Ferdinand von Zeppelin 1838-1917 Born in Konstanz, Baden. Count von Zeppelin joined the Army at 16 and earned his commission by the time he was 20. Five years later, as a military observer for the King of Württemburg, he traveled with the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was in that service that the young count had gone aloft in military observation balloons. During Zeppelin's military career, he fought in the Seven-Weeks War (1866) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), serving in the armies of Württemburg, Prussia and Imperial Germany. In 1890, Zeppelin retired from military service as a brigadier of cavalry, but the