The history of camouflage fabrics printed with lozenge from the First World War is a fascinating journey through innovation and artistic influences. Originally, this covering fabric was conventional pure linen, which was already used in aircraft construction. However, the ground-breaking idea behind the new camouflage pattern had several innovative aims.

Firstly, the lozenge pattern was intended to speed up aircraft production by eliminating the time-consuming process of painting the aircraft. This led to considerable time savings in production. On the other hand, the decisive reason for the new process was the considerable weight saving.

The conventional method of painting the aeroplanes after applying the tensioning paint increased the weight of the covering considerably. By printing the lozenge pattern on the fabric with indanthrene "dyes" - chemicals that only showed their colours after a special development process - it was not only possible to reduce the weight, but also to use one of the most advanced dyeing methods in the textile industry.

Lozenge fabric was introduced for army aircraft in two different colour schemes, namely a 4-colour and a 5-colour pattern. There were several different colour combinations for the upper and lower surfaces of the aircraft.

The navy, on the other hand, had its own camouflage patterns for night and day operations.

The idea behind the different colour patterns was to do justice to the different light conditions at different times of the year. However, both colour patterns were soon confused. It is important to understand that camouflage, which is based on colour design, is not intended to make an object disappear. Instead, it reduces the conspicuousness of the object and breaks up the contour to make it more difficult to recognise.

The aircraft fabric in its distinctive polygonal designs was the result of extensive experiments with various forms of fabric printing. Other camouflage patterns were also experimented with at the same time, including the pattern with a three-colour background and circular dots of different sizes, but this did not catch on.

As is still the case today, colours were subject to subjective perception at the time. Printing fabrics and achieving reproducible, uniform colour tones was and still is a challenge today, as many factors can influence the result.

German lozenge camouflage therefore had not only military but also artistic roots.

It is worth noting that the German-Swiss artist Paul Klee, who achieved world fame after the First World War, worked as a camouflage painter for German aeroplanes. His influence on the artist's work can be clearly seen in a painting from 1922, which focuses on the diamond pattern on aeroplanes.

Camouflage painting by artists was of great importance at this time. The French were the first to come up with the idea of turning colourful uniforms into bright targets. Artists, known as camoufleurs, were commissioned to think about possible camouflage and design patterns.

At the beginning of the war, the flying machines were predominantly covered in uncoloured fabric, before camouflage painting finally prevailed.