Deutsche Welle (DW) is Germany’s international broadcaster and one of the most successful and relevant international media outlets. Our multimedia content in 30 languages reaches more than one billion people worldwide each month.
In 2020, DW‘s journalistic offerings are reaching 249 million weekly user contacts and have thus significantly exceeded the company's target for 2021. In comparison with the previous year, the number of user contacts increased by 52 million (plus 26 percent) which is the highest growth rate to date.
Online offerings once again show the most considerable increase with a 46 percent rise. More than three-quarters of online usage can be attributed to videos, and a similarly high proportion of users are interacting with DW content on their smartphones or tablets. DW also grew significantly on TV and radio. With 111 million users a week, TV remains the strongest broadcasting platform.
Our Mission
DW is an unbiased media organization, based in Germany. We provide our journalistic content to people worldwide, giving them the freedom to make up their own minds and the information required to form their own opinions.
Our Vision
By 2025, DW wants to strengthen its position as an essential source of digital information that inspires its target group with regionally-relevant, on-demand content that encourages dialogue.
DW Akademie is on track to becoming the leading European institution for media development.
Our Programming
Serbian TV content
Our offerings convey Germany as a liberal democracy rooted in European culture, providing a forum for German (and other) points of view on important topics, with the aim of promoting understanding and the exchange of ideas among different cultures and peoples.
Our experts produce high-quality multimedia content distributed through television, radio, social media and the internet. Our portfolio comprises TV channels in English, Arabic, Spanish and German; and digital content in 30 languages. Our 24-hour English language TV channel is available almost everywhere in the world.
Working locally in our target regions and with regional partners ensures that our content caters to our audience’s interests and demands.
Freedom. Dialogue. Expertise.
Our aim is to foster a peaceful, stable global community. Therefore, we focus on topics such as freedom and human rights, democracy and good governance, free trade and social justice, health education and environmental protection, technology and innovation.
Our Audience
We reach out to young people, to opinion leaders, to those actively involved in public debate, and to everyone striving to understand what is happening in the world. Through our audience approach, we tell stories close to the hearts of our users, viewers and listeners and their everyday reality. We provide platforms for dialogue, we listen to their concerns, speak their languages and close information gaps.
Our German-language offerings are directed towards German speakers abroad and to those who teach or want to learn German.
Overview of DW’s TV, radio and digital services in 30 languages
Our Distribution
We rely on a global satellite network, on our roughly 5,000 partner stations, on the internet and increasingly, on mobile distribution. The DW app offers online content according to user preferences. Our radio broadcasts in ten languages continue to reach many people in Africa and parts of Asia.
Our DW Akademie
DW Akademie in Accra, Ghana
We believe that journalism, education and culture improve people's lives and that reliable, unbiased information and universal access to knowledge are fundamental rights.
Together with our partners around the world, we work to promote freedom of expression, human rights and the development of functioning media systems.
Our core focus areas are Media and Information Literacy (MIL), Media Viability, Media and Journalism Education and Innovation for Dialogue and Digital Rights. We pursue concrete approaches in these areas in order to strengthen the media. In this way, we contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.
Our Organization
DW is a public broadcaster financed by federal tax resources. The DW headquarters in Bonn, the main studio in Berlin and the international bureaus host approximately 1,500 employees and nearly as many freelancers from more than 60 countries, working for a common goal and with a bold mission as the starting point of everything we do.
Diversity
DW promotes a working environment that is free of prejudice. The aim is for all employees to feel respected and appreciated - regardless of gender and gender identity, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, disability, age, sexual orientation and identity.
Since 2011, DW has been a member of the German employers' initiative Charta der Vielfalt (charter of diversity) which is committed to promoting diversity in the workplace.
With the establishment of the International Relations and Diversity department in November 2019, DW's management has made diversity a high priority and initiated change processes.
Our Code of Conduct describes the values we adhere to as part of our company culture and defines our responsibility towards our users and partners, society and the environment.
Sustainability
DW operates sustainably, by using resources efficiently, reducing its environmental footprint and getting involved in social issues.
Our History
DW was founded in 1953 by the government to provide audiences abroad with comprehensive information about the Federal Republic of Germany. Initially, DW broadcast via shortwave and only in German. The first foreign languages were added in 1954. In 1992, DW expanded into television and, shortly thereafter, the Internet.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and State Minister Monika Grütters joined Director General Peter Limbourg for the celebration of DW's 65th anniversary in Berlin in June 2018.
DW Akademie launched its international media development activities in 1965. Since then, it has steadily expanded its work promoting press freedom and freedom of expression.
The DW Act, issued in December 1997 and amended in 2001 and 2004, defines DW as a non-profit, public broadcasting institution for foreign broadcasting.
