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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.

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Deutsche Welle
Country	Germany
Founded	3 May 1953
Broadcast area	National and International
Website	www.dw-world.de

Deutsche Welle or DW is Germany's international broadcaster. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio in 29 languages (DW Radio). It has a satellite television service (DW-TV) that is available in four languages, and there is also an online news site. Deutsche Welle, which in English means "German Wave", is similar to international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, Radio Canada International, Voice of America, and Radio France Internationale.

Deutsche Welle has broadcast regularly since 1953. Until 2003 it was based in Cologne, but relocated that year to a new building in Bonn's former government office area. The television broadcasts are produced in Berlin. Deutsche Welle's World Wide Web site is produced in both Berlin and Bonn.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Expansion of supported languages 1.2 German reunification 1.3 World Wide Web presence 1.4 Recent events 2 Shortwave relay stations 2.1 Domestic shortwave relay stations 2.2 External shortwave relay stations 2.3 Relay stations leasing transmitter time to DW 3 Directors General 4 Deutsche Welle services 5 See also 6 Notes and references 7 External links

Deutsche Welle was inaugurated on 3 May 1953, with an address by 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, which on 7 June 1962 joined the ARD as a national broadcasting station.

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• 1953: German
• 1954: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
• 1962: Persian, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian
• 1963: Swahili, Hausa, Indonesian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Slovenian
• 1964: Greek, Italian, Hindi, Urdu
• 1970: Pashtu, Dari
• 1992: Albanian
• 2000: Ukrainian

Some language services have been discontinued, both due to financial cuts and an allegedly decreasing demand. In 1998, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch and Italian radio services were discontinued, as well as Sanskrit. 1999 was the last year for language services in Japanese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Czech and Hungarian.

With German reunification in 1990, Radio Berlin International (RBI) of East Germany ceased to exist. Some of the staff and personnel of RBI joined the 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 mid-1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall later that year and German reunification in 1990 meant that RIAS 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 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 Web site.

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 programs. Persian became DW-WORLD.DE's eighth focus language in 2007.

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

The site can be viewed in a special version for mobile devices and its radio and television broadcasts are available on line.

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 due to low subscriber numbers. It has since been replaced by the DW-TV channel (also a subscription service).

DW-TV currently broadcasts on satellite television in the United Kingdom (Sky Channel 801), and cable television (Virgin Media Channel 830). It alternates every hour between English and German with the news (Journal) on the hour.

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 programs are rebroadcast on numerous public broadcasting stations in several countries, such as the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

Deutsche Welle is still suffering from financial and personnel cuts. Its budget was downsized by about €75 million over five years and of the 2,200 employees it had in 1994, 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, Portuguese for Brazil, Chinese and Arabic. Persian became the eighth focus language in 2007.

In April 2007, DW launched its own channel on the video platform YouTube.

• Jülich radio transmitter

• Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
  • 3 x 250 kW shortwave transmitters
  • 1 x 400 kW mediumwave transmitter
  • 20 antennas (to be verified)

• Kigali, Rwanda
  • Site destroyed by 1990s civil war
  • 4 x 250 kW shortwave transmitters

• Sines, Portugal
  • 3 x 250 kW shortwave transmitters

DW leases time on the following relay stations

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

• 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 Radio: shortwave, cable TV, satellite, and digital radio broadcasting in 29 languages, with a 24-hour service in German and English
• DW-TV: satellite television broadcasting mainly in German (usually in the odd hours UTC, thus the even hours in Germany), and English (usually in the even hours UTC), with brief segments in other languages (particularly Spanish in the 23 hour UTC)
• DW-WORLD.DE: 30-language website

• BBC World
• Radio Canada International
• PRESS TV
• International broadcasting
• Al Jazeera English
• CCTV-9
• CNN International
• EuroNews
• France 24
• Channel NewsAsia
• Russia Today

• Official site
• How to watch Deutsche Welle via Satellite in North America
• germanizer.com
• study-in-germany.de Study and Research in Germany - Deutsche Welle portal
• The Bobs Deutsche Welle International Weblog Award
• Deutsche Welle as part of Germany's public diplomacy efforts, a compilation on Wikia.com

v • d • e Member organizations of the ARD
Current	Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) · Deutsche Welle (DW) · Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) · Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) · Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) · Radio Bremen (RB) · Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) · Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) · Südwestrundfunk (SWR) · Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
Former	Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) · Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) · Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) · Südwestfunk (SWF) · Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR)

v • d • e The World Radio Network (WRN)
Channel Africa • China Radio International • Deutsche Welle • Earth & Sky • Israel Radio International • KBS World Radio • National Public Radio • Pacifica Radio • Radio Australia • Radio Budapest • Radio Canada International • Radio Guangdong • Radio Netherlands • Radio New Zealand International • Radio Polonia • Radio Prague • Radio Romania International • Radio Slovakia International • Radio Sweden • RTÉ • United Nations Radio • Vatican Radio • Voice of Russia
(Sources: WRN Website and Sirius Radio)

v • d • e International news channels
Africa	CNBC Africa • SABC Africa • Nile TV International
Asia	ABS-CBN News Channel • Al Jazeera English • CNBC Asia • Channel NewsAsia • CCTV-9 • Press TV • CTV News Channel • TVBS-NEWS • CTi News • Phoenix InfoNews Channel • STAR News • SET News • Era News • Unique Business News • ETTV News • ETtoday • FTV News • NDTV 24x7 • YTN
Europe	BBC World • CNBC Europe • EuroNews • France 24 • Russia Today • Sky News • Deutsche Welle • SKY TG24 • TVE 24H • SIC Notícias
North America	Bloomberg Television • Caribbean Media Corporation • CBC Newsworld • CNBC • CNN International • Fox News Channel • VOA TV
Oceania	TVNZ 7
South America	teleSUR • TV Chile