 FACT: In the film, the characters of Ernest Lehman and Hugo Eckener  are portrayed as very wary of the Nazi party. In reality, while  Eckener hated the Nazis and spoke against them openly, Lehman was  very accommodating to the powers in Berlin in order to advance his  career and the fortunes of the Zeppelin Company. In fact, while the  movie shows Lehman protesting using the ship in the previous year to  drop propaganda leaflets, in reality Lehman was eager and glad to  oblige in this undertaking, to the extent that he launched the ship  in a dangerous wind condition, bashing in the tail. In real life  Eckener lashed out at Lehman for endangering the ship to please the  Nazis, resulting in Propaganda Minister Goebbels blacklisting  Eckener in the press forever after, despite his being a national  (and international) hero.