Condor Syndicate

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Syndicato Condor Lda

The Syndicate Condor ( Portuguese : Syndicato Condor ) was a Brazilian airline that was founded and operated by Deutsche Luft Hansa .

Company history

The founding of the Syndicato Condor must be seen against the background of the economic and political interests of German industry and the imperial government in South America . To promote this interest, Lufthansa launched the “Transocean Project”, which was supposed to create an air link between the Reich and South America: “The transocean project has three stages: Germany - Spain ; Iberian Peninsula - North Port Brazil; North port of Brazil - South American coast to Buenos Aires . The first stage is purely German; the second stage must be carried out in cooperation with Spain and Portugal , the third stage in cooperation with the South American countries ”.

The first German aviation activities in South America took place as early as the end of 1919 . The German Aero Lloyd (DAL) had become active in late 1923 in South America. In cooperation with various foreign German companies, a working group was founded to explore the aviation options on the Brazilian coast. This activity led to the founding of the Condor Syndicate in May 1924, in which the DAL, SCADTA and German trading companies were also involved. Her tasks were route exploration, testing of aircraft and instruments and the training of flying and technical personnel. It was a purely German company which, according to Brazilian law, would never have received a concession , since air traffic within Brazil was only allowed to be operated by Brazilian companies.

In 1926, Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH) took over DAL's shares in the Condor Syndicate. Through extensive lobbying work with the Brazilian government, this company succeeded in obtaining a concession for the coastline Rio de Janeiro - Rio Grande do Sul , which was operated on a section from February 1927. In character, it was merely a study facility that served to explore the route. In order to obtain the concession for a regular route service, the establishment of an airline was necessary, which was launched on December 1, 1927 as Syndicato Condor Ltda .

Although at least two-thirds of the capital had to be in Brazilian hands according to Brazilian regulations, the DLH retained decisive influence. This was achieved through skillful personnel selection. Formally, two Brazilians had to be shareholders, which was achieved through the selection of Ernesto Hoelck, a naturalized Brazilian, and the Conde Carneira. Paul Moosmayer became general director, the fourth share was held by the founder of SCADTA Colombia , Fritz W. Hammer. DLH made the necessary funds available to the four shareholders in the form of a loan, which tied them to DLH under the law of obligations. In this way, DLH secured its influence on the management of SC, even though the company was officially only referred to as "related".

In January 1928, Condor was then granted the license to operate flights throughout Brazil. Like the DLH, the Condor was dependent on aid. She received this from the DLH, which was made available to it by the Reich Ministry of Defense. By the Brazilian Government of the Condor one were airmail concession and the right to sell their own airmail stamps issued. After the employment of foreigners with Brazilian airlines had been restricted in 1936, the “DLH District Directorate South America” was founded in 1937 and concessions for traffic with Brazil, Argentina and Chile were acquired.

The first section of the route was the Buenos Aires - Santiago de Chile section from September 13, 1937. In addition, from October 6, 1938, the route section Natal - Rio de Janeiro and from January 5, 1939 Rio de Janeiro - Buenos Aires, so that in 1939 the entire connecting service of the South Atlantic route was flown by DLH and thus the Condor was withdrawn.

The beginning of the war caused major problems for German air traffic in Brazil: “After the routes operated by Lufthansa were initially discontinued and the planes were transferred to Syndicato Condor Ltda. had been handed over, the service was resumed on some of these routes by the aforementioned company. From the previous reports it can be seen that the reopening of the other routes is also planned, provided that the company's financial situation allows it ”. Therefore, DLH formally sold all of its own aircraft as well as those already chartered to Condor to this company. There was at least the possibility that the SC, as a formally Brazilian company, would not be subject to any sanctions. To be recognized as a Brazilian company, however, it was necessary for the SC to change its company statutes. The number of shareholders was increased from four to seven in order to achieve the number of shareholders required for the later planned conversion into a stock corporation. The management was transferred to one retired and three sub-retirees.

Immediately at the beginning of the war, the supply of funds proved problematic. The Condor's service was heavily dependent on subsidies from DLH, as the Brazilian government had only granted postal concessions, which, however, were far from sufficient to carry out the business. The discontinuation of the airmail connection to South America and the cancellation of the pool agreement with Air France also resulted in a significant loss of income for Condor, as it had previously distributed incoming airmail over its route network. At this point in time, the establishment of the LATI service Rome - Rio de Janeiro came in very handy for Condor . In addition to the restored flight connection to South America, albeit through the axis partner, LATI was contractually bound to carry out the delivery and delivery of airmail via the SC network. This opened up a secure source of income from December 1939.

In addition, Lufthansa succeeded in persuading the Ministry of Finance to provide "significant amounts" via the German foreign exchange offices. Since these were obviously not sufficient, DLH went over to buying up claims by German companies on South American customers and making them available to Condor. This enabled the traffic to be maintained to the usual extent.

In order to make better use of the existing aircraft fleet and to improve the financial situation, the SC tried to develop further routes, especially in the northeast of Brazil. This alerted Pan American World Airways (PAA) and with it the US government, since at that time the PAA's politically conditioned airfield construction program through northeast Brazil to Natal had started. For this reason, the US side put massive pressure on the Brazilian government not to approve these services. The supply of fuel to the SC was used as an additional means of pressure. As a result, difficulties arose in the supply of aviation fuel at the beginning of 1941, which, however, could be eliminated through negotiations. With effect from November 1, 1940, the Brazilian government passed a law which prohibited the use of foreigners and naturalized Brazilians as pilots and fitters. Since the SC had in the meantime trained enough Brazilian personnel, the SC's traffic only had to be restricted slightly. Ultimately, this ban affected the operation of the two Focke-Wulf Fw 200s , which, however, were able to be used again in route service a few months later with Brazilian pilots.

In March 1941 the German blockade breaker "SS Lech" succeeded in transferring the last Ju 52 / 3m from Germany to Brazil. On the basis of a law that declared the use of the term “Syndicato” only permissible for trade unions, the SC had to change its name to Serviços Eros Condor Ltda. (SAC) change. On December 13, 1941, American Standard Oil stopped supplying SAC with aviation fuel, whereupon the SAC had to quit. At the same time, an American offer to acquire the company was made, but this was rejected.

The SAC began negotiations with the Brazilian government about nationalizing the company, which were concluded in early 1942. The Reich German shareholders, who until then held 40% of the company's capital, had to leave. After that, the SAC was able to resume service on some routes with fuel from the Brazilian Air Force on March 30, 1942. Under pressure from the American government, after the Brazilian declaration of war on the Reich (August 29, 1942), the SAC was expropriated without compensation, whereby the SAC's existing debt to the DLH, at least around 7 million RM, was simply canceled. The SAC then disappeared from the US black list and was able to resume normal traffic at the end of 1942. By presidential decree, the name of the company was changed to Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul Ltda. On January 16, 1943 . (SAC) changed and thus the last reference to German aviation activities in Brazil removed.

Planes

In addition to six Dornier Wal flying boats, three Junkers G 24 and 16 Junkers Ju 52 / 3m on floats were used for the main routes along the Brazilian coast and to Argentina and Chile . The inner-Brazilian operation took place with the smaller Junkers models F 13 , G 24, W-34 and Ju 46 (a total of 13 aircraft). From 1939 two modern Focke-Wulf Fw 200s were used on the main and two Focke-Wulf Fw 58s for secondary lines. In 1943 the SAC received four Douglas DC-3s from American stocks. The remaining 14 Junkers aircraft were not taken out of service until 1945/46 and sold to Argentina. The Fw 200 flew in regular service until 1950. The SC had to complain about five accidents with personal injury up to 1941 (December 3, 1928 Thu Wal P-BACA, November 10, 1930 Ju G-24 P-BAHA, October 14, 1931 Thu Wal P-BALA, August 15, 1938 Ju 52 / 3m PP-CAT, January 13, 1939 Ju 52 / 3m PP-CAY).

Route policy

In 1930 only the route Natal - Rio de Janeiro - Porto Alegre was flown. In 1932 the first route within Brazil was added to the Mato Grosso . In 1934 Condor was able to acquire the postal concessions for Argentina and Uruguay , so that from April 1934 it was possible to fly on the coastal route to Buenos Aires. From October 1, 1935, Condor established a connection to Chile via the Buenos Aires - Santiago de Chile route. In 1936 a line from Natal to Belem in northern Brazil was set up with a branch inland to Floriano . Further routes inland were set up by 1940.

On March 22, 1930, a Dornier whale from Condor delivered South American Post to the steamer "Cap Arcona" at Fernando Noronha for the first time . In the opposite direction, a Syndicato Condor plane took over the mail in Natal and delivered it via Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires. When airplanes could also be used on the route between Gambia and Natal, the total delivery time for mail was only five and a half days compared to 11 days in 1930. In 1935, the delivery time to Buenos Aires was reduced to three and a half days and to Santiago de Chile to four and a half days become.

After the planned traffic began in 1927 with a modest 20,000 km, the performance increased to 2.5 million kilometers in 1938. 13,000 passengers and almost 500 tons of freight and mail were carried. After that, due to political circumstances, the performance sank to about 2 million kilometers in 1939 and 1940.

See also

literature

  • Andreas Acktun: Air traffic in Germany and Great Britain. Business enterprises in the field of tension between state and corporate interests, Marburg 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Note DLH on the transocean project, undated, undated (approx. End of 1928), BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  2. Merkel, Transozean Luftverkehr, report September 1929, p. 1, BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  3. Rinke, Stefan: "The last free continent". German Latin America Policy in the Sign of Transnational Relations, 1918–1933, Part 2, Dissertation, Stuttgart 1996, pp. 688 f.
  4. Merkel, Transozean Luftverkehr, report September 1929, p. 2 f., BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  5. ^ Thomas Ludwig, Fritz-Wilhelm Hammer estate and obituaries from newspapers
  6. Jump up , Joachim: The German aviation activity in Latin America (1919-1942) - Instrument of the Latin American policy of German imperialism, Phil.-Diss. Leipzig 1975, p. 225
  7. Merkel, Transozean Luftverkehr, report September 1929, p. 3, BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  8. Jump up , p. 170 f.
  9. ^ DLH traffic reports 1937 to 1939, DLH archive, Cologne
  10. Quarterly Report III / 39, p. 5 f., BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  11. ^ Report of the meeting of the accounting commission, March 15, 1940, p. 5 f., BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  12. Quarterly Report I / 40, p. 4a, BA Berlin, inventory "Deutsche Bank"
  13. ^ Report on the 34th meeting of the Supervisory Board, July 23, 1940, p. 4, BA Berlin, "Deutsche Bank" inventory
  14. ^ Report on the meeting of the Accounting Commission, March 15, 1940, p. 5, BA Berlin, "Deutsche Bank" inventory
  15. Quarterly Report III / 40, p. 4, BA Berlin, "Deutsche Bank" inventory
  16. Quarterly Report IV / 40, p. 4 f., BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  17. ^ Report on the 36th Supervisory Board meeting, July 8, 1941, p. 4, BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  18. PRO AIR 20/6122, DOSI-Report 91 v. March 13, 1941: Landing on March 3, 1941 in Rio de Janeiro
  19. Quarterly Report I / 41, p. 3, BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  20. Quarterly Report IV / 41, p. 2, BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  21. Quarterly Report I / 42, p. 3, BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  22. Quarterly Report II / 42, p. 3, BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  23. Quarterly Report III / 42, p. 2, BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  24. Quarterly Report IV / 42, p. 2 f., BA Berlin, inventory “Deutsche Bank”
  25. ^ Davies, REG: Airlines of Latin America Since 1919, Chelsea 1984, p. 408
  26. Inventory lists 1928 to 1939, DLH archive, Cologne
  27. Ott, Günther: Focke-Wulf FW 200 “Condor”. The story of a famous airliner, in: Jet & Prop 2/92, pp. 54–58, Jet & Prop 3/92, pp. 54–57, Jet & Prop 4/92, pp. 41–44, Jet & Prop 5/92, pp. 17– 22, 58, Jet & Prop 6/92, pp. 18-23, 53
  28. ^ Reports DLH 1928 to 1939, DLH archive, Cologne
  29. Traffic reports 1930 to 1940, DLH archive, Cologne
  30. ^ Davies, REG: Lufthansa. An Airline and its Aircraft, New York 1991, DLH, p. 38 f.
  31. Orlovius, Heinz / Schulz, Richard (Ed.): The German aviation. Yearbook 1936, Frankfurt a. M. 1936, p. 118 ff.
  32. Traffic reports 1928–1940, DLH archive Cologne