On 27 April 1955, East Germany and the
Soviet Union signed an agreement by which
Berlin Schönefeld Airport was transferred to civilian use (since 1945, it had been operated by the
Soviet Army, with scheduled passenger flights having been operated by
Aeroflot). As a consequence, the
Council of Ministers of the GDR decided to set up a national East German airline, a move which was finalized on 1 July with the appointment of the company's initial management committee.
Deutsche Lufthansa was chosen as the name for the airline (previously, it had been used by
Deutsche Luft Hansa, the German flag carrier from 1926 to 1945), even though the branding rights had been purchased by West German
Lufthansa in 1954. Deutsche Lufthansa acquired a fleet of
Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft, which were initially operated by Soviet crews. The first flight of the airline took place on 16 September 1955, by which East German prime minister
Otto Grotewohl travelled to
Moscow for a state visit. Scheduled passenger flights were launched on 4 February 1956 with the inauguration of the East Berlin-
Warsaw service. In the same year, the route network was expanded to include Moscow and
Sofia as its most remote points. On 28 March 1960, the
Ilyushin Il-18 (a
turboprop airliner) was put into service with Deutsche Lufthansa. Because of the usage of the
Lufthansa branding, the company was sued by West German Lufthansa. As a side effect, the East German airline was prevented from being admitted into the
International Air Transport Association (it could not become a member of the
International Civil Aviation Organization either, because at that time neither East nor West Germany had been accepted into the
United Nations). As a consequence, Deutsche Lufthansa was liquidated on 1 September 1963. Its staff, fleet, and route network were transferred to
Interflug, which had been founded as a state-owned charter airline in 1958 and served as the East German flag carrier thenceforth. ==Route network==