Lufthansa

Lufthansa traces its history to 1926 when Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. (styled as Deutsche Lufthansa from 1933 onwards) was formed in Berlin. DLH, as it was known for short, was Germany's flag carrier until 1945 when all services were suspended following the defeat of Nazi Germany. In an effort to create a new national airline, a company called Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag), was founded in Cologne on 6 January 1953, with many of its staff having worked for the pre-war Lufthansa. West Germany had not yet been granted sovereignty over its airspace, so it was not known when the new airline could become operational. Nevertheless, in 1953 Luftag placed orders for four Convair CV-340s and four Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellations and set up a maintenance base at Hamburg Airport. On 6 August 1954, Luftag acquired the name and logo of the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa for DM 30,000 (equivalent to € 68000 today), thus continuing the tradition of a German flag carrier of that name. Lufthansa Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation operating a transatlantic scheduled services from Hamburg to Montreal and Chicago in May 1956. On 1 April 1955 Lufthansa won approval to start scheduled domestic flights, linking Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich. International flights started on 15 May 1955, to London, Paris, and Madrid, followed by Super Constellation flights to New York City from 1 June of that year, and across the South Atlantic from August 1956. In August 1958 fifteen Lufthansa 1049Gs and 1649s left Germany each week to Canada and the United States, three 1049Gs a week flew to South America, three flew to Tehran and one to Baghdad. The special status of Berlin meant that Lufthansa was not allowed to fly to either part of Berlin until 1989. Originally thought to be only a temporary matter (and with intentions to move the airline's headquarters and main base there once the political situation changed), the Division of Germany turned out to be long, which gradually led to Frankfurt Airport becoming Lufthansa's primary hub. East Germany tried to establish its own airline in 1955 using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a legal dispute with West Germany, where Lufthansa was operating. East Germany instead established Interflug as its national airline in 1963, which coincided with the East German Lufthansa being shut down.

(below) A Lufthansa postcard.

(above and below) Lufthansa 'Rohrbach Roland'.early 1930's.

(below) an early Lufthansa Junkers

(above and below) a Lufthansa 'Junkers G38'. May 1933

A Junkers coming in to land over the main terminal building  A Junkers parked on the tarmac apron being loaded. both pictures late 1930's

(below) 'A FAST NEW AIR SERVICE', bringing Berlin within four and a half hours flying was commenced at 7 o'clock this morning the 1st of May 1934. The new system is being operated jointly by Lufthansa and the Dutch KLM. The picture shows a Fokker starting the new service.

(above). A visiting Junkers JU52 in 1934

(above) 21st of January 1934. Schoolboy with model airplane.

(below) Junkers 'Hestia' 1934.

(above) arrival at Croydon in 1935 by Lufthansa in a 'Junkers 52', members of a German athletics team.

(above and below) Lufthansa 1935

(above) 'Junkers 52' 1936

(above and below) Junkers JU52

(above) 1938

(above) on the tarmac apron 1939. Two 'Air France' 'Bloch' aircraft, and a 'Lufthansa' 'Condor' aircraft. (below) the last German (Lufthansa) aircraft to fly in to England (Croydon) before the outbreak of WW2.

(below) Lufthansa 1939.

In the last months before the outbreak of WW2, German Lufthansa pilots were carefully mapping the airport and areas of Southern England, by making wider and wider sweeps before and after take-off's as well as their traverse from the Channel and North Sea.