Deutsche Welle

This article is about the German international broadcaster. For the unrelated German radio company of the 1920s and 30s, see Deutsche Welle GmbH. For information about the musical genre, see Neue Deutsche Welle.

DW

Type	International public broadcaster
Country	Germany
Founded	3 May 1953
Headquarters	Berlin/Bonn, Germany
Broadcast area	National and international
Owner	ARD
Launch date	3 May 1953
Affiliation	World Radio Network
Official website	www.dw.de

Original Deutsche Welle logo. The present-day logo is inspired by the intersecting ring design.

Revised Deutsche Welle logo from 1992-1995 with the company name after the launch of Deutsche Welle TV in 1992.

The Deutsche Welle logo 1995-2012 was intended to suggest a radio wave, although it drew comparisons to the Nike Swoosh.

The Deutsche Welle building in Bonn

Deutsche Welle (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈvɛlə]) or DW is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio in 30 languages (DW (Radio)). It has a satellite television service (DW (TV)), which is available in four languages, an online news site, as well as its own center for international media development, DW Akademie. Deutsche Welle, which in English means "German Wave", is similar to international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, France 24, Voice of America, Radio Canada International, Radio Free Europe and Radio France Internationale.

Deutsche Welle has broadcast regularly since 1953. Until 2003 it was based in Cologne; then it relocated to a new building, the "Schürmann-Bau", in Bonn's former government office area. The television broadcasts are produced in Berlin. Deutsche Welle's website is produced in both Berlin and Bonn. On 6 February 2012 Deutsche Welle underwent a significant rebranding.

History

Deutsche Welle was inaugurated on 3 May 1953 with an address by the West German President, Theodor Heuss, as its first shortwave broadcast. On 11 June 1953 the public broadcasters in the ARD signed an agreement to share responsibility for Deutsche Welle. At first it was controlled by Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR). In 1955, when this split into the separate Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) networks, WDR assumed responsibility for Deutsche Welle programming. In 1960 Deutsche Welle became an independent public body after a court ruled that broadcasting from Germany was part of the federal government's foreign-affairs function. On 7 June 1962 it joined the ARD as a national broadcasting station.

Broadcast languages

Language	Began	Ceased
German	1953	–
English	1954	–
French		–
Spanish		–
Portuguese		–
Arabic	1959	–
Persian	1962	–
Turkish		–
Russian		–
Polish		–
Czech		2000
Slovak		2000
Hungarian		2000
Serbo-Croatian (Serbian, Croatian: 1992 Bosnian: 1997)		–
Swahili	1963	–
Hausa		–
Indonesian (Malay)		–
Bulgarian		–
Romanian		–
Slovene		–
Modern Greek	1964	–
Hindi		–
Bengali		–
Urdu		–
Italian	–	1998
Chinese	1965	–
Amharic		–
Japanese	1969	2000
Macedonian		–
Pashto	1970	–
Dari		–
Albanian	1992	–
Ukrainian	2000	–
Danish	?	1998
Norwegian	?
Dutch	?

German reunification

With German reunification in 1990, Radio Berlin International (RBI) of East Germany ceased to exist. Some of the staff of RBI joined Deutsche Welle and it inherited some broadcasting apparatus, including the transmitting facilities at Nauen as well as RBI's frequencies.

DW (TV) began as RIAS-TV, a television station launched by the West Berlin broadcaster RIAS (Radio in the American Sector / Rundfunk im Amerikanischen Sektor) in August 1988. The fall of the Berlin Wall the following year and German reunification in 1990 meant that RIAS-TV was to be closed down. On 1 April 1992 Deutsche Welle inherited the RIAS-TV broadcast facilities, using them to start a German- and English-language television channel broadcast via satellite, DW (TV), adding a short Spanish broadcast segment the following year. In 1995 it began 24-hour operation (12 hours German, 10 hours English, 2 hours Spanish). At that time DW (TV) introduced a new news studio and a new logo.

Deutsche Welle took over some of the former independent radio broadcasting service Deutschlandfunk's foreign-language programming in 1993, when Deutschlandfunk was absorbed into the new Deutschlandradio.

In addition to radio and television programming, DW sponsored some published material. For example the South-Asia Department published German Heritage: A Series Written for the South Asia Programme in 1967 and in 1984 published African Writers on the Air. Both publications were transcript of DW programming.

World Wide Web presence

In late 1994 Deutsche Welle was the first public broadcaster in Germany with a World Wide Web presence, which at the time was (www.dwelle.de), although for its first two years the site listed little more than contact addresses. This later evolved into the current 30-language website. The URL later changed to www.dw-world.de and switched to www.dw.de in 2012.

For its 10th-anniversary celebration in 2004 DW provided a Klingon language version of its website under klingon.dw-world.de.

The Internet news site offers daily exclusive coverage in seven core languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese for Brazil and Russian) as well as a mixture of news and information in 23 other languages corresponding to Deutsche Welle's radio programmes. Persian became the site's eighth focus language in 2007.

German and European news are DW's central focus, but the site also offers background information regarding Germany and German language courses.

Recent events

In 2001 Deutsche Welle (in conjunction with ARD and ZDF) founded the German TV subscription TV channel for North American viewers. The project was shut down after four years owing to low subscriber numbers. It has since been replaced by the DW-TV channel (also a subscription service).

Unlike most other international broadcasters, DW-TV doesn't charge terrestrial stations for use of its programming, and as a result its News Journal and other programmes are rebroadcast on numerous public broadcasting stations in several countries, including United States, Australia and New Zealand. In the Philippines it is shown nationwide on Net-25 and GEM TV.

Deutsche Welle is still suffering from financial and staffing cuts. Its budget was reduced by about €75 million over five years and of the 2,200 employees it had in 1994 only 1,200 remain. Further cuts are still expected.

In 2003 the German government passed a new "Deutsche Welle Law", which defined DW as a three-media organization, making the Deutsche Welle website an equal partner with DW-TV and DW Radio. The website is available in 30 languages, but focuses on German, English, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese and Arabic. Persian became the eighth focus language in 2007.

In March 2009 DW-TV expanded its television services in Asia with two new channels, namely DW-TV Asia and DW-TV Asia+. DW-TV Asia (DW-TV Asien in German) contains 16 hours of German programming and 8 hours in English whilst DW-TV Asia+ contains 18 hours of English programmes plus 6 hours of German programmes.

In August 2009 DW-TV's carriage in the United Kingdom on Sky channel 794 ceased, although the channel continues to be available via other European satellites receivable in the UK.

Shortwave relay stations

Transmitter sites

The Jülich radio transmitter site began operation in 1956 with eleven 100 kW Telefunken transmitters.

The Wertachtal site was authorized in 1972 and began service with four 500 kW transmitters. By 1989 there were 15 transmitters, four of which relayed the Voice of America.

The Nauen transmitter site was inherited from Radio Berlin International. RBI's Russian-made three 500 kW and one 100 kW transmitters were replaced by four Telefunken 500 kW transmitters and four rotatable antennae. Today Deutsche Welle no longer uses any of the transmitters based in Germany.

External shortwave relay stations

• Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, sold to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation
  • 3 × 250 kW shortwave transmitters
  • 1 × 400 kW mediumwave transmitter
  • 20 antennae (to be verified)

• Kigali, Rwanda: A relay station in Kigali, Rwanda, provides coverage for Africa, but the site was destroyed during genocide and civil war in 1994.
  • 4 × 250 kW shortwave transmitters

• Sines, Portugal closed on 30t October 2011 (will be dismantled in a few months)
  • 3 × 250 kW shortwave transmitters

A relay station in Malta had three SW and one 600 kW- MW transmitter and gave partial coverage of the Americas, Southern Asia and the Far East. It was established in the early 1970s in exchange for a grant of almost 1 million GBP. The station closed in January 1996.

DW shared a transmitting station in the Caribbean with the BBC and had a relay-exchange with the CBC that allowed DW to use two 250 kW transmitters in Sackville.

Relay stations leasing transmitter time to DW

DW leases time on the following relay stations

• Novosibirsk, Russia
• Irkutsk, Russia
• Alma Ata, Kazakhstan
• Skelton, United Kingdom
• Woofferton, United Kingdom
• Kranji, Singapore (BBC Far Eastern Relay Station)
• Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles (Radio Netherlands)
• Talata Volonondry, Madagascar (Radio Netherlands)
• Dhabayya, United Arab Emirates

Directors General

• 12 October 1960 – 29 February 1968: Hans Otto Wesemann
• 1 March 1968 – 29 February 1980: Walter Steigner
• 1 March 1980 – 8 December 1980: Conrad Ahlers
• 19 December 1980 – 30 June 1981: Heinz Fellhauer (interim)
• 1 July 1981 – 30 June 1987: Klaus Schütz
• 1 July 1987 – 30 June 1989: Heinz Fellhauer
• 1 July 1989 – 31 March 2001: Dieter Weirich
• 1 April 2001 – 30 September 2001: Reinhard Hartstein (interim as deputy intendant)
• 1 October 2001 – present: Erik Bettermann

DW services

• DW (Radio): shortwave, cable TV, satellite and digital radio (DRM) broadcasting in 29 languages, with a 24-hour service in German and English
• DW (TV): satellite television broadcasting mainly in German, English, Arabic and Spanish. French and Italian were added in 2009 and Portuguese and Chinese in 2010.
• DW.DE: 30-language website

DW Akademie

DW Akademie is Deutsche Welle's international center for media development, media consulting and journalism training. It offers trainings and consulting services to partners around the world. It works with broadcasting stations, media organizations, and universities especially in developing- and transition countries to reinforce free and independent media. The work is funded mainly by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

DW Akademie's journalism traineeship is a 18-month program for young journalists that provides editorial training in the three areas in which Deutsche Welle produces content: radio, television and online. It is aimed at aspiring journalists from Germany as well as from regions to which Deutsche Welle broadcasts.

The Master's Program "International Media Studies" offered in cooperation with the University of Bonn and the University Bonn-Rhein-Sieg of Applied Sciences is based at DW Akademie. The four-semester program combines the disciplines media development, media regulation, and communications. The seminars are held in English and German and the degree is aimed at media representatives from developing and transition countries.

The managing director of DW Akademie is Gerda Meuer, who has worked as a journalist for different media outlets and as a correspondent for Inter Press Service, a news agency focused on development issues.

Notes and references

• McPhail, Thomas L. Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends. 2006, Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-3427-5.

• Wallis, Roger, and Stanley J. Baran. The Known World of Broadcast News: International News and the Electronic Media. 1990, Routledge. ISBN 0-415-03604-6.

• Wood, James. History of International Broadcasting. 2000, Institution of Engineering and Technology. ISBN 0-85296-920-1.

External links

• Official site
• DW Livestream
• The Bobs DW International Weblog Award
• DW (English) on Google+
• @dw_english on Twitter