Who knows that today, southern Denmark, about 80 years ago, was one of the largest airship ports in the former German Empire? North Schleswig to about Ribe (formerly Ripen) belonged until 1920 to the German Empire. The memory of this time tries to preserve the Zeppelin group Tønder in a small museum.
The nucleus of the Zeppelin group originated around 1975, when a small circle of idealists and aviation enthusiasts around the deceased, former Gaswerksmeister Friedrich Röder began to be interested, what the former Zeppelinhafen area hid. This area was restricted area and was used by the Danish military. Since 1 January 2003, the area is a nature reserve and accessible to everyone. The feeling of that time can best be described by the following quote from John Vaupell Christensen, a now deceased member of the Zeppelin group:
"We feel like archaeologists / zoologists on the hunt for the remains of prehistoric giant reptiles and their habitat."
There were numerous finds, photos, reports and all sorts of other things gathered around Zeppelins. These will be presented in a small museum at the former airship harbor area in Tønder (Gasværkvej 1). The military history of Tønder from the beginning of the airship port in 1914 to the dissolution of the Tonderan garrison at the end of 2002 is shown. Individual stations of history are the takeover of all facilities of the airship port by the Danish military and the German occupation from 1940 onwards.
With the dissolution of the garrison Tønder was decided to represent the history of this garrison also in the Zeppelin Museum. The first major exhibit was on September 7, 2002, a Sherman tank, which was located on the former airship harbor area since 1960, solemnly handed over to the Zeppelin Museum.