What aircraft did Konrad Adenauer fly to Moscow in 1955?

In 1955, the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, traveled to Moscow to negotiate with the Soviet Union the release of the last German prisoners of war still held there. For the trip he did not use a military aircraft: he had Lufthansa charter two new Lockheed Super Constellations. It was thus civilian aircraft of the flag carrier that carried the chancellor and his delegation to the Soviet capital for negotiations aimed at bringing home the last German soldiers still held captive since the war.

One of those two Super Constellations, registered D-ALIN, has survived to this day. It is preserved at the Flugausstellung Hermeskeil (Germany), where it can be seen as a witness to that journey.

The L-1049 Super Constellation had first flown in 1950; 579 units were built, and some remained in service until 1980. For many years the Super Constellation was a familiar sight at European airports in the colors of Lufthansa, KLM, Air France, Iberia, and Portugal's TAP. The Constellation had been the first widely used airliner family with a pressurized cabin, able to fly above most bad weather. The aircraft also had its drawbacks: Lufthansa's own statistics recorded a breakdown on nearly one in every three flights, a reflection of how demanding its piston engines were. Even so, for a high-level official trip like Adenauer's, the Super Constellation was the most modern and prestigious option German commercial aviation could offer in the mid-1950s.