Deutsche Lufthansa AG (, ) is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried and fleet size. The German government had a 35.68% stake in Lufthansa until 1997, but the company is now owned by private investors (88.52%), MGL Gesellschaft für Luftverkehrswerte (10.05%), Deutsche Postbank (1.03%), and Deutsche Bank (0.4%) and has 37,042 employees (as of March 2007). The name of the company is derived from Luft (the German word for "air"), and Hansa (after the Hanseatic League, a powerful medieval trading group).