 Some, though not all, of the characters in the film have different  names from their historical counterparts. For example, "Colonel  Franz Ritter" (George C. Scott) was Colonel Fritz Erdmann in real  life; "the Countess" (Anne Bancroft) was actually Margaret Mather;  Martin Vogel (Roy Thinnes) represents Karl Otto Clemens. "Captain  Fellows" (Stephen Elliott) is based on U.S. Navy airship commander  Charles Rosendahl. "Karl Borth" (William Atherton) was named Eric  Spehl in real life; his mistress, "Freda Halle" (Lisa Pera) was  Beatrice Friedrich. "Mr. and Mrs. Reed Channing" (Peter Donat,  Joanna Moore) were Leonhard and Gertrud Adelt; the "Breslau" family  (Alan Oppenheimer, Katherine Helmond, Jean Rasey, Johnny Lee and  Steven Manley) was actually the Doehnerr family. "Dimmler" (Rex  Holman), while there was an engineering officer by that name, is  shown stationed in the main control gondola and likely represents  either Captain Albert Sammt or Captain Anton Wittemann. Captain  Ernst Lehmann, Captain Max Pruss, Joseph Spah, Edward Douglas,  Ludwig Knorr, Hugo Eckener and Joseph Goebbels are among those who  were called by their real (historical) names in the film.