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Helmut Braun
The “prodigious” gas helium, US domestic policy and the German zeppelins
Keywords: Hindenburg, Luftfahrt, Drittes Reich, Harold Ickes
The explosion of the hydrogen-filled zeppelin “Hindenburg” on 6th May 1937 had made it evident that a safe use of airships was only possible with helium as carriage gas. However, helium was then only produced in the USA and was there subject to a state tax monopoly. This study examines why the USA did not sell helium to the German Reich although this was widely supported in the States. Two reasons for this have been identified. First, research into the potential usage of helium had shown more and more possibilities of a military employment of this gas far beyond airshipping. Second, and far more importantly, the power to decide whether to provide National-Socialist Germany with helium was in the hands of the US Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes. Not only did Ickes disapprove strongly of National Socialism, but it was also possible for him to humiliate his colleague Cordell Hull, who was Secretary of State at the time, by blocking an export of helium. The sources show that Ickes had apparently been waiting for such an opportunity - and the blockade on a helium export enabled Ickes to confront Hall. So, the reasons for the American refusal to provide Germany with helium for its zeppelins did not only lie in the field of foreign affairs, but are also to be found in the sphere of domestic policy.
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Print ISSN: 0042-5702
Volume: 53, 04/2005
Pages: 571 - 600