Zeppelin and Garrison Museum Tønder

The museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays between 10 pm and 3 pm from May until October.

The “Toska” shed

The Germans wish to use more, bigger and stronger airships, resulted in building a so-called double-hangar.

The double-hangar was finished on the 17. January 1916.
It was enormous: length : 730 feet, wide : 220 feet, height : 130 feet. It was named TOSKA.

The two earlier hangars were now renamed to TONI and TOBIAS ( TO = TOndern ). In that way the location of every airships shed could be identified by the first two letters in their name.

TOSKA got a bad reputation from the beginning because it was involved in many accidents.

Before the shed was finished, in November 1915, there was an accident during the gas filling of Zeppelin L 18. The airship caught fire and went up in flames.

In March 1916 Zeppelin L 22 crashed against the gate of TOSKA. The front end of the Zeppelin was badly damaged.

It got even worse in December 1916 during the take-in of L 24 into TOSKA. A powerful wind got Zeppelin L 24 out of control, so that the airship hit a light bulb in the roof of TOSKA - the result : a short cut that started a fire, which burned out both L 24 and Zeppelin L 17.

In the end of the war was Toska was bombed by the Royal Navy and the Zeppelins L 54 and L 60 inside were destroyed.