It is not an easy anniversary that Lufthansa wants to celebrate in a big way in the new year.
The 100th anniversary of the founding of the first “Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft” in Berlin is coming up on January 6th, but the really big celebrations are not planned until April, when the first flight will be 100 years old. Although today’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG legally has nothing to do with its Nazi-affected predecessor, the MDAX group refers to it in its aviation and technical traditions.
How is it celebrated?
To mark its anniversary, Europe’s highest-grossing aviation group is investing in a new visitor and conference center, which is scheduled to open with splendor and glory in April. In “Hangar One” directly next to the company headquarters at Frankfurt Airport, two historic propeller aircraft will attract attention in the future: a Lockheed Super Star from 1958 and a Junkers Ju 52 from 1936 are intended to convey hands-on technology and, at the same time, many years of flying competence. Six current aircraft also fly with a special paint job that combines the crane symbol with the 100 and the years 1926 and 2026.
What do the passengers get out of it?
To mark the anniversary, the urgently needed fleet renewal is gaining momentum. Especially at the Lufthansa core company, new, more effective long-haul aircraft with the new Allegris cabin are added to the fleet almost every week. Aside from the new seats, the aim is to comprehensively improve the flight experience for passengers. On long-distance flights there should be more choice of food in all four travel classes and all equipment from pillows to cutlery and cups will be replaced. 187 million new items were purchased for this purpose. For the first time, Eco passengers will also receive a small toiletry bag (amenity kit) for their journey.
What kind of company was the first Lufthansa?
“Deutsche Luft Hansa AG” was created in 1926 on the initiative of the German Reich government from the merger of the previously competing companies Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr in order to pool the ambitions of the German aircraft industry. According to research, the heavily subsidized company was closely involved in the rearmament of the German Reich, which was prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles, and later became an important part of the National Socialist military apparatus.
Lufthansa’s Junkers Ju 52s, which were initially used for civilian purposes, were later converted with limited resources for the purposes of the Nazi Air Force. During the Second World War, the slow but reliable aircraft transported material, soldiers and the wounded, but were also used as auxiliary bombers. The first Hansa also organized the use of thousands of forced laborers under exploitative conditions in aircraft maintenance.
What is the relationship between today’s Lufthansa and its predecessor?
It was not until April 1955, almost ten years after the end of the Second World War, that the first scheduled flights of the newly founded Deutsche Lufthansa AG were allowed to take off. Initially, the Allies banned the Germans from all air traffic. Legally, the current company has nothing to do with its predecessor, but from the liquidation it secured the rights to the name, the color scheme and the iconic crane symbol. The Lufthansa brand was so strong in public perception that the GDR initially named its airline “Deutsche Lufthansa” and only later renamed it “Interflug” due to a lack of trademark rights.
How has the company come to terms with its past?
The initially fully state-owned Deutsche Lufthansa AG in the West was, unlike its predecessor, separated from the German aircraft industry, but at the same time it struggled for a long time with its burdened Nazi history. The personnel continuities between the first and second Lufthansa were close, including with the chairman of the supervisory board, Kurt Weigelt, and Göring’s former air protection inspector, Kurt Knipfer.
“Until the 1960s, Lufthansa was partly dominated by men – bankers, but above all government officials – who…
in 1926 and did not want to deviate from their path even after the Second World War,” summarizes the Bochum historian Lutz Budrass in his book “Eagle and Crane.” In 1999, the company joined the compensation fund for forced laborers and other Nazi victims.
On the 100th anniversary of its founding, Lufthansa has the historians Hartmut Berghoff, Manfred Grieger and Jörg Lesczenski critically examine its responsibility during National Socialism. A spokesman announces: “A comprehensive history volume will be published in March 2026, which will contain a detailed and historically based analysis of Lufthansa’s role in the period from 1933 to 1945. An exhibition in the new conference and visitor center will also deal, among other things, with developments during the time of National Socialist rule in Germany.”
What condition is the company in?
By taking over the former state carriers in the neighboring countries of Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, the privatized Lufthansa has grown into the largest aviation group in Europe with around 104,000 employees. Including the most recent minority investment Ita from Italy, the group has around 840 aircraft in the air and wants to bring the Portuguese Tap into the crane kingdom next. This makes it number four worldwide after the three major US companies.
The commercial pillars are the maintenance subsidiary Lufthansa Technik and the freight company Lufthansa Cargo. In recent years, the core airline Lufthansa has developed into an expensive problem child. According to airline boss Jens Ritter, with a tough restructuring program, the airline is on the way back to the black. 4,000 jobs are to be eliminated in the group, which wants to control the functions of the individual airlines more centrally.
The industrial engineer and commercial pilot Carsten Spohr has headed the group since May 2014 and has steered it through turbulent times. Keywords are the Germanwings crash with 150 deaths in the French Alps, which was caused by the co-pilot, or the takeover of parts of Air Berlin. During the Corona crisis, the countries of origin saved the company with loans worth billions, which had to stop its flight operations from one day to the next. After the state aid was repaid, Lufthansa found it difficult to restart and was less profitable than competitors such as British Airways parent IAG or AIR France-KLM.
What are the prospects for the coming years?
Spohr wants to be able to present an orderly and highly profitable company at the end of his third term in office at the end of 2028. The long-awaited new aircraft with the lucratively marketable Allegris cabin should help. So far, the jet shortage caused by manufacturers Boeing and Airbus has limited growth while keeping ticket prices high. In principle, all airlines will be able to make profits in the coming years as long as they have their costs under control. For 2026, the world airline association IATA expects the companies to record net profits of $41 billion (€35.2 billion) after $39.5 billion in the current year.
When it comes to the costs of flying staff, Lufthansa management is relying on newly founded flight operations in which employees are paid less according to recent collective agreements. The classic Lufthansa and the regional subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline are losing aircraft and crews to the newly founded companies Discover and City Airlines. These operate as “Members of Lufthansa Group” – customers should not notice any differences if possible. However, the long-established unions do not want to accept the development without a fight, so further strikes cannot be ruled out.
And what about the longer-term prospects?
In the longer term, the group will have to assert itself against state-subsidized competitors from Turkey or the Gulf states. Their companies already direct thousands of passengers from Europe to Asia, Africa and Australia via their hubs every day. Lufthansa’s strongest pillar therefore remains air traffic across the Atlantic. For South America, a hub in Lisbon would be helpful.
Fundamentally, the aviation sector faces major challenges when it comes to climate issues. For technical reasons, decarbonizing aviation is far more difficult than land-based transport. With the Boeing 747-8 jumbos and the Airbus A380, which have since been retired, Lufthansa has a comparatively large proportion of four-jet aircraft with high kerosene consumption in its fleet beyond 2030. Lufthansa boss Spohr has already publicly doubted that the CO2 neutrality targeted by IATA for 2050 can actually be achieved.
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