A Century of Lufthansa: Worth Celebrating?

Lufthansa, Germany’s dominant airline, will celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 2026. As Germany continues remilitarizing much of its world-class manufacturing and business sectors, it is worth considering the history of its national carrier.

• Lufthansa gave Adolf Hitler free air travel during the 1932 election campaign. Hitler was the first politician to campaign via air, and this helped present the National Socialist Party as a modern and sophisticated movement.
• The Nazi party saved Lufthansa from collapse by using it to covertly and illegally repair the German air force.
• Lufthansa used forced labor, including 10,000 slaves who were imported from conquered territories. Some of these slaves were children.
• The airline trained many cadet pilots for the German air force.

In addition, many of the airline’s leaders from the World War ii period returned to leadership positions after 1953. As Deutsche Welle reported Monday:

• Kurt Weigelt, whose war crimes resulted in a two-year prison sentence, became Lufthansa’s supervisory board chairman in 1953. After he retired, Weigelt became the airline’s only honorary board member.

Lufthansa said it will use “its 100th anniversary as an opportunity to critically reexamine its responsibility during the Nazi era.” However, according to journalist David de Jong, any unfavorable findings are unlikely to be made public.

Lufthansa is just one example of how many Nazi sympathizers associated with major corporations escaped accountability and went into hiding or even reassumed positions of power.

Bible prophecy shows why we should not ignore this ominous history. It foretold the German war machine’s escape to the underground—and its soon-coming reemergence. German businesses played a major role in help Nazis escape and returning Germany to power. To learn more, read “Rising From the German Underground.”