The Hindenburg

Kathie Rauch, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sends a letter to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., claiming the Hindenburg will explode while flying over New York City on its first flight of the season. The warning sets up a tense atmosphere of sabotage rumors and heightened security concerns aboard the airship. This initial omen anchors the story’s sense of looming danger.

Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter is named the security officer to protect the Hindenburg amid threats of sabotage. He begins his vigilance aboard the airship, wary of every passenger and crew member. The assignment creates a wary, investigative dynamic as threats surface from multiple directions.

SS/Gestapo Hauptsturmführer Martin Vogel poses as the official photographer but secretly investigates passenger and crew backgrounds. He works independently of Ritter, fueling a tense undercurrent of competing inquiries. The dual scrutiny heightens the mystery surrounding the voyage.

Countess Ursula von Reugen, tied to a Baltic estate seized for weapons testing, appears to be escaping Germany while visiting her daughter in Boston. She becomes a prime suspect during the security sweep. Her presence underscores the Nazi paranoia aboard the airship.

Suspects include Edward Douglas, Emilio Pajetta, Major Napier, and various crew members, with many clues turning out to be red herrings. Casual details like Joe Spah's interior sketch and bets on race-horse names distract from the real danger. The maze of possibilities deepens the intrigue aboard.

Rauch’s self-proclaimed clairvoyance comes under FBI investigation, shifting attention toward Karl Boerth, a former Hitler Youth member gone disillusioned with the regime. Official scrutiny adds pressure to the ongoing investigations. The tension between belief and evidence sharpens the plot.

Boerth’s girlfriend Freda Halle is killed while attempting to escape the Gestapo after questioning the ship’s exact position. Boerth, grief-stricken, resolves to resist the Nazis and stay aboard as the plot to destroy the airship forms. Ritter’s sympathy for Boerth grows as he faces a personal loss tied to the regime.

Boerth agrees with a plan to trigger the bomb at 7:30, the moment passengers would disembark in New York. He insists that the explosion would be a form of resistance rather than mere destruction. Ritter reluctantly consents to the dangerous course of action.

Boerth drops a knife, recovered by a crew member, prompting him to steal another knife from rigger Ludwig Knorr to cover the loss. The weapon’s disappearance becomes a symbol of the impending unraveling of the plan. The cover-up accelerates the ship’s perilous trajectory toward Lakehurst.

Vogel arrests Boerth and confiscates the Countess’s passport, acting behind Ritter’s back. The security forces fracture the alliance and escalate the stakes. Ritter remains unaware of Vogel’s double-dealing until the crisis reaches its peak.

As the airship nears Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Ritter learns that Boerth’s bomb is hidden in the repair patch of gas cell 4 while Vogel tortures Boerth in the cargo hold. The imminent landing concentrates the danger into a single, lethal moment. A final confrontation is now unavoidable.

Ritter fights Vogel and knocks him unconscious as Boerth reveals the bomb’s location. Ritter detonates the device, killing himself instantly and sending Vogel severely burned into the airship’s path. Boerth dies from burns, but his actions free the Dalmatian before the inferno closes in.

The Hindenburg crashes at Lakehurst, claiming Boerth’s life and many others while Countess Ursula survives and is reunited with her daughter. The Dalmatian dog is freed in the chaos as the fire rages around the wreckage. The tragedy marks the culmination of the voyage’s perils and political tensions.

The next day, newsreel footage lists survivors and casualties as an official inquiry begins to examine the wreckage. A narrator recounts the disaster while the Hindenburg’s silhouette fades into the clouds, closing the film with a ghostly coda to the catastrophe.