on making the flight despite unfavorable weather conditions, which resulted in high winds damaging the Hindenburgs lower fin as the airship was being removed from its hangar. Eckener criticised Lehmann harshly and publicly for endangering the new airship and the entire zeppelin program to impress the Nazis. However, Lehmann never actually joined the Nazi Party despite his apparent support. (Only Max Pruss and Anton Wittemann of the seven active zeppelin commanders were Party members of the NSDAP). After Lehmann's death, Eckener blamed Pruss's handling of the airship but also suggested that Lehmann was responsible for pressuring Pruss to make the flight. Although Eckener did not rule out other causes, after investigating the disaster himself, he testified to the inquiry that a sharp S-turn during the landing procedure might have caused a bracing wire to break and tear a gasbag, and resulted in mixture of hydrogen with air, which then likely was ignited by an electrostatic discharge. Portrayals In the 1975 film The Hindenburg, Captain Lehmann was portrayed by American actor Richard Dysart, although this portrayal is inaccurate with Lehmann appearing to be quite wary of the Nazis, whereas the real Lehmann was a well-known Nazi supporter, at least publicly. In the 2007 docudrama Hindenburg: The Untold Story, Polish actor Aleksander Trabczynski portrayed Lehmann. In the fictional 2011 RTL television movie of the disaster, he was portrayed by Ulrich Noethen. In this film, he supports the Gestapo in their brutal torture of Merten Kroger for the alleged murder of a passenger, but orders his release upon seeing proof of a bomb aboard the ship. During the landing approach, he pushes the landing approach and ignores Kroger's warning that putting stress on the ships frame would be dangerous, saying it's "less dangerous than a bomb going off". He is proven wrong when although the bomb is defused, the airship explodes due to static electricity. Books Captain Lehmann published his first book in English with Howard Mingos in New York and in 1927 it was reprinted in London. The Zeppelins: The Development of the Airship, with the Story of the Zeppelin Air Raids in the World War. Captain Lehmann recounts his personal experiences as a zeppelin captain in war and peace in Auf Luftpatrouille und Weltfahrt: Erlebnisse eines Zeppelin Fuhrers in Krieg und Frieden. Captain Lehmann's last book, Zeppelin: The Story of Lighter-than-air Craft, was being translated by Leonhard Adelt, who was on