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Lufthansa Marks 100 Years With Berlin Tribute Flights and New Frankfurt Visitor Center

The centenary spotlights a frank reckoning with the airline's Nazi-era ties.

Overview

  • Lufthansa staged twin tribute flights from Berlin on Monday, retracing 1926 routes to Zurich and Cologne without stops using a Boeing 787-9 and an Airbus A350-900, with one jet christened “Berlin.”
  • The public campaign includes giant “100 Years Lufthansa” logos cut into leased fields near major airports, including a 48-hectare rapeseed field south of Berlin’s BER that is visible from March 1 to September 30.
  • Six aircraft now carry 100-year liveries featuring an oversized crane logo across types from the A320neo to the 747-8, with a seventh jet, an A350-1000, planned for later in the year.
  • Lufthansa will open “Hangar One,” a new visitor and congress center in Frankfurt that showcases early aircraft, and will host an anniversary ceremony with Chancellor Friedrich Merz on April 15.
  • The company pairs the celebration with sober context, acknowledging the Nazi-era record of its 1926 predecessor, and it faces current pressures including lower profit, a plan to cut about 4,000 jobs, contingency steps tied to the Iran war, and strike threats from pilot and cabin-crew unions.