Germany

Europe

35Airlines

7Profiled Airports

29With ICAO

25With Callsign

Aviation History

German aviation history begins with early airship pioneers, notably Ferdinand von Zeppelin, and continued with some of the world's first scheduled airline services after World War I. Deutsche Luft Hansa, formed in 1926 from a merger of two carriers, became a major European airline before German civil aviation was banned entirely following World War II. Lufthansa was re-established in the mid-1950s as West Germany regained aviation sovereignty, and Germany later became a founding partner in the Airbus consortium, anchoring its aerospace manufacturing base. Post-reunification, Germany's aviation sector consolidated further, and Lufthansa became a founding member of the Star Alliance, the first major global airline alliance.

✦Zeppelin airships, including the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, pioneered early transatlantic passenger travel in the 1920s-30s before the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 ended the airship era.

✦Junkers, a German manufacturer, pioneered all-metal aircraft construction in the early 20th century.

✦Frankfurt Airport is one of the busiest airports in Europe and a major Lufthansa hub.

1900

Zeppelin's first rigid airship flies

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's LZ1 rigid airship made its first flight over Lake Constance, launching Germany's early leadership in lighter-than-air aviation.

1919

Deutsche Luft-Reederei launches scheduled service

Deutsche Luft-Reederei began scheduled air services shortly after World War I, among the earliest such operations in the world.

1926

Deutsche Luft Hansa is founded

Deutsche Luft Hansa was formed through the merger of Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr, becoming Germany's national airline.

1945

German civil aviation banned after WWII

Following Germany's defeat in World War II, Allied occupation authorities banned German civil aviation activity entirely for several years.

1955

Lufthansa re-established as West German carrier

Lufthansa was refounded and resumed flight operations as West Germany regained control over its airspace and civil aviation.

1970

Germany co-founds the Airbus consortium

German aerospace firms became founding partners in the Airbus Industrie consortium alongside France, anchoring Germany's role in European aircraft manufacturing.

1997

Lufthansa co-founds Star Alliance

Lufthansa was a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's first major global airline alliance, alongside United Airlines and other carriers.

2020

COVID-19 pandemic forces state bailout of Lufthansa

The COVID-19 pandemic's collapse in air travel led the German government to take a stake in Lufthansa as part of a large financial rescue package.

Notable Carriers

Lufthansa · Eurowings · Condor · Interflug (historic, East Germany)

General aviation history sources; details of Lufthansa's government stake and ownership structure since the 2020 bailout may have changed since research date.

Aviation Firsts

Oldest Airport — contested

Hamburg Airport — Hamburg (1911): Opened 10 January 1911; still operating today. Markets itself as 'the oldest international airport in the world still in operation,' though its own materials rank it as Germany's second-oldest airport after Tempelhof. · HAM ↗ · WorldAtlas (citing Hamburg Airport) ↗

Johannisthal Air Field — Berlin (1909): Opened 26 September 1909; called Germany's first commercial airfield (second in the world after Reims). Closed 1952, now redeveloped. · Wikipedia ↗

Berlin Tempelhof Airport (1923): Site used for aviation from ~1909; officially designated an airport 8 October 1923. Occasionally cited as the world's oldest operating commercial airport while it operated. Closed 2008. · Wikipedia ↗

Depends entirely on definition: oldest airfield ever used (Johannisthal, 1909, closed 1952) vs. oldest still-operating commercial airport (Hamburg, 1911).

Oldest Airline — contested

DELAG (Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft) (1909): World's first airline, founded 1909 — but operated airships, not airplanes. Merged 1935, dissolved 1940. · Wikipedia ↗

Deutsche Luft-Reederei (1917): Founded December 1917, began operations 5 February 1919 (Berlin–Weimar mail flight); first German airline to use heavier-than-air aircraft. Absorbed into Deutscher Aero Lloyd (1923), then the 1926 merger (with Junkers Luftverkehr) that created Deutsche Luft Hansa — Lufthansa's name/logo ancestor, though no documented unbroken corporate-successor chain. · Wikipedia ↗

Depends on whether airships count: DELAG (1909) was the world's first airline but flew airships; the first German heavier-than-air airline was Deutsche Luft-Reederei (1917).

First Foreign Ground Handler

Swissport (Switzerland), 1997: Swissport's corporate history states that in January 1997 it took a 40% holding in Munich Airport's "Airport Services München GmbH", its documented entry into the German ground-handling market — well before Swissport's much more recent (2024-2025) expansion into Frankfurt. No source explicitly labels this the first foreign ground handler in Germany, so it is marked tentative. (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · Company Histories / Reference for Business ↗