Last Thursday evening in Cologne, numerous guests from the worlds of politics, the aviation industry, local society, and sports gathered for a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first Lufthansa. The Mayor of Cologne had hosted a reception at the Historic City Hall.

Cologne Mayor Torsten Burmester: “Cologne is proud to have played a major role in Lufthansa’s corporate history since World War II. Cologne is growing as an aviation hub, because in addition to being home to the headquarters of EASA and the DLR, as well as the prospect of a European space hub, Cologne/Bonn Airport is the cargo hub of Western Europe. I hope that the relationship between Cologne and Lufthansa will intensify again even beyond this anniversary year. I therefore congratulate all Lufthansa employees from the bottom of my heart on the company’s 100th anniversary.”

Carsten Spohr, CEO of the Lufthansa Group: “In Cologne, Lufthansa’s tradition, new beginning, and future come together in a special way. Air travel has been a growth industry for a hundred years and will remain so in the future. We want to preserve and further develop aviation in a sustainable way for generations to come. Lufthansa and the entire industry have grown through crises over the decades—and have emerged from each one stronger.”

Together with Carsten Spohr, a Lufthansa flight attendant, and a Eurowings flight attendant, Dr. Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and a self-proclaimed resident of Cologne by choice, also signed the City of Cologne’s guest book during the ceremony. Kley is deeply committed to his hometown on the Rhine and serves, among other roles, as Chairman of the Board of the “Freunde des Wallraf-Richartz-Museum und des Museum Ludwig” association.

The relationship between Cologne and Lufthansa is long and multifaceted: as early as April 6, 1926, when the first Luft Hansa began flight operations, a plane flew from Berlin to Cologne. The Dornier Komet III D-580 flew from Tempelhof via Magdeburg to Butzweilerhof Airport. On board: a single passenger. In 1953, the Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf was founded in Cologne, which was renamed Deutsche Lufthansa AG a year later. Since then, Cologne has been Lufthansa’s headquarters. Seven aircraft have borne or currently bear the name “Cologne”—currently a Boeing 747-8 with the registration D-ABYU.