After the end of World War II, two independent states developed on German soil starting in 1949. In both countries, the authorities began establishing a civil aviation sector by the mid-1950s at the latest. On the East German side, Deutsche Lufthansa Ost was created, which, after lengthy legal disputes with the West German side, was renamed Interflug in 1963. But what were the reasons for creating a completely new airline in the eastern part of Germany? Unlike in the West, there were no technical or infrastructural foundations to justify the rapid and successful development of this mode of transport. Was it truly the aim to give civil aviation a significant foreign policy role for the GDR? Was there an attempt to counter the sole representation claim pursued by the Federal Republic of Germany?.