[DeTomaso] FW: ZF

Tue Aug 5 10:02:39 EDT 2008

Dear Mike,

There was an article in Pantera International about five or six years ago about this very topic.

The interesting highlights, as I recall.

Count Von Zeppelin visited the USA during the civil war and was impressed with the use of hot air balloons in warfare. This stimulated his interest in airships. Obviously, WWI was a big impetus. He apparently invested all of the family fortune in zeppelin development only to see it go down in literal and figurative flames. The Germans were so taken with his efforts that a nationwide outpouring of donations infused his dreams with more capital and funded the golden age of airships.

After WWII the allies took over the Zeppelin industrial facility. My memory is a bit cloudy, but if recall correctly, it was broken up into about three units each one more or less under the direction of one of the Allies. The one we know best built the ZF transaxle and continues to make transmissions and automotive parts today. The other branches, IIRC, are also in business.

So, yes, there is indeed a significant historical connection between our Pantera and Count Von Zeppelin.......

A historical moment, Chuck Engles

---- Mike Thomas <mbefthomas at comcast.net> wrote:
>Forwarded from one of our Panteras Northwest members, Jeff Kimball, who has
>recently traveled to Germany.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kimball, Jeffrey G [mailto:jeffrey.g.kimball at boeing.com]
>Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 8:41 AM
>To: Mike Thomas; Thomas, Michael; Doug BraunHm; Doug BraunWK;
>roydon.d.hughes at boeing.com
>Subject: ZF
>
>Guys:
>
>The way I read the article below, our ZF gearboxes, which I think were built
>in Friedrichshafen Germany, were built by a descendant company of Zeppelin.
>This explains why the ZF factory in Friedrichshafen is located next to the
>"modern" Zeppelin factory.
>
>Jeff
>
>************************************
>In Germany, a City's Famed Industry Now Helps Keep It Afloat New York Times
>08/04/2008
>Author: Nicholas Kulish
>c. 2008 New York Times Company
>FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin launched his first
>flying machine from Lake Constance here in 1900.
>Thus began a chapter of aviation history that would propel Friedrichshafen
>onto the world stage, make it a prominent target for Allied bombs during
>World War II and ultimately bequeath to the city a sizable foundation
>financed by the successor companies to Count von Zeppelin's original
>enterprise.
>According to the city, the foundation generates between $60 million and $80
>million a year for a population of just 57,000. That largess supports
>projects as varied as school lunches for underprivileged children, sports
>teams and a new library. It was the threat of losing the foundation that
>nudged the town fathers to get back into the zeppelin business two decades
>ago.
>That prudent choice kept the foundation in the city's hands. It may yet
>prove a good business decision in its own right.
>Thanks to their low fuel consumption, airships are enjoying renewed
>attention as an alternative in an era of high fuel prices. But while
>zeppelins inspire enormous loyalty among those who work on them and a sense
>of wonder among all who watch them soar, the financial returns have barely
>gotten off the ground.
>Since the new line of zeppelins first took flight here 11 years ago, the
>company, ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, has built only four, including the
>prototype - and sold only two.
>"From an economic standpoint, it was completely backward," Josef
>Büchelmeier, the mayor of Friedrichshafen, said. "We had the product first
>and then went looking for a market."
>One hundred years ago, Count von Zeppelin tried to fly one of his airships
>for 24 hours straight. Unfortunately, the attempt ended with a crash and the
>airship's destruction. A spontaneous outpouring of donations, from civic
>organizations down to pennies from schoolchildren, flooded in and made it
>possible for the famous count to keep his work alive.
>With that money, Count von Zeppelin started a foundation dedicated to the
>development of airships. If for any reason that goal proved impossible, the
>foundation was to pass to the city of Friedrichshafen. As zeppelins enjoyed
>their heyday - passenger service from Germany reached as far as Brazil - the
>count's successors built a variety of businesses to provide technology and
>machinery for ever more advanced zeppelins.
>But right after World War II, it appeared highly unlikely that the
>victorious Allies would ever permit Germans to resume building zeppelins -
>which had been used for bombing and other military missions. As a result, in
>1947, the French occupation authority turned the foundation over to the city
>of Friedrichshafen.
>But once West Germany regained its armed forces and arms industry, the
>occupiers' decision to give the foundation to Friedrichshafen did not sit
>well with those interested in following in the count's footsteps and
>building zeppelins.
>"There were always new attacks on the city's ownership of the foundation,"
>said Bernd Wiedmann, the town's mayor from 1985 to 2001.
>To this day, the foundation owns full or majority stakes in a number of
>large and successful businesses, all descended from the original zeppelin
>builders. Those enterprises pay dividends to the foundation (and,
>indirectly, to the city). Mr. Büchelmeier said it was important that the
>dividends remained modest in proportion to the companies' revenues. That
>means the rest of the profits can be reinvested in research and development
>for the long-term strength of the companies, which are also significant
>employers in the region.
>"Our philosophy is to preserve the businesses in the long run, to keep them
>at the top," insulated from the common pressure from shareholders, Mr.
>Büchelmeier said. The latter-day Zeppelin empire includes ZF
>Friedrichshafen, an automobile supplier that employs some 60,000 people
>worldwide and reported total revenues of roughly $20 billion for 2007. The
>holding company Zeppelin GmbH includes the exclusive dealer for the heavy
>equipment maker Caterpillar in Germany and much of Central and Eastern
>Europe. There is even a private Zeppelin University.
>Criticisms on foundation's ownership led the Audit Office of the state of
>Baden-Wuerttemberg, where Friedrichshafen is located, to investigate whether
>the foundation should be taken from the city.
>Mr. Wiedmann recalls that the state premier at the time told him, "If you
>could just do something to revive the zeppelins." With those words to the
>wise, Mr. Wiedmann pursued the possibility of reviving production and
>eventually settled on a plan with the leaders of the foundation businesses.
>The new zeppelin program wholly insulated Friedrichshafen against
>suggestions that it had abandoned the foundation's original purpose. "Since
>then, it's been quiet," he said.
>There was still the little matter of what to do with the 250-foot-long
>airships once they built them.
>The reintroduced zeppelins have been used for a variety of purposes,
>including air-quality testing and crowd surveillance at public events. They
>have carried roughly 80,000 tourists for gentle rides in the sky in many
>locales, including in Germany and Japan.
>The fourth and latest model is now in London, captivating tourists with a
>bird's eye view of the city before the airship begins a slow journey on a
>cargo ship to its future home in the San Francisco Bay Area. There, its new
>owners, Airship Ventures, intend for it to ferry tourists and carry
>scientific equipment aloft for testing and research.
>Perhaps the unlikeliest mission for the new generation of zeppelins was
>treasure hunter. The prototype ended up in Botswana, where the company
>DeBeers used it in diamond exploration. That was also where the prototype
>met its demise last year, wrecked by a dust devil that hit the ship while it
>was on the ground.
>In America, the zeppelin is still best known for the stunning 1937
>Hindenburg disaster in Lakehurst, N.J., which claimed the lives of 36 crew
>members and passengers. But here in Friedrichshafen, the airships stand for
>the technological advancement on which the city prides itself. Their oblong
>silhouette is found on everything from beer bottles and business cards to
>the jungle gym near the waterfront where children play.
>The airships are proof that flying can still be a joy and a prod to the
>imagination. The experience is singular enough that tickets start selling at
>$300 for half an hour's flight.
>"I had always seen them and it was always a wish of mine to fly in one,"
>said Edgar Wenz, a retired engineer at a nuclear plant, after climbing
>aboard on a recent morning with his wife.
>"As a technician, one is interested of course," Mr. Wenz said, "but there is
>also the Zeppelin myth."
>Friedrichshafen remains an economic success, thanks to the many zeppelin
>businesses. Its region enjoys a remarkably low unemployment of just 2.5
>percent. But for the people here it was also important that the zeppelins
>not remain the brontosaurus of the skies but return to their rightful place
>over Lake Constance, even if their construction is still not profitable for
>ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik.
>"I think that it gives the city its image, and also jobs," said Margit
>Gutte, a retiree out for a stroll downtown on a recent sunny afternoon. "In
>any case the city is doing very well thanks to the foundation."
>
>
>
>
>
>
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