10/31/2009. The Hannoversche Waggonfabrik AG at Hannover-Linden, Germany, founded in 1898 as a railway rolling stock manufacturer, began license production of Aviatik, Halberstadt and Rumpler aircraft in 1915, before proposing to the German AAS an aircraft of own design. The compact two-seat escort fighter CL.II entered service in 1917. The biplane-tailed Hannover aircraft were dubbed 'Hannoveranas' by the RFC.

The enlarged CL.IV was a prototype escort fighter, it had a pilot and a gunner as crew, and was powered by a 300 hp Maybach six-cylinder in-line liquid-cooled engine.