Gallery

BEGINNING OF DANZIG AVIATION AND LUFTPOST

It is recommended that you refer to the very interesting article by Curt Michaelis and translated by Giles du Boulay in Report No. 64. This is part of the complete translation of Michaelis' Luftpost von and nach Danzig by Giles. After hearing so much about the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty on the German nation in the early '20s, we were surprised to read about all of the advances in civil aviation that were made to cities all over Europe, and to North and South America. The Zepps, DO-X and catapult flights come to mind for the trans-Atlantic flights, but the Danzig area was wellserved by the Langfuhr airport, connecting to such destinations as Memel, Koenigsberg, Berlin, and other connections as early as 1921:

Aero-Union was the result of the merger of Danziger Luft-Reederei (a member of the IATA — International Air Traffic Association and a component of the Aero-Union group with Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst to become Danziger Aero LLoyd, under the umbrella of Deutscher Aero Lloyd, after 6 February, 1923.

German commercial aviation expanded exponentially. Danziger Luftpost, representing the Junkers competition, started a route on 26 July 1921 from Danzig to Riga via Kovno, Lithuania and extended to Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, a month later.

 

Danzig Report   Nr. 99 - April - May - June - 1998, Page 19.