AG for Dornier aircraft

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AG for Dornier aircraft
legal form Corporation
founding 1925
resolution 1933
Seat
management Claude Dornier
Branch Aviation industry

The AG für Dornierflugzeuge (Do-Flug AG) was a company from 1925 to 1933 in which the German Reich ( Weimar Republic ) held 51%, Claude Dornier 24.5% and Dornier Metallbauten GmbH (DMB) 24.5%. The Do-flight AG had the purpose of constructing an aircraft factory and airfield in Altenrhein , as well as financing the development and construction of the Dornier Do X . She was the owner of the aircraft, operated it and also carried out the long-distance flights of the Do X; Later they built two more Do Xs for export to Italy . Because the construction of the facilities in Altenrhein and the aircraft itself became more expensive, in 1928 the German Reich got the majority of shares with 76%. The DMB were not directly integrated into this company, but subcontracted the development and provided the majority of the personnel for the assembly of the Do X. The operational management of Do-Flug AG was with Claude Dornier himself, strategic decisions had to be coordinated in the ministries . Dornier transferred the management in Altenrhein to Paul Berner, who had previously managed the factory in Marina di Pisa; Alfons Keppler was in charge of the commercial management.

The financing of such projects through corporations was probably common in the Weimar Republic, because in 1932 a successor company was founded with the Deutsche Flugschiff Gesellschaft mbH to finance the Do X's return flight from New York to Germany when the Do-Flug AG's capital resources were used up .

history

The company was originally initiated in early 1926 as a project company by Claude Dornier with the support of the Swiss industrialist Jacob Schmidheiny to build halls and airfield in Altenrhein, Switzerland . While Schmidheiny had the development of the structurally weak area around Altenrhein in view and supported it locally, Dornier saw an opportunity here to assemble his planned flight ship Do X not far away from the Friedrichshafen factory, whose order for development the Reich Ministry of Transport had already given him in July 1925. The Weimar Republic carried out a secret rearmament program (see Lohmann affair ) and tried to circumvent the construction ban on larger and military aircraft that existed in Germany as a result of the Versailles treaties by founding companies abroad . The Weimar Republic took over the majority in the company and made all the capital available for the facilities in Altenrhein and the development and construction of the Do X. As the Lohmann affair later revealed, the money probably came from secret sales of non-scrapped ships and weapons, in breach of contract. These details were not known to Dornier; He became a personal minority shareholder in return for a loan and the Friedrichshafen-based Dornier Metallbauten GmbH, which was still majority owned by the then Zeppelin Group , also became a shareholder through a further loan from the Reich Ministry of Transport. In Altenrhein, according to the will of the Weimar Republic, a militarization and weapons testing of the Do X should be carried out, which did not take place because the military suitability of the Do X was later questioned.

When the Do X development program ran out in 1933 and was handed over to Lufthansa , Do-Flug AG was dissolved. It is unclear how the ownership structure of the properties and the company developed and how they belonged to the Dornier Group. Anyway, they firmierten until the end of World War II as a Dornier works Altenrhein , were allowed to work only for the Swiss Armed Forces during World War II and were made in 1945 for the war entirely under Swiss control. In 1948, Claude Dornier sold a portion that was not quantified in the literature and the properties were transferred to Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein (FFA).

Sources / literature