Graf von Zeppelin's first airship was flown in 1900. Initially finance for the research was supplied by the count himself, by private donations, and even a lottery. With the growing success of each flight, public interest also grew. In 1908, the Zeppelin LZ 4 was destroyed during a high-profile test flight. This proved fortunate, since it caused a flood of public support. The ensuing donation campaign collected over 6 million German marks which was used to set up both Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH was set up by Graf von Zeppelin in 1908 thanks to funds raised by the public after the Zeppelin LZ 4 was destroyed during a high-profile test flight. 'Luftschiffbau' is a German word meaning building of airships. The company manufactured many Zeppelin airships for both civilian and military use over the next few decades. However, with the rise of the Nazis in 1933, focus shifted to 'heavier than air' aircraft, due to their military superiority. By the beginning of World War II demand for airships had disappeared. The last active vessel (LZ 130) was decommissioned early in the war and broken up for its aluminium. In the late 1920s to 1940 the company worked with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company to build two Zeppelins in the United States and the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation was created to facilitate the relationship. The partnership ended after World War II began, but the American company continued to build blimps under the Goodyear name. Luftschiffbau Zeppelin stopped manufacturing in 1938, though by the autumn of 1941 the company had accepted contracts to produce V-2 rocket propellant tanks and fuselage sections. In June 1943, Allied bombing during Operation Bellicose hit the Zeppelin V-2 facility, and production was subsequently moved to the Mittelwerk. The company continued during the war and disappeared sometime around 1945. Almost 50 years later, the company re-emerged in Germany. The parent group company of the current Zeppelin maker was re-established in 1993 and the operating company producing the current Zeppelins was created in 2001.

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, in full Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Graf von Zeppelin, was born on 8 July 1838 in Konstanz, Baden. He received a military commission in 1858 and made the first of several balloon ascensions in Minnesota in 1863 while acting as a military observer for the Union Army during the American Civil War. He saw military action in 1866 during the Seven Weeks’ War and in 1870–71 during the Franco-German War, serving successively in the armies of Württemberg, Prussia, and imperial Germany. He retired in 1890 and devoted the rest of his life to the creation of the rigid airship for which he is known. Zeppelin struggled for 10 years to produce airship. The initial flight took place on 2 July 1900 and was not entirely successful, thought it did have the effect of promoting the airship to the degree that public subscriptions and donations thereafter funded Zeppelin's work. The German government was quick to perceive the advantage of airships over the as yet poorly developed airplanes, and, when Zeppelin achieved 24-hour flight in 1906, he received commissions for an entire fleet. More than 100 zeppelins were used for military operations in World War I. A passenger service known as Delag (Deutsche-Luftschiffahrts AG) was established in 1910, but Zeppelin died on 8 March 1917, before attaining his goal of transcontinental flight.

Ludwig Durr was born on 4 June 1878. He was the chief designer of all the airships built by Zeppelin with the sole exception of the very first zeppelin, LZ-1, which he helped build. After Zeppelin was forced to dismantle his first ship and cease operations for lack of funds in 1900, Dürr was the sole employee who continued to work for Zeppelin, and he remained with the Zeppelin Company until 1945. In the very first ship he designed, LZ-2, Dürr made major and important engineering improvements, such as replacing the weak tubular girders of LZ-1, which had allowd the hull to twist and hog in flight, with triangular girders which provided the rigidity necessary for a successful airship. Dürr was known for his conservative to approach to design, which was partly out of conviction, and partly because he recognized that his strength was in empirical design — learning from trial-and-error and previous experience — rather than a more theoretical or mathematical approach, In addition to working as a designer, Dürr was also trained as an airship pilot, and he commanded the zeppelins LZ-5 (Z-II), LZ-6, and LZ-7 Deutschland. Durr died on 1 January 1956.

Born in Flensburg in 1868, Eckener earned a doctorate at the University of Leipzig before joining the Germany army Infantry Regiment. He subsequently worked as a journalist and editor. During his time as a journalist, Eckener covered the first flights of Zeppelins LZ-1 and LZ-2. Whilst he was critical of the airships' performance, he admired Graf von Zeppelin and subsequently discussed Zeppelin's plans with him. Eckener was so impressed that in October 1908 he agreed to become a part-time publicist for Zeppelin's company. Eckener's interest in airships grew to the extent that he joined the company full-time and obtained his airship licence in 1911. When Graf von Zeppelin died in 1917, Eckener succeeded him at the head of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. As he was prevented from constructing airships of the size needed for translatic flight under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Eckener lobbied both the German and US governments to allow the company to build a Zeppelin for the US navy as part of German's war reparations. The company went on to build LZ 126, later renamed the USS Los Angeles, which became the longest-serving rigid airship to operate in the US navy. The next ship the company built under Eckener's leadership was the Graf Zeppelin, which became the most successful rigid airship ever. Eckener was at the helm of Graf Zeppelin during most of its record-setting flights, including the first intercontinental passenger airship flight in 1928 and the Graf Zeppelin's flight around in the world in 1929. Eckener wanted to run against Hitler in the 1932 German presidential election, which angered the Nazi party to the point that when they came to power in 1933 they arrested Eckener. Despite his dislike for and regular criticism of the Nazis, Eckener survived the war. fter the Hindenburg crash he redesigned LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II to work with helium but could not obtain it because of the geo-political situation at the time. After the war he tried to build large rigid airships with Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation but nothing came of that plan. Eckener died in Friedrichshafen on 14 August 1954.