Two German military planes landed Saturday on a private runway belonging to the Wintershall AG company and evacuated 22 Germans and 112 others, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin.
"I want to thank the members of the Germany military for their brave mission," he added.
The military planes later landed safely Saturday night on the Greek island of Crete.
German military missions abroad need approval by parliament, and Westerwelle said he had spoken to all party leaders in parliament Friday to tell them about the upcoming military mission. He said the coalition government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel had evaluated the situation in Libya as "very dangerous" and therefore ordered an immediate evacuation by the air force.
The head of Wintershall, Rainer Seele, thanked the government.
"we are all relieved and grateful," he was quoted as saying by the DAPD news agency.
Westerwelle said another 18 German citizens were rescued by the British military in a separate military operation Saturday that targeted remote oil installations in the Libyan desert.
He said around 100 other German citizens were still in Libya and the government was trying to get them out as quickly as possible.
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