Badische Luftverkehrs-GmbH

The Badische Luftverkehrs-GmbH ( BALUG ) was a short-lived airline founded in 1919 , which in 1920/21 operated an airmail line from Frankfurt via Karlsruhe to Lörrach as well as passenger flights over the Black Forest and the Rhine Valley , but then ceased operations due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty had to.

history

founding

After the end of the First World War , many of the young German fighter pilots whose only training had been flying looked for further occupation as pilots ; many had also "saved" their planes . A number of small airlines were soon formed around people like them, hoping for a future in the mail and passenger traffic. In Baden these included the two World War II aces Ernst von Althaus and Hermann Frommherz . Althaus was one of the board members of BALUG, founded in Baden-Oos in 1919 , which wanted to set up an airmail route from Frankfurt via Mannheim - Sandhofen and Karlsruhe to Switzerland in 1920 . Since flying over the Swiss border was not allowed for contractual reasons, the southern end of the line was chosen to be a point near Tumringen , today a district of Lörrach , where the Lörrach airfield was set up on a meadow leased by the community . Hermann Frommherz became the airfield manager and one of the pilots.

Flight operations

The first test flight took place on July 10, 1920. A biplane of the type DFW CV , with the license plate , D-87 Post yellow hull and blue bottom, top painted white wings , brought the first post to Loerrach that the Tumringer post manager for forwarding to Basel took in reception. After the line had been officially approved, the Frankfurt-Mannheim-Karlsruhe-Lörrach airmail line was opened on November 11, 1920. In addition to the mail flights, the BALUG also advertised with passenger flights over the Black Forest and the Rhine Valley .

However, the mail flights had to be given up again in January 1921. The heavy fog in the autumn and winter months and the inadequacies of the aircraft made flight operations impossible on some days. Although an aircraft was soon stationed in Lörrach so that it could at least take off to Karlsruhe when the weather was good, and the city of Lörrach decided in November 1920 to build a wooden hangar in Grütt for the stationing, maintenance and repair of the aircraft, the Teething troubles of the line can never really be overcome. The final end of the mail flights came on January 3, 1921 with the ban by the Interallied Aviation Monitoring Commission (ILÜK) created in April 1920 , since the flights took place within the "neutral zone" in the border area. After that, only passenger flights were carried out, with Althaus and Frommherz as pilots, whereby mostly Swiss took advantage of the opportunity to cheap passenger flights.

The End

When the victorious powers then ordered the closure of the airfield and the destruction of the aircraft on the basis of the Versailles Treaty in July 1921, this too had to be ended. Although previously released and provided with LFR-B approval, all BALUG aircraft had to be destroyed on the instructions of the Inter-Allied Aviation Monitoring Commission (ILÜK). Four DFW CV machines (the D-67, D-68, D-87 and D-96 aircraft) were smashed with sledgehammers . Before that, Frommherz and two other pilots went on one last flight over Loerrach on July 8, 1921, with black mourning flags on the wings. In its final report, the ILÜK noted that a mock funeral ceremony had taken place during the destruction of the aircraft , accompanied by diatribes against the Entente .

On July 9th, the following advertisement appeared in the Lörracher Zeitung :

BALUG.

Since our planes were destroyed yesterday at the instigation of the Entente,

flights are no longer taking place for the time being.

Sunday afternoon 4 a.m.

Inspection of the destroyed aircraft.

Entrance fee 2 marks. The proceeds are for charity.

Badische Luftverkehrs-Gesellschaft.

The BALUG soon went into liquidation.

The later Badische Luftverkehr AG was founded in 1924.

literature

Friedrich Schärer: The Lörrach airfield in Turmringen , 1988

Web links

Luftsportgemeinschaft Hotzenwald eV: Aufwind 2 , December 1992

Individual evidence

↑ The planes landed on the former airship station in Sandhofen in the northern part of Schönau, where Gondelstrasse, Ballonstrasse, Johann-Schütte-Strasse and Parsevalstrasse are reminiscent of the past of the airship. ( Postage Stamp Collectors Association Mannheim e.V .: Mannheim Airport and early air mail .)
↑ In September 1921 the Fokker D.VII D-88, which Frommherz had "saved" from his wartime, was discovered, confiscated and destroyed in Lörrach.
^ ^A ^b Ernst Vocke, revised and supplemented by Günter Frost: Approval and labeling of German civil aircraft 1914–1945. 4: The German aircraft role 1920–1934 (LFR B), Chapter 2: Construction prohibition and definitions. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Luftfahrtthistorik (ADL), first published in LUFTFAHRT INTERNATIONAL No. 3/1981 (PDF; 1.5 MB)
^ Luftsportgemeinschaft Hotzenwald eV: Aufwind 2 , December 1992

[1] The planes landed on the former airship station in Sandhofen in the northern part of Schönau, where Gondelstrasse, Ballonstrasse, Johann-Schütte-Strasse and Parsevalstrasse are reminiscent of the past of the airship. ( Postage Stamp Collectors Association Mannheim e.V .: Mannheim Airport and early air mail .)

[2] In September 1921 the Fokker D.VII D-88, which Frommherz had "saved" from his wartime, was discovered, confiscated and destroyed in Lörrach.

[:0-3] A ^b Ernst Vocke, revised and supplemented by Günter Frost: Approval and labeling of German civil aircraft 1914–1945. 4: The German aircraft role 1920–1934 (LFR B), Chapter 2: Construction prohibition and definitions. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Luftfahrtthistorik (ADL), first published in LUFTFAHRT INTERNATIONAL No. 3/1981 (PDF; 1.5 MB)

[4] Luftsportgemeinschaft Hotzenwald eV: Aufwind 2 , December 1992