M.Dusing German Aviation Industry in WWI. Volume 1 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 84)

Hanseatische Flugzeugwerke AG (Karl Caspar), Hamburg-Fuhlsbuttel (Hansa)

Foundation:

  Karl Caspar learned to fly on Etrich-Taube and received the pilot certificate No. 77. In 1911, at the age of 28, he laid the foundation stone for his company. In the fall of 1911, Mr. Karl Caspar founded the local company, which at that time consisted of a small flight school under the name “Centrale fur Aviatik Hamburg” on the Wandsbek parade ground. The transformation into a stock corporation took place on January 1,1917.
  A fire accident in the summer of 1912 led to the company being relocated to a more suitable airfield - Hamburg-Fuhlsbuttel. The Hanseatische Flugzeugwerke were rebuilt there on the basis of a contract with the Hamburg Luftschiffhafen-Gesellschaft, which had already leased another hangar to the Navy.
  Caspar was by all means a successful pilot: on June 19, 1912, he set a German altitude record of 3,245 m with a Rumpler pigeon on the occasion of the Nordmarken flight. He achieved further successes at the “Krupp Flight Week 1912” and the “East Prussia Flight 1913”.
  In 1914, the company name changed from “Centrale fur Aviatik Hamburg” to “Hansa-Flugzeugwerke Hamburg Karl Caspar,” while the flying school was henceforth known as the “Hanseatische Flugschule”. At the outbreak of the First World War, Caspar immediately fulfilled his so-called “army duty” and reported for military service with the Fliegertruppe. In order not to leave his company without management for a long time during wartime, he negotiated a merger of his company with the “Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke GmbH” in Briest near Brandenburg (Havel) and the “Deutsche Aero-Gesellschaft AG” in Berlin in 1915. The new company was named “Hansa- und Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke AG,” and Berlin was set as its headquarters, with operating facilities in Berlin, Hamburg and Briest. The main shareholder of the merged plants was the Vienna-based Kommerzialrat Camillo Castiglioni, who also held the position of general manager.
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