Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Germany)

1930-1945, 1954-nowadays

Last modified: 2004-08-07 by santiago dotor
Keywords: deutsche lufthansa ag | lufthansa | airline | deutsche aero-lloyd ag | junkers luftverkehr ag | bird: crane | disc (yellow) | cross: saltire (yellow) |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

2:3
by Jens Pattke
Flag adopted 1930, abolished 1945, readopted 1954

• Description

See also:

• Airline House Flags (Germany)
• Germany

On 6th January 1926 the two companies Deutsche Aero-Lloyd AG and Junkers Luftverkehr AG merged into Deutsche Lufthansa AG. Lufthansa adopted a house flag as early as 1930. This showed on a blue field a yellow St. Andrew's cross, fimbriated yellow, and centred on it a yellow disc, fimbriated yellow, bearing a blue crane. This flag was used until 1945.

After the war, Deutsche Lufthansa was re-established again 1954 as a successor to the Company for Air Traffic Demand (Gesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf) which had been established in 1953. It readopted its former house flag.

Jens Pattke, 4 April 2001

The word "Hansa" stands for trade and traffic and bears memory to the Hanseatic League. (...) The original flag design was registered in 1929 as house flag in the International Patent Office of Bern, Switzerland. Source: Sonder-Edition des Journals "Luftfahrt": Deutsche Lufthansa 1926-2001, Frankfurt am Main, July 2001.

Jens Pattke, 20-22 December 2001

Luft means air, Hansa is probably a reference to the Hanseatic League. The Lufthansa (1926-1933 "Luft Hansa") was founded in 1926 as a merger of two airlines, the Deutsche Aero Lloyd (DAL) and the Junkers Luftverkehr, so I guess that the "Hansa" refers to this merger as similar to the "merger" of the Hanseatic cities into the Hanseatic league. The history of the "crane logo" is shown at the Lufthansa website.

Marcus Schmöger, 20 December 2001