Founded:
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17th March 1919 |
Junkers Flugzeugwerke AG received
the German Airline Approval No. 5
The initials of Germany’s commercial air traffic after WW I were laid during the National Convent at Weimar, which started in March 1919. DLR started Germany's first regular route from Berlin to Weimar on March, 1st 1919 with newspaper and offical document flights from the Reich's municipal to the politican's at Weimar and took back the daily results of the meeting to the newspaper offices at Berlin. Shortly before the beginning of the Weimar Convent Hugo Junkers decided to start an airtransport service between Weimar and Dessau. On March 3rd, 1919 he put a request for an airline approval to the Reichsluftamt and already in March 17th, 1919 the RLM Approval No. 5 for a commercial airline service between Dessau and Weimar was still issued for Junkers-Fokker Werke A.G. In April 1919 the Departement of Air Traffic (Abt. Luftverkehr) was founded at Junkers Flugzeugwerke. This departement was responsible for the complete organisation of Junkers air traffic. |
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26th April 1919 |
Initial Junkers Air Transport
Services from Dessau to Weimar
Operations were started on 26th April 1919 from Dessau to Weimar-Nohra with a modified Junkers J10 aircraft (D-77). Two Junkers J10 aircraft were modified for passenger services with a cover over the rear passenger seat. Both aircraft were registered D-77 and D-78. A further Junkers J9 and a J11 was intended to be added to the fleet |
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17th June 1919 |
First Passenger Service with
Junkers aircraft from Dessau to Weimar
On June 17th 1919 the first passenger flight of Junkers Luftverkehr was performed from Dessau to Weimar. Dessau's major Hesse was the first passenger to board a Junkers Luftverkehr aircraft.. Junkers was limited in its operations on the
route from Dessau to Weimar. Therefore an extended approval was requested at
the RVM, which was issued on May 5th 1919 as Approval Number 5a for air
operations to all German destinations. Nevertheless,
the end of the Weimar Convent also brought the end of Junkers' initial
regular services between Dessau and Weimar. The J10s were used for some
sightseeing flights and perhaps a few charter flights. |
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May 1919 |
Discussions with Allgemeiner Luftdienst for further expansion of airline activities Since
May 1919 Junkers was in discussion with Allgemeiner Luftdienst, which
just had been formed by the merger of Sablatnig and Luftfahrzeug-Gesellschaft
mbH. Junkers was asked to join the consortium with an air service from Berlin
to Hannover, Osnabrueck and Holland. However, due to the experiences from the
Weimar operations, Junkers Flugzeugwerke decided not to continue an own air
operations in 1919. Further
discussions between Junkers Flugzeugwerke and Deutsche Luftreederei DLR and
AEG took place in 1919. AEG was interested in merging its aircraft production
branch with Junkers Flugzeugwerke A.G. uncluding its DLR airline operations.
However Junkers was not interested in loosing control upon his aircraft
factory and therefore further negotiations did not come to a successful end. |
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7th November 1920 |
Junkers joint Lloyd Ostflug GmbH In 1920 Gotthard Sachsenberg founded Luftreederei der OIa in Koenigsberg. He tried to achieve an
airline license for his company, but the RVM rejected Sachsenberg’s approach,
as he was unable to offer any capabilities for an airline operation.
Sachsenberg therefore contacted several aircraft manufacturers and offered a
participation in his airline in exchange for the supply of aircraft. Junkers
and Albatros Flugzeugwerke GmbH joint the Sachsenberg venture together with
Norddeutscher Lloyd and supplied some of their aircraft to Luftreederei der
OIa. On 7th November 1920
the new airline was founded as Lloyd Ostflug GmbH. But
already in 1921 Norddeutscher Lloyd founded the Lloyd Luftdienst GmbH, which became responsible for all
airline developments of Norddeutscher Lloyd and in March 1922 Lloyd Luftdienst
formed the Danziger Lloyd
Luftdienst GmbH,
which was directly competing with Lloyd Ostflug GmbH. Lloyd Luftdienst and
Albatros as shareholders of Lloyd Ostflug put restrictions for the flight
operations of Lloyd Ostflug in advance of their own airline Danziger Lloyd
Luftdienst GmbH. Finally Sachsenberg and Junkers retreated from Lloyd
Ostflug. Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst GmbH took over the routes from Lloyd
Ostflug, while the company itself was dissolved in May 1922 |
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2nd December 1921 |
Foundation of the Department of Air Traffic within Junkers Flugzeugwerke A.G. When
Junkers and Sachsenberg were forced to retreat from Lloyd Ostflug, Hugo
Junkers established a new department of air traffic at his Junkers
Flugzeugwerke A.G. in December 1921. The remains of Sachsenberg’s
Luftreederei der OIa were integrated into that department, which was
responsible for all questions of Junkers operated air traffic. While
Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst GmbH took over the routes from Lloyd Ostflug,
Junkers cooperated with another Danzig based airline called Danziger Luftpost GmbH, which was operated by Erhard Milch, a former pilot of Sachsenberg’s
squadron. Danziger Luftpost operated along the former Lloyd Ostflug routes on
behalf of Junkers from Berlin via Danzig and Koenigsberg. Danziger Luftpost
GmbH was the first nucleus of a large number of airlines, which operated
under the leadership of the Abteilung Luftverkehr. Sachsenberg now started to
expand the existing route network by the foundation of new local airlines. |
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July 1922 to
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Formation of OSTEUROPA UNION The
expansion of the Danziger Luftpost GmbH service from Berlin to Danzig and
Koenigsberg was started in July 1922, when Sachsenberg and Junkers formed the
Aerolloyd
Warschau at Danzig together with some oil companies
from Poland. This airline provided the network extension from Danzig to
Posznan, Warsaw and later to Cracow in Poland. In
August 1922 the Junkers Luftverkehr Russia started its service from Moscow to
Nizhnii Novgorod, which was extended to Tiflis and Baku in 1923. In
July 1923 a cooperation agreement between Junkers and the Latvian based Latvijas Gaisa Satikmes A/S
was signed and operations
were started between Riga, Memel and Kongisberg, which was later expanded to
Reval in Estonia by Latvijas Gaisa Satikmes. This cooperation extended the
Danziger Luftpost GmbH routes to the Baltic States. Also
in July 1923 A-S Aeronaut from Tallin signed a cooperation
agreement with Junkers, after it has left the Lloyd Luftdienst ring. Aeronaut
expanded the Latvijas Gaisa Satikmes route from Tallin to Helsingfors. Already
before the cooperation agreements with Latvian Air Transport and A-S
Aeronaut, ideas were born at the air traffic department at Junkers
Flugzeugwerke for creating a common marketing name for its operations. In
March 1923 the name OSTEUROPA UNION was used for the first time. On 7th
March 1923 the name was first used for operational flights of Danziger
Luftpost GmbH. In June 1923 OSTEUROPA UNION was officially created by
Danziger Luftpost GmbH, Latvian Air Transport and A-S Aeronaut. It seems, as
if Aerolloyd Warschau was not a member of Osteuropa Union at this time. |
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December 1923 |
Transformation into NORDEUROPA UNION On
9th October 1923 at Helsinfors the Finish Aero O/Y was formed with the support
of Junkers Flugzeugwerke. The company joint OSTEUROPA UNION on the same day.
Aero O/Y and A-S Aeronaut initially planned to start a common operation
between Helsingfors and Tallin in April 1924. However, the air traffic
department at Junkers Flugzeugwerke intended to use Aero O/Y for route
expansions to Sweden in 1924. As a preventive action OSTEUROPA UNION was
already renamed into NORDEUROPA
UNION in
December 1923. |
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30th October 1923 |
Formation of TRANSEUROPA UNION Already
in November 1921 Junkers and Sachsenberg were looking for a route extension
of their Lloyd Ostflug network to the South. As Lloyd Ostflug was operating
under the marketing name of Lloyd Luftdienst GmbH at this time cooperations
already existed with Rumpler Luftverkehr, which was providing the air traffic
from Berlin and Dresden to Munich. When the Junkers group left Lloyd
Luftdienst in 1922 discussions with Rumpler Luftverkehr were intensified and
finally Rumpler Luftverkehr together with their partner Bayerischer Luft Lloyd joint the Junkers group in
the end of 1922. Both airlines provided the link from Munich to Berlin, where
the Lloyd Ostflug network to the Baltic destinations was provided. But
parallel to the basic link of the Bavarian capital to the Junkers network,
Sachsenberg and Junkers also started to develop another route network in
Southern Germany. It started in March 1922 with the partnership between
Junkers and the Swiss based Ad Astra Aero, which provided services from Geneve
via Zurich to Nuremberg and Munich for Junkers Luftverkehr. In December 1922 Ungarischer
Aeroexpress was
founded by Junkers in Hungary. This airline was intended to provide services
from Budapest and Vienna to Munich. However, due to political problems with
the Austrian government Junkers had to support the foundation of OELAG in Austria in May 1923 and
to accept that airline within his network on the route from Munich to Vienna,
while Ungarischer Aeroexpress provided the route from Vienna to Budapest
since July 1923. Already
in May 1923 the Southern Junkers network from Budapest via Vienna and Munich
to Zurich was named under the name TRANSEUROPA UNION. On 30th October 1923 TRANSEUROPA UNION was
officially established during a member meeting of the Junkers Southern
network. In
1924 Ungarischer Aeroexpress ceased its operation and left the TRANSEUROPA
UNION, when OELAG took over the route from Vienna to Budapest. However,
TRANSEUROPA UNION took over the dominant part of the Junkers airline
consortium in 1924, when several new airlines in Germany were founded with
the support of Hugo Junkers. |
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1924/25 |
Developing the German Route Network While
the initial activities of Junkers Luftverkehr were focused on the development
of a European Network, this focus was changed to a German Network since the beginning
of 1924. Larger cities and major industrial regions became interested in
connecting to the international network of Junkers Luftverkehr and/or
Deutscher Aero Lloyd. Both airlines on the other hand were interested to
feeder their main routes with passengers from smaller nearby areas and both
airlines began to compete for these passengers. This became the starting
point for the foundation of several dozens of small airline companies in
Germany, which joined the Junkers Luftverkehr or the DAL group. Rumpler
Luftverkehr and Bayerischer Luft Lloyd were already member of the Junkers
Luftverkehr since 1923. On 12th March 1924 Saechsische
Luftverkehrs A.G. in Dresden was founded as the first out of a number of airlines with
Junkers Luftverkehr and regional organisations as their shareholder. Most
of these foundations were symtomatic. Hugo Junkers provided several aircraft
to the newly founded company in exchange for his shares. The regional
organisations were responsible for providing adequate airport facilities. The
airline itself was responsible for the marketing in their region, as well as
for the flight operations, which mostly was provided with their own aircraft,
but also often was provided by other partners of the Junkers Luftverkehr
network. Saechsische
Luftverkehrs A.G. initially linked the city of Dresden to the Transeuropa
Network. In 1925 it extended its routes also to the Ruhrgebiet. In July 1924 Suedwestdeutsche
Luftverkehrs A.G. followed with connections
from Frankfurt to Berlin and Munich. The Slesian area of Breslau/Wroclaw was
integrated into the Junkers network with the foundation of the Schlesische
Luftverkehrs A.G. in January 1925 and connected Dresden and Berlin with the Slesian
capital of Breslau. This foundation was followed by the Upper Slesian
foundation Oberschlesische
Luftverkehrs A.G. in February 1925, which was intended for the integration of the City
of Gleiwitz. An important foundation was the Luftverkehr Ruhrgebiet A.G.
(LURAG) in
January 1925, which provided links from the Ruhrgebiet to Hamburg,
Switzerland, Netherlands, Berlin and Dresden. Further partners became Badische Luftverkehrs GmbH in Karlsruhe, Bayerische Luftverkehrs A.G. in Munich and Westflug GmbH in Oeyenhausen. All German airlines, which
joint the Junkers consortium in 1924/1925 became member of the TRANSEUROPA
UNION. The foundation of the inner German network was more or less completed
in May 1925. |
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13th August 1924 |
Foundation of Junkers Luftverkehrs A.G. The
initial intention of Hugo Junkers was the selling of his aircraft to
potential airlines. The lack of such potential customers required the support
of the foundation of airlines. Most of the initial partner airlines were
operating their own network with own aircraft. Junkers concentrated on the
manufacturing and repair of the aircraft. With
the foundation of OST- and TRANSEUROPA UNION more and more routes were
operated between the partner airlines on a shared base. Some airlines reduced
or stopped their own operation and became more focused on the selling of
tickets. The
new partnerships in Germany brought a completely new relation. Instead of private
investors, which were interested in an own profitable airline operation, more
and more public investors like cities or regional countries became partners
of Hugo Junkers. These new types of partners were not really interested in
airline operations, but in connecting their local area to an air traffic
network. Several of the German airline foundations never started an own
operation as airline, but used other airline partners from the Junkers UNIONs
to connect their city of airport to the Junkers network. These airlines
mostly were local selling organisations as well as operator organisations for
the local air fields. Therefore
the Department of Air Traffic at the Junkers Flugzeugwerke had to establish
an own airline operation in 1924 to fill the gaps of the non operational
airlines. Not only from legal aspects of an airline operation, but also from
the aspect of reducing the commercial risc of unprofitable airline operations
from the Junkers Flugzeugwerke, it made sense to separate the Department of
Air Traffic from the Junkers Flugzeugwerke. This was done on 13th
August 1924 with the foundation of the Junkers Luftverkehrs A.G., which was totally owned by Junkers
Flugzeugwerke. The Department of Air Traffic was completely transferred into
the new airline and Gotthard Sachsenberg became
the chairman of board of directors. Junkers
Luftverkehrs A.G. promptly joined the Transeuropa Union and therefore had the
same status like the other partner airlines of the Unions. |
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August 1924 |
Night Operation Tests Initial
Night Test Flights were already started by Junkers on 12th March
1924 with Junkers A20 at Tempelhof. These experimental tests began with
navigational flights and night landings. When Junkers Luftverkehrs A.G. was founded
in August 1924 first route tests were performed from Berlin to Warnemuende
and from there to Karlskrona and Stockholm. During August and September 1924
a total of 95tkm freight and mostly 234 tkm newspapers were carried from
Berlin to Sweden. Further test flights were performed in October 1925 from
Berlin to Warnemuende, also carrying newspapers, which were handed over to
the night ferries at Warnemuende. The
tests of 1924 were satisfying and on 15th May 1925 scheduled night
operations were started on the former test route via Karlskrona to Stockholm.
Night Operations were completely cargo flights with no passengers on board.
The main cargo again were newspapers, which were transported from Berlin to
the Swedish capitol. In August 1925 the night flights were switched from
Stockholm to Malmo and during October/November 1925 the flights were
terminated at Copenhagen. A total of 722 tkm newspapers were carried during
the 1925 night flight operations. Also initial 26 passengers were allowed on
board the night flights in 1925. Further
extensions of the night flight operations were intended for 1926, but as
Junkers Luftverkehr was absorbed into Luft Hansa in 1926, the further
development of the night flight operation was done by Luft Hansa. |
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1925 |
Extending the European Network While
one important step in 1925 was the development of the German network, another
important step was the extension of the European routing to the South.
Junkers Luftverkehr started discussions with several airlines and investors
in Italy, Spain and Greece. The TOMTASCH
activites in Turkey were used for discussions about the foundation of a
Turkish based airline in Eshkedir and even the idea of an air traffic between
Persia and Europe, which was cancelled in 1923 following the difficulties
between Junkers Luftverkehr Russland and the
Russian Government, was refreshed, when discussions between Junkers and the
Persian Government came up in 1925. In
Italy discussions were held with Transadriatica
for routes from Rome to Venice, Vienna and Albania. Possible links to Spain
and Portugal were discussed with Union
Aerea Esponiol - U.A.E. in Spain and Serviços Aéreos Portugueses Limitada – SAP in Portugal. The TOMTASCH venture in
Turkey was used for route investigations from Albania to Istanbul and even
discussions with the Greek Government for the setup of a Greek air traffic were
on its way. |
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7th May 1925 |
Foundation of EUROPA UNION KG While
extending the Transeuropa Network to South it became obvious, that the two
independent networks in the North and in Central Europe must been integrated
into one common network. On 7th May 1925 all members of the two
unions were invited for a discussion of that theme to Dresden. As a result EUROPA UNION KG was founded at the end of
the meeting. It was intended to integrate NORDEUROPA and TRANSEUROPA UNION at
the end of 1925 into the new organisation. In
addition to the current members of the two previous organisations EUROPA
UNION continued the discussions with potential new members in Southern
Europe. It was intended to provide a throughgoing network from Scandinavia to
Southern Europe under the marketing name EUROPA UNION with the beginning of
the winter season 1925. |
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October 1926
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Merger with
Deutscher Aero Lloyd into Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. Since
the beginning of the German Air Transport the German Reich was paying
subsidies to the operating airlines in Germany to cover losses from operating
costs against incomes. The subsidy was payed per flown kilometer in the
German network. The yearly amount of paid subsidies raised between 1919 and
1923 due to the extending German network and due to the inflation in 1923.
Between 1924 and 1926 the route network did not grew any longer, nevertheless
the subsidies paid to the airlines exploded:
·
Parallel operations on same routes from same airports ·
Setup of two major airports within a few kilometers for each
competitor ·
Setup of two regional airlines at same or nearby airport for each
consortium ·
Massive Price Dumping on routes with competition The
development of a self-financed air traffic in Germany was far away in that
situation. It became more and more obvious, that the cost problem of the
airline industry was only partially caused by the introduction of an
innovative technology. More and more the cost problem was caused by the
competition of the two consortiums with its 37 airlines, which were operating
and getting subsidies in 1925. When
Ernst Brandenburg became head of the Air
Traffic Departement at the Reichsverkehrsministry in Summer 1925, he was
strongly focused on the economy of the German air traffic. He was interested
in stopping the competition of the two airline blocks. Gladly for him,
Junkers Flugzeugwerke A.G. was unable to repay its loans on 3rd
October 1925. The German Government supported JFA with 650.000 Reichsmark and
prevented the factory from bankruptcy. But the Reich also forced Hugo Junkers
to transfer 80% of the Junkers Luftverkehrs A.G., which was worth about 1.6
Mill. Reichsmark at that time, to the Reich. Now, when the Reich controlled
Junkers Luftverkehrs A.G. Brandenburg announced, that the Reich would only
support a single airline with the beginning of the Summer Period 1926. In
this situation, DAL quickly realized, that the state-owned Junkers
Luftverkehr would receive future subsidies and that DAL would be forced to
provide a self-financed air traffic, which was not possible in 1926.
Therefore DAL management joint the discussion about the foundation of a new
German airline, into which both large consortiums should be integrated. In
December 1925 the ownerships of the new airline were evaluated. The assets of
the two cosortiums were fixed on 31st December 1925 as following:
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Based on that asset calculation the
new airline was founded. On 6th
January 1926
all financial share holders of the two airline consortiums met at Berlin’s
Hotel Kaiserhof. During that meeting it was finally decided to integrate both
consortium in a new airline named Deutsche
Luft Hansa A.G.
According to the Asset check the share holder situation of the merged airline
looked as follows:
Shares of international airlines
were kept by Junkers Flugzeugwerke with the exception of OELAG. However, with
the loss of the German network, Junkers was unable to integrate the different
foreign airline routes. Even he was unable to provide any financial support
as the financial situation of Junkers Flugzeugwerke still was critical after
1925. Luft Hansa took over the network partnership with the former Junkers
partners and throughout the following years, Junkers sold his international
shares step by step. In 1932 no airline share stocks were holded by Junkers
Flugzeugwerke. And even the remaining 5,2% of Luft
Hansa A.G. which were held by Junkers Flugzeugwerke in 1926 were in the focus
of the German Government. Continous discussions led to a final agreement
between Junkers and the German Government on 20th December 1926, when Hugo Junkers transferred his
share package to the German Reich, bringing the state owned package of Luft
Hansa shares to 26%. Junkers Luftverkehrs A.G. itself was
dissolved in 1927. Most foreign airline
shares were already holded by the Air Traffic Department of Junkers
Flugzeugwerke A.G. and not by the Junkers
Luftverkehrs A.G. |
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