Historic film of Lufthansa mail service 1934/35 Germany-South America

Adult_White_Female
Published on Oct 21, 2022
The technical and organizational achievements of Deutsche Lufthansa made it possible for the first time in the 1930s to send mail from Germany to South America in just a few days. Our previously unreleased short film footage documents this achievement in a 2K film clip. The small film comes from the estate of Eugen Bassler.

time code:
00:50 Bathurst (today: Banjul, Gambia)
Jeshwang Airport
01:20 Lufthansa schooner "Orion"
01:43 catapult ship "Westfalen"
02:15 Dornier Wal D-2069 "Monsoon" and D-2068 "Typhoon"
03:18 Tow sail
04:57 View of the catapult track
05:50 catapult control, before launching the "whale"
07:15 In the cockpit of a Dornier â€œWalsâ€
07:35 Catapult launch
07:49 Atlantic sightseeing flight of the couple Lindbergh
(Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh) 1933

Excerpt from the book by Fischer von Poturzyn
South Atlantic Flight (Book) Air trip to the floating island "Westphalia"
Copyright 1934

Page 145-146
(...)
This is the 1933 Atlantic flight of the Lindbergh couple on their small sport plane (New York-Greenland-Island-England-
Scandinavia-Leningrad-France-Spain-Verde Islands-Bathurst-Natal-West Indies-New York). (...)
It is all the more remarkable that "Lindi" nevertheless encountered a piece of Germany during the difficult crossing of the South Atlantic on the route of the South Atlantic flight, found his support pleasant and thanked him with a round of greetings:
the "Westfalen" with its F.T. station.

Immediately after the start of the Lindenbergh machine in Bathurst - it had become useful for the 3000 kilometer flight by leaving everything imaginable behind and replacing this load with fuel - the German catapult ship radioed its willingness to help.

She was gladly accepted. Mrs. Lindbergh operated the small station available to her with a calmness that impressed professional radio operators, but also with a certain deliberation, which led to cheerful questions and answers
Response match between the two resulted. Mrs. Lindbergh was sounded.
"Am I doing it right?" she radioed to the "Westfalen".
"All right, but better, you correct this and that," was the reply. In any case: Charles Lindbergh flew around the "Westfalen" in one round and did not forget to commemorate the German radio help after his landing in America.

Eugen Bassler's narrow film estate contains contemporary impressions of many places and events worldwide (Paris, Venice, Trieste, Seville, Bathurst, Natal and many more). The amateur filmmaker, Eugen Bassler, initially worked as a radio operator for Lufthansa and was a crew member on the catapult ship "Westfalen", later becoming the radio operator for the "FÃ¼hrer Flugstaffel".
[Eugen Bassler born August 2, 1905 Freiburg im Breisgau, died April 21, 1945 BÃ¶rnersdorf]
The 8mm film material is already digitized in 2K format in our archive: Dornier Wal & Katapultschiff Westfalen rares Filmmaterial in 2K Lufthansa 1933/35