Which bird appears in the Lufthansa logo?

The Lufthansa logo features a stylized crane inside a circle.

The German airline’s crane emblem was created by Otto Firle and first used in 1918 for Deutsche Luft-Reederei, an early German airline. Lufthansa later adopted the symbol, making the bird and circular frame central parts of its visual identity.

The crane represents grace, reliability, and long-distance travel. In the traditional design, the bird’s long neck and outstretched wings are shown in profile within a ring, producing a simple mark that remains recognizable at small sizes.

The bird is sometimes mistaken for an eagle because of its wings or for a stork because of its long neck. It is specifically a crane. Lufthansa updated the typography and refined the emblem in 2018, but the core bird-and-circle idea remained.