Lloyd Ostflug GmbH

Lloyd Luftdienst Timetable of June 1921

Founded:
07.11.1920 Foundation
27.12.1920 Start of Operations
March 1921 Start of passenger services

Shareholders:
Ostdeutsche Landwerkstätten GmbH (OIa)
Junkers Flugzeugwerke A.G.
Albatros Flugzeugwerke A.G.
Norddeutscher Lloyd, later Lloyd Luftdienst
Internationale Luftschifffahrtsgesellschaft

Management Positions:
1920 - 1922 Gotthard Sachsenberg, managing director
1922 - 1922 Gottfried Kaumann, Lloyd-Junkers Luftverkehr

Network:
Berlin, Schneidmuhl (till May 1921), Danzig, Koenigsberg since Dec. 1920
Stettin since May 1921, Hamburg since May 1922
Memel, Riga, Reval, Kowno operated by Danziger Luftpost since May 1922

Company Development:

The foundation of Lloyd Ostflug GmbH was mainly pushed by Gotthard Sachsenberg, who was commanding officer of the Navy Fighter Squadron in Flandre during WW I. After the end of WW I Sachsenberg moved his squadron to Konigsberg in Eastern Prussia and founded the "Ostdeutsche Landwerkstätten GmbH (OIa)", which was mainly responsible for the retired soldiers of his former squadron. In 1920 Sachsenberg tried to achieve an approval for an airtransport company with the name "Luftreederei der OIa". An approval was not issued by the Reichsluftamt, as Sachsenberg was unable to present any aircraft for an airtransport operation.

Therefore Sachsenberg contacted Hugo Junkers and ask him to join this venture and supply Sachsenberg with aircraft for his airline. Junkers, who was seeking for new customers for his F13, was willing to join the project. In addition to Junkers also another German aircraft manufacturer, the Albatros-Flugzeugwerke GmbH joint the new company, as well as the Bremen shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd. Finally the company was founded as Lloyd Ostflug GmbH on November, 7th 1920 by the four shareholders. Each of the shareholders entered one million Reichsmark into the company. The Internationale Luftschiffahrts-Gesellschaft later also joint this company as shareholder.

Air Mail operations were started on December, 27th 1920 between Berlin-Johannisthal, Schneidmuhl, Danzig and Konigsberg with a modified military Rumpler Ru C I aircraft. In March 1921 passenger services were also started on this route. In May 1921 Stettin was added to the route instead of Schneidmuhl. The route was operated in cooperation with Danziger Luftpost GmbH, which was established by Erhard Milch in February 1921 at Danzig. Milch was also a former WW I officer and was already in contact with Sachsenberg before the foundation of Lloyd Ostflug. The operations saw two daily flights, one from Berlin to Konigsberg and the other from Konigsberg to Berlin. The new air route reduced the travelling time of 14 hours by train to four hours. The one-way ticket costed about 975 Reichsmark and 240 Reichsmark for the Danzig-Konigsberg trip. Since May 1922 Danziger Luftpost expanded the Berlin-Konigsberg route to Memel, Riga and Reval. Another connection was added from Stettin to Hamburg. These routes were operated on behalve of Lloyd Ostflug.

The growing competition in German airtraffic led to differences between the shareholders of Lloyd Ostflug as soon as 1921. Norddeutscher Lloyd had already established an own airtransport agency as Lloyd-Luftdienst, who took over responsibility as the shareholder at Lloyd Ostflug. In March 1922 Lloyd-Luftdienst founded an own Danzig based airline, the Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst. For a short while the activities of Lloyd Ostflug and Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst were integrated in the socalled Lloyd-Junkers Luftverkehr, also called the Engagement Ring. But finally Norddeutscher Lloyd and Albatros left the company. They merged their Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst with the Danziger Luftreederei of DLR into the Danziger Aero Lloyd in April 1923, which took over the previous Lloyd Ostflug routes on behalve of Lloyd Luftdienst.

On December, 2nd 1921 Hugo Junkers already formed a Department of Airtransport at the Junkers Flugzeugwerke. This new department was responsible for the further development of Junkers airtransport activities. The Lloyd Ostflug GmbH was finally dissolved on May, 31st 1922. Parts of the Lloyd Ostflug routes were taken over by Danziger Luftpost, which meanwhile was also a member of the Junkers Luftverkehr.

introduced Aug 1996, transfered Dec 2017
http://hugojunkers.bplaced.net/
contents last updated 12 Dec 2004