The ''Luftfahrt-Bundesamt'' (LBA, "Federal Aviation Office") is the national

civil aviation authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

headquartered in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

.Imprint
." Luftfahrt-Bundesamt. Retrieved 22 January 2012. "Luftfahrt-Bundesamt President Hermann-Blenk-Straße 26 38108 Braunschweig" It maintains regional offices in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

( Raunheim),

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

(

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

, and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and reports directly to the

Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure The Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (german: Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr, ), abbreviated BMDV, is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main office is located in Berlin, while the majority ...

. The LBA is responsible for developing and maintaining

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes airplane, fixed-wing and helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as aerostat, lighter- ...

safety standards Safety standards are standards designed to ensure the safety of products, activities and processes, etc. They may be advisory or compulsory and are normally laid down by an advisory or regulatory body that may be either voluntary or statutory. In ...

, as well as certifying airlines, airports, and training devices such a simulators and Flight Training Devices (FTDs). Some of these tasks are fulfilled on behalf of the

European Aviation Safety Agency The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monito ...

(EASA). Investigation of accidents is not a responsibility of the LBA but of the

German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation
" ''German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation ...

History

In 1918, when the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

had been established, matters of aviation were provisionally assigned to the ''Reichsamt des Inneren'' (Imperial Ministry of the Interior). Later, the ''Reichsluftamt'' (Imperial Agency of Aviation) was established. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, matters of aviation were initially handled by the administration of the Allied occupation powers. Some matters of aviation were transferred to the '"Vorläufige Bundesstelle für Luftfahrtgerät und Flugunfalluntersuchung'" (Provisional Federal Office for Avionic Devices and Investigation of Aviation Accidents) established on 15 September 1953 in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

. Eventually, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt was established by the ''Gesetz über das Luftfahrt-Bundesamt'' (Act on the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt) of 30 November 1954 (BGBl. I 354) and commenced operation on 1 February 1955. In

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

, the ''Hauptverwaltung der Zivilen Luftfahrt'' (Central Administration for Civil Aviation) was established on 1 January 1961. It was replaced by the ''Staatliche Luftfahrt-Inspektion der DDR'' (Public Department of Aviation of the GDR) on 1 January 1968, from which the ''Luftfahrt-Bundesamt'' took over all operations and most of the staff on 4 October 1990, the day after German re-unification. On 28 September 2003, substantial competences were formally transferred to the

established by Regulation (EC) 1592/2002.

References

External links

Luftfahrt-Bundesamt

Luftfahrt-Bundesamt
{{Authority control

Organisations based in Braunschweig Government of Germany Civil aviation in Germany Aviation organisations based in Germany German federal agencies