Editing Lufthansa (section)

=== 1950s: Post-war (re-)formation ===
{{Rail freight
|title=Revenue Passenger-Kilometers, scheduled flights only, in millions
|float=left
|1955|78
|1960|1,284
|1965|3,785
|1969|6,922
|1971|8,610
|1975|13,634
|1980|21,056
|1989|36,133
|1995|61,602
|2000|94,170
|source=ICAO ''Digest of Statistics'' for 1955, IATA World Air Transport Statistics 1960–2000
}}
[[File:Convair 340-61 D-ACAD Lufthansa LAP 03.09.55 edited-2.jpg|thumb|Lufthansa's first aircraft, a [[Convair 240|Convair 340]] ''(type pictured)'', was delivered in August 1954.]]
Lufthansa traces its history to 1926 when [[Deutsche Luft Hansa]] was formed in [[Berlin]] by the merger of [[Deutsche Luft-Reederei|Deutscher Aero Lloyd]], [[List of airlines by foundation date|the world's sixth-oldest airline]], and [[Junkers Luftverkehr]].<ref name="lh_chronicle_1">{{Cite web |url=http://konzern.lufthansa.com/en/html/ueber_uns/geschichte/chronik/index.html |title=Lufthansa – Chronicle |access-date=10 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010130610/http://konzern.lufthansa.com/en/html/ueber_uns/geschichte/chronik/index.html |archive-date=10 October 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Deutsche Luft Hansa was Germany's [[flag carrier]] until the outbreak of war when it came under the command of the [[Luftwaffe]]. During the war, the airline was focused mainly on aircraft maintenance and repair in which forced labor was employed on the site of [[Berlin Tempelhof Airport]]. Following the surrender of Germany and the ensuing [[Allied occupation of Germany]], all aircraft in the country were seized and Deutsche Luft Hansa was dissolved. The remaining assets were liquidated on 1 January 1951.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Starzmann |first=Maria Theresia |date=September 2015 |title=The Materiality of Forced Labor: An Archaeological Exploration of Punishment in Nazi Germany |journal=International Journal of Historical Archaeology |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=647–663 |doi=10.1007/s10761-015-0302-9 |jstor=24572806 |s2cid=154427883}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Endlich |first1=St. |last2=Geyler-von Bernus |first2=M. |last3=Rossié |first3=B. |title=Forced labourers – Flughafen Tempelhof |url=https://www.thf-berlin.de/en/history-of-location/national-socialism/forced-labourers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224204414/https://www.thf-berlin.de/en/location-information/history-of-location/national-socialism/forced-labourers/ |archive-date=24 February 2021 |access-date=9 November 2023 |website=Flughafen Tempelhof}}</ref>

In an effort to create a new national airline, a company called '''Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf''' ('''Luftag''')<ref name=fi54>{{cite journal|title=We Call on Luftag|journal=[[Flight International]]|issue=5 February 1954|page=165|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%200341.html|access-date=19 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516094507/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%200341.html|archive-date=16 May 2013}}</ref> was founded in the city of [[Cologne]] in [[West Germany]] on 6 January 1953, with many of its staff having worked for the pre-war Deutsche Luft Hansa.<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Hofmann |first=Sarah Judith |title=Why Lufthansa reduces its Nazi past to a sidenote |url=https://www.dw.com/en/why-lufthansa-reduces-its-nazi-past-to-a-sidenote/a-19115716 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526145707/https://www.dw.com/en/why-lufthansa-reduces-its-nazi-past-to-a-sidenote/a-19115716 |archive-date=26 May 2021 |access-date=25 December 2020 |publisher=[[Deutsche Welle]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Rieger |first=Tobias |date=13 April 2020 |title=Kurt Knipfer |url=https://ns-reichsministerien.de/2020/04/13/kurt-knipfer/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114034257/https://ns-reichsministerien.de/2020/04/13/kurt-knipfer/ |archive-date=14 January 2022 |website=Beamte nationalsozialistischer Reichsministerien |language=de-DE}}</ref>

[[File:Lockheed L-1049G D-ALAP LH RWY 06.05.56 edited-4.jpg|thumb|Lufthansa Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation operating a transatlantic scheduled service from Hamburg to Montreal and Chicago in May 1956]]
West Germany had not yet been granted full 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-340]] and four [[Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation]]s aircraft and set up a maintenance base at [[Hamburg Airport]].<ref name="fi54" /><ref name=lex>{{cite book|last=Klussmann|first=Niels|title=Lexikon der Luftfahrt|year=2007|publisher=Springer|location=Heidelberg|pages=396–397|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPlnjmHolcsC&pg=PA396|isbn=9783540490968|access-date=21 September 2016|archive-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129001758/https://books.google.com/books?id=kPlnjmHolcsC&pg=PA396|url-status=live}}</ref> On 6 August 1954, Luftag acquired the name and logo of the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa for {{DM|30000|link=yes}} (equivalent to €{{formatnum: {{#expr:({{Inflation|DE|30,000|1954|r=2}} / 1.95583) round -3}}}} today),<ref name="lex" /> thus continuing the tradition of a German flag carrier with that name.

On 1 April 1955, Lufthansa won approval to commence operation of scheduled domestic flights.<ref name="lex" /> The airline's initial network linked [[Hamburg]], [[Düsseldorf]], [[Frankfurt]], Cologne, and [[Munich]].<ref name="fg15041955">{{cite news |date=15 April 1955 |title=A German Airline Again |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1955/1955%20-%200472.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017210307/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1955/1955%20-%200472.html |archive-date=17 October 2014 |work=[[Flight International]] |pages=472–473}}</ref> International flights started on 15 May 1955, to [[London]], [[Paris]], and [[Madrid]],<ref name="fg15041955" /><ref name="sp55">{{cite news |date=25 May 1955 |title=Die Tabellen-Piloten |url=http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=31970381&aref=image035/E0435/SP19552232-T2P-31970381.pdf&thumb=false |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026051119/http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=31970381&aref=image035%2FE0435%2FSP19552232-T2P-31970381.pdf&thumb=false |archive-date=26 October 2011 |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |pages=32–40 |language=de |issue=22/1955}}</ref> followed by Super Constellation flights to [[New York City]] from 1 June of that year,<ref name="fg15041955" /> and across the South Atlantic from August 1956.

However, the political realities of the time presented challenges to the airline. The United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France did not allow Lufthansa to fly to any part of the divided [[Berlin]] during the [[History of Germany (1945–90)|division of Germany]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=4 September 1990 |title=Lufthansa to Begin Flights to Berlin |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-04-fi-589-story.html |access-date=5 April 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=5 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405182332/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-04-fi-589-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=TOLL |first=ERICH E. |date=2 May 1988 |title=BERLIN: LUCRATIVE FOR PAN AM BUT VERBOTEN FOR LUFTHANSA {{!}} Journal of Commerce |url=https://joc.com/article/berlin-lucrative-pan-am-verboten-lufthansa_19880502.html |access-date=5 April 2024 |website=joc.com |language=en |archive-date=5 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405182328/https://www.joc.com/article/berlin-lucrative-pan-am-verboten-lufthansa_19880502.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The airline had hoped this would only be a temporary matter and planned to move its headquarters and primary [[Airline hub|hub]] back to the German capital once the political situation changed, plans that ultimately never came to fruition,<ref name="fi54" /> even after the lifting of these restrictions owing to [[German reunification]] in 1990 and the opening of the new [[Berlin-Brandenburg Airport]] in 2020.<ref>[https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/lufthansa-continues-to-decline-the-opportunity-for-a-third-german-hub-at-berlin-626389 Lufthansa continues to decline the opportunity for a third German hub at Berlin]</ref> Instead, Lufthansa turned Frankfurt Airport into its primary hub in 1958.

The airline also embarked on a marketing campaign to encourage travelers to consider visiting West Germany as it rebuilt in the wake of World War II and to use its hub to connect to other locations across Europe. By 1963, the airline, initially limited in its public relations efforts, had become a major purveyor of West Germany's image abroad.<ref>{{cite book |last=de Syon |first=Guillaume |title=Selling Modernity: Advertising in Twentieth-Century Germany |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8223-4047-8 |editor1-last=Swett |editor1-first=Pamela E. |location=Durham, NC |pages=182–201 |chapter=Lufthansa Welcomes You: Air Transport and Tourism in the Adenauer Era |doi=10.1215/9780822390350-008 |jstor=j.ctv11cw9bp.13 |access-date=15 February 2022 |editor2-last=Wiesen |editor2-first=Jonathan |editor-link2=Jonathan Wiesen |editor3-last=Zatlin |editor3-first=Jonathan R. |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/15858180 |chapter-format=PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216042919/https://www.academia.edu/15858180 |archive-date=16 February 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

During this time, [[East Germany]] attempted to establish its own "[[Deutsche Lufthansa (East Germany)|Lufthansa]]" airline in 1955, but legal challenges from the West German carrier led to its abandonment.  East Germany subsequently launched [[Interflug]] as its national carrier in 1963.<ref>{{cite news |last=Petrykowski |first=Michał |year=2009 |title=Samoloty Ił-18 Lufthansy |trans-title=Lufthansa's Il-18 Planes |work=Lotnictwo |page=20 |language=pl |volume=12/2009 |issn=1732-5323 |oclc=749496804}}</ref>