1929 Graf Zeppelin Dubendorf
First Swiss Landing Cover RPPC 5.5x3.5\"
Zurich-Dubendorf \"Landungsfahrt\" cover addressed to OKeh Records founder Otto Heinemann
DESCRIPTIONThis is a genuine flown postal history piece from one of the most celebrated events in Swiss aviation history... the first-ever landing of the airship Graf Zeppelin (LZ 127) on Swiss soil.The card was carried aboard the Graf Zeppelin on November 2, 1929, during the \"Dubendorffahrt,\" the airship\'s historic landing at the Dubendorf military airfield near Zurich.After weeks of anticipation and one weather postponement from an original late-October date, the Graf Zeppelin lifted off from Friedrichshafen that morning and touched down at Dubendorf that afternoon, drawing enormous crowds who came out to see the giant silver airship on the ground for the first time in Switzerland.Zurich had beaten out Basel, Geneva, and Bern in a friendly rivalry among Swiss cities to be the first to host a landing.The card carries the full postal record of that flight. The black onboard cancel reads \"LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN\" dated 2.11.1929 (the European day-month-year format for November 2, 1929), tying into a red boxed cachet reading \"Mit Luftschiff Graf Zeppelin befordert\" (carried by airship Graf Zeppelin).It is franked with the orange 50pf Zeppelin eagle airmail stamp and struck with the matching arrival postmark \"ZURICH FLUGPLATZ LUFTPOST -2.XI.29\" (also November 2, 1929), so every marking on the card agrees on the same date, a good sign of an honest cover.The card was sent by Jos. Burkard of Krogerstrasse 7 III in Frankfurt am Main, a private sender whose handwritten \"Send by\" note at upper left is a nice period touch, likely intended to help the recipient identify the sender once the card crossed the Atlantic.It is addressed to \"Otto Heinemann, President\" at 67-71 Gotthardt Street in Newark, New Jersey, a real address in Newark\'s Ironbound district. This name and title match Otto Heinemann (also spelled Heineman), the German-American executive who founded OKeh Records in 1918 and who was serving as president of Okeh Phonograph Co., the Columbia Phonograph subsidiary, at this exact time (he held the role from 1926 until leaving the firm in 1931). OKeh recorded Mamie Smith\'s 1920 \"Crazy Blues,\" widely credited as the record that opened the door for the entire race records and blues recording industry, and went on to release landmark sides by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and other founding figures of American jazz.This gives the card genuine crossover appeal beyond Zeppelin philately, into American recorded music history.The front of the card is a period real photo postcard published by Verlag Foto-Buttner of Frankfurt showing the \"Stadion Frankfurt a. Main, Freilichtbuhne,\" the open air theater and colonnaded grandstand within Frankfurt\'s municipal Stadion complex, which opened to the public on May 21, 1925.This is the same ground now known as Deutsche Bank Park, home of Eintracht Frankfurt, which marked its 100th anniversary in 2025. The image itself has no connection to the Zeppelin flight; it was simply the postcard stock the sender had on hand, a common and charming quirk of period Zeppelin mail.Images were scanned at 600dpi to capture every detail of the postmarks, cachet, and handwriting.Every effort is made for fact checking and provenance including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you\'re unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I\'ll make it right.Orders placed before Noon CDT will ship same day Ground Advantage with tracking so you know exactly when it will arrive. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25 in cost. Rigid, professional packaging on all shipments sealed and protected in acid free protectors. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout.CONDITIONGenuinely flown and postally used, with all cancels and the cachet clean, dark, and fully legible. There is a light diagonal handling crease running through the upper right quadrant of the card, visible but not affecting any of the postal markings or the written address. The picture side shows scattered light foxing/toning spots consistent with age, concentrated on the stonework of the building in the photograph, plus faint overall toning to the card stock. A touch of edge and corner wear is present at the lower left corner. No tears, no creasing through the stamp or cachet, and no paper loss. Handwriting throughout is dark and fully legible.

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