The first Deutsche Luft Hansa was created in Berlin in 1926. Between the world wars it was Europe's most technically ambitious airline. It was dissolved in 1945 when the Second World War ended, and German aviation had to start again. The company we know today began in Cologne in 1953 under the name Luftag. It bought the Lufthansa name and crane logo in 1954, then resumed flying in 1955.
Those first flights stayed inside Germany, then reached across the Atlantic. The state owned the airline for decades and sold its last shares by 1997. In that same year Lufthansa helped create Star Alliance with United, Air Canada, SAS, and Thai. An alliance is a partnership where airlines link timetables, share benefits, and sell seats on each other's flights. From the 2000s, Lufthansa built Europe's largest airline group.
It bought Swiss International Air Lines in 2005, then added Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. It grew Eurowings as its low-cost arm, selling cheap no-frills fares, and took a stake in Italy's ITA Airways in 2025. German state aid carried the group through the pandemic, and it repaid the money ahead of schedule. Lufthansa works from two hubs, Frankfurt and Munich, meaning airports where it connects many flights.