had assembled to document its arrival in New Jersey
- Instead, photographs of the airship bursting into flames beamed around the world and became some of the most iconic images of the 20th century
