Deutsche Luft Hansa

If you are interested in German aviation history, you cannot get around Deutsche Luft Hansa. Between 1926 and 1945 it was the airline of the German Reich – with corrugated-skin Junkers, the legendary “Tante Ju”, record flights of the Fw 200 Condor and catapult mail across the South Atlantic. At the same time it is an airline whose history you cannot tell without the Nazi era. This page shows you where DLH came from, which aircraft defined it, where it flew and why today’s Lufthansa carries the name and the crane but is legally a fresh start.

Deutsche Luft Hansa at a glance

Deutsche Luft Hansa was a historic German airline, founded on January 6, 1926 in Berlin. It was created by the merger of the two big German air transport companies of the time: Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr. Behind the merger was the state, which wanted to consolidate the fragmented and heavily subsidized air traffic. Among the board members was Erhard Milch, who started as technical director.

On the day of its founding, the new company took over 162 aircraft – a motley stock that largely consisted of outdated wartime types. Added to that was the Junkers F 13, the first all-metal airliner built in series. By the end of 1926, more than 1,500 people were already working for the airline.

Luft Hansa flew its first scheduled flight on April 6, 1926 from Berlin-Tempelhof, with stops, to Zurich. In its first year of operation it racked up more than six million flight kilometers and a good 56,000 passengers. In 1933 the company changed its spelling: “Luft Hansa” in two words became “Lufthansa” in one.

Codes, registrations and name

For an airline from the 1920s the usual profile logic does not work. There are a few points you should know:

• No IATA or ICAO code in today’s sense: The two- and three-letter airline codes you know from departure boards and trackers did not exist in this form yet. We therefore deliberately list no codes.
• DLH has two meanings: The abbreviation is often used for the old Luft Hansa. At the same time, DLH is the ICAO code of today’s Lufthansa. So if you are sorting old documents, you have to watch the time period.
• Registrations with D-: All aircraft were registered in Germany. Until 1934 the aircraft carried numbers after the D-; in spring 1934 the Reich switched to letter registrations. Registrations like D-AQUI or D-ACON therefore date from after that. You can find more in the history of German aircraft registrations.

The history from 1926 to 1945

The build-up years: network, night flying and records

Luft Hansa built a dense network in a short time. Besides the main hub Berlin-Tempelhof, airports such as Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig/Halle, Hamburg and Munich played an important role. Other cities such as Dortmund were also connected – you can find more about today’s Dortmund Airport on its own page.

The airline experimented early with night flights. From May 1, 1926 it flew mail and cargo at night between Berlin and Königsberg, using the three-engine Junkers G 24. By January 1928 the connection to Madrid could be flown continuously. Passenger numbers fluctuated considerably in the first years, but in September 1934 the airline welcomed its millionth passenger.

Fast and modern: the express routes

From June 1934, Lufthansa used the Heinkel He 70 on so-called express routes, for example between Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt am Main. The sleek He 70 set several world records but stayed in scheduled service for only a few years. At the same time, foreign types joined the fleet, including the Douglas DC-2 and the Douglas DC-3, whose importance for aviation is examined in the article on the history of the DC-3.

Mail across the South Atlantic

One of the most ambitious projects was the airmail service to South America. In February 1934 the first regular airmail line across the South Atlantic started. The trick: because the flying boats could not manage the route without an intermediate stop, converted cargo ships lay in the ocean as floating bases. Dornier Wal flying boats were launched from their catapults. The base ships included the “Westfalen” and the “Schwabenland”, converted into a catapult ship. From 1937 the more modern Dornier Do 18 with diesel engines was also used for this. The manufacturer of the flying boats was Dornier.

Asia and the partner companies

The airline also reached far to the east. From October 1937 it flew mail to Baghdad, later on to Tehran; in 1938 passenger flights to Tehran were added, and shortly afterward an extension to Kabul. As early as 1936, a Ju 52/3m had flown over the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs to explore a route to Asia.

In addition, Lufthansa held stakes in several companies abroad:

Company	Country	Period	What it was
Deruluft	Soviet Union / Germany	Stake from 1926, dissolved 1937	Joint company for flights between Germany and the Soviet Union
Syndicato Condor	Brazil	Stake from 1927, operations until 1941	Partner in South America, connection to the South Atlantic mail
Eurasia	China	1930–1940	Joint company with the Chinese ministry of transport

The chronology of Eurasia is well documented: founded in February 1930, it began a mail service from Shanghai in May 1931. At the end of November 1940 the involvement ended after intervention by the Chinese government.

The fleet: from the F 13 to the Condor

Luft Hansa’s fleet changed enormously in just under 20 years – from the single-engine all-metal pioneer to the four-engine long-range aircraft. These types matter most to spotters and collectors:

Type	Period with DLH	Use	Recognition feature
Junkers F 13	from 1926	Short-haul of the early years	Single-engine low-wing monoplane with corrugated skin
Junkers G 24	from 1926	Route and night flying	Three engines, corrugated skin, angular fuselage
Heinkel He 70	1934–1937	Express routes	Slender, elliptical wing, smooth skin
Junkers Ju 52/3m	from 1932	Backbone in Europe	Three radial engines, corrugated skin, fixed landing gear
Dornier Wal	1930s	South Atlantic mail	Flying boat with tandem engines above the wing
Douglas DC-2 / DC-3	1930s	Supplement in Europe	Two engines, smooth metal skin
Junkers Ju 90	1938–1940	Larger airliner	Four engines, short time in service
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor	from 1938	Long-haul and record flights	Four engines, slender fuselage, retractable landing gear

Junkers Ju 52/3m: the workhorse

No aircraft stands so much for Luft Hansa as the three-engine Junkers Ju 52/3m. It first flew on March 7, 1932, and the airline took delivery of its first example as early as May of that year. The stock then grew quickly: at the end of 1934 Lufthansa had 41 Ju 52/3m, at the end of 1938 it was 73, and at the end of 1940, with 80 aircraft, more than ever. In 1938, about three quarters of the airline’s total traffic was flown with this type.

The “Tante Ju” usually seated 15 passengers, with two jump seats added when needed. Typical features are the corrugated skin, the fixed landing gear and the three radial engines – one in the nose, one on each wing. The whole story of the aircraft is told in the article Junkers Ju 52 – Tante Ju. Also well known is the Ju 52 with the historic registration D-AQUI: it does not come from the prewar stock, but flew from 1956 in Ecuador and was later operated by the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Foundation until 2018 in historic Lufthansa livery.

Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor: the record breaker

With the Fw 200 Condor, Lufthansa wanted to replace the Ju 52 on longer routes. The four-engine aircraft from Bremen first flew in 1937 and was designed for 26 passengers. From mid-1938 the airline used the type in scheduled service.

The Condor became famous through two flights in 1938:

• Berlin–New York: In August 1938 the Fw 200 with the registration D-ACON flew nonstop from Berlin-Staaken to New York. It took 24 hours and 56 minutes for the roughly 6,370 kilometers; the return flight to Tempelhof took just under 20 hours.
• Berlin–Tokyo: At the end of November 1938 a flight to Tokyo followed, with stops in Basra, Karachi and Hanoi – the destination was reached after 46 hours and 18 minutes. On the way back, the same aircraft had to ditch off Manila in December 1938 because of a defect in the fuel line.

The Condor’s civilian career stayed short: in 1939 and 1940 the Lufthansa aircraft went to the Luftwaffe, which used the type in the war mainly as a long-range reconnaissance aircraft.

How to recognize Deutsche Luft Hansa

The most important identifying feature is the crane in a circle. It was designed by the graphic artist Otto Firle as early as 1918 – for Deutsche Luft-Reederei, one of the predecessor companies. Luft Hansa adopted the emblem in 1926, and to this day the crane flies on Lufthansa aircraft. If you are interested in how such liveries developed, you will find more examples in the article Legendary airline liveries.

Four features help you date historic pictures:

The Nazi era and the end

Luft Hansa’s history is closely interwoven with politics. The airline depended on state subsidies from the start. After 1933 its closeness to the regime grew: the former board member Erhard Milch moved as state secretary to the new Reich Aviation Ministry and became a central figure in building up the Luftwaffe. Civil air traffic and aviation armament were closely intertwined in terms of people and organization in these years.

One chapter from the war weighs especially heavily: according to the research of the historian Lutz Budraß, at least 10,000 forced laborers had to work in Lufthansa’s repair workshops. This too is part of the airline’s history and should not be left out of any account of it.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, civil air traffic largely collapsed. Part of the fleet went to the Luftwaffe, the partner companies in China and Brazil ended in 1940 and 1941 – Deruluft had already been dissolved in 1937. Lufthansa flew only a greatly shrunken network. The last scheduled flight took place on April 21, 1945, and the last flight of the old company altogether a day later. After the surrender, the Allies dissolved the company and liquidated the remaining assets as of January 1, 1951.

Distinction from the Lufthansa of 1953 onward

The most important question for many readers: is today’s Lufthansa the old Luft Hansa? The short answer is no – at least not legally.

	Deutsche Luft Hansa	Today’s Lufthansa
Founded	January 6, 1926 in Berlin	January 6, 1953 as Luftag in Cologne
Name	Luft Hansa, from 1933 Lufthansa	Deutsche Lufthansa AG since 1954
First scheduled flight	April 6, 1926, Berlin–Zurich	April 1, 1955, domestic German
Hub	Berlin-Tempelhof	from 1958 Frankfurt, later Munich too
End	Liquidation as of January 1, 1951	active, today part of the Lufthansa Group

The new company was founded on January 6, 1953 in Cologne as “Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf” (Luftag) – many of its people had previously worked for the old Luft Hansa. On August 6, 1954, Luftag acquired the name and crane logo of the liquidated company for 30,000 deutschmarks and from then on called itself Deutsche Lufthansa AG. It began scheduled domestic service on April 1, 1955, followed in June 1955 by the route to New York with the Lockheed Super Constellation. What these aircraft looked like is shown in the article on the Lockheed Constellation.

Because of the four-power status, the new Lufthansa was not allowed to fly to Berlin for decades. In 1958 it made Frankfurt Airport its most important hub and only returned to the capital after reunification in October 1990. Today it is the core of the Lufthansa Group; maintenance and overhaul are handled by Lufthansa Technik, among others.

East Germany complicates things: there, too, a “Deutsche Lufthansa” was founded on July 1, 1955. It was dissolved in 1963, and Interflug continued its operations.

Experiencing Luft Hansa today

You will never see Deutsche Luft Hansa in scheduled service again. You can still find traces, though – above all in Berlin. The former Tempelhof airport was the center of the network, and the German Museum of Technology in Berlin has preserved an Fw 200 that sank in Trondheim Fjord in 1942, was recovered in 1999 and restored over more than 20 years – with support from Airbus and Lufthansa Technik, among others. It is considered the only surviving example of its type. According to the museum, it is set up in the former Tempelhof airport and can only be seen on guided tours; check the current dates before you visit.

For Junkers aircraft, a visit to the Hugo Junkers Technology Museum in Dessau is worthwhile. In the Deutsches Museum Munich stands an Amiot AAC.1 Toucan – a French-built Ju 52 derivative. The article Aviation museums in Germany gives you an overview of further collections.

If you want to compare the era with other European airlines, take a look at KLM, which was founded as early as 1919, and the historic companies Swissair and Sabena.

Common mix-ups

• Equating the old and new Lufthansa – today’s Lufthansa was created in 1953 as Luftag and is legally a fresh start.
• Taking DLH for a historic code – DLH is the ICAO code of today’s Lufthansa, not of the old Luft Hansa.
• Taking every Ju 52 in Lufthansa colors for a prewar aircraft – D-AQUI, for example, only flew from 1956, at first in Ecuador.
• Confusing the Fw 200 “Condor” with the airline Condor – the aircraft name and today’s leisure airline are two different things.
• Taking Syndicato Condor for a German airline – it was a partner company in Brazil.
• Overlooking the East German Lufthansa – between 1955 and 1963 there were two companies named Lufthansa.

Conclusion

Deutsche Luft Hansa was the German state airline for almost two decades. From Tempelhof it built a dense network, dared night flights, catapult mail across the South Atlantic and record flights to New York and Tokyo. The Ju 52/3m became its symbol, the Fw 200 Condor its flagship on long-haul. At the same time the airline was deeply entangled in the Nazi system – right down to forced labor in its workshops. Operations ended in 1945, the company in 1951. Today’s Lufthansa carries the name and the crane but is a fresh start from 1953.