Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst

In 1953, the GDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) ordered ADN GmbH dissolved and converted into a government agency with a monopoly on national and international news coverage.

Although the ADN was officially subordinate to the Council of Ministers, the SED maintained a careful watch over it as the most important means of disseminating news to the public.

The ADN began converting to electronic text processing and transmission in 1979, using technology purchased from the Kyoto-based Omron Corporation.

The collection of approximately one million historical photos preserved by ADN Zentralbild, some dating back to the earliest years of photography, were acquired by the German Federal Archives in Koblenz.

ADN maintained domestic bureaus in each of the GDR's fifteen governmental districts, or Bezirke, including East Berlin, as well as a network of foreign offices in socialist and capitalist states.