[4] The work of DW is regulated by the Deutsche Welle Act,[note 1][5] stating that content is intended to be independent of government influence.

The broadcaster's stated goals are to produce reliable news coverage, provide access to the German language, and promote understanding between peoples.

[7] It is also a provider of live streaming world news, which, like all DW programs, can be viewed and listened via its website, YouTube, satellite, rebroadcasting and various apps and digital media players.

[8] In total, over 4,000 distinct people of over 140 nationalities work in DW's offices in Bonn and Berlin, as well as at other locations worldwide.

[9] A predecessor with a similar name was Deutsche Welle GmbH, founded in August 1924 by German diplomat and radio pioneer Ernst Ludwig Voss in Berlin and broadcast regularly from 7 January 1926.

In 1959, Adenauer presented a bill to establish three federal broadcasting companies: Deutschlandfunk, Deutsche Welle and Deutschland-Fernsehen (Germany-TV).

In September 1994, Deutsche Welle was the first public broadcaster in Germany with an internet presence, initially www-dw.gmd.de, hosted by the GMD Information Technology Research Center.

Deutsche Welle purchased the domain dw.com, which previously belonged to DiamondWare, in 2013; DW had attempted to claim ownership of the address in 2000, without success.

The layout offers more flexibility to feature pictures, videos, and in-depth reporting on the day's events in a multimedia and multilingual fashion.

They also integrated their Media Center into the dw.de website making it easier for users to access videos, audio, and picture galleries from DW's multimedia archive of reports, programs, and coverage of special issues.

DW announced it would focus on FM partnerships for Bengali, Urdu, Dari/Pashtu, and Indonesian for South Asia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

On 1 November 2011, DW discontinued shortwave broadcasts in German, Russian, Persian, and Indonesian and ended its English service outside Africa.

DW News broadcasts from Berlin but frequently has live social media segments hosted from a specially designed studio in Bonn.

The Ministry for Culture and Media is responsible for the financing, which in turn allows the DW to offer a broadcast with low to nonexistent advertising time.

[28] Shortly after, Russia's parliament accused DW of breaking election legislation and asked the foreign ministry to consider revoking the German broadcaster's right to work in the country.

[32] In March 2022, a Belarusian court recognized the Telegram channel “DW Belarus” and the Deutsche Welle logo as extremist materials.

"[36][37] * partly by Deutschlandfunk (until 1993) The main distribution of DW programs is by Satellite transmissions, Internet Stream and re-broadcasting by local FM-radio stations.

Since 2019, DW has been providing its websites as an onion service via the Tor network in order to circumvent censorship measures by non-democratic states.

DW used a relay station in Malta that had three SW and one 600 kW-MW transmitter and gave partial coverage of the Americas, Southern Asia and the Far East.

It had a relay-exchange with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that allowed DW to use two 250 kW transmitters in Sackville, New Brunswick until that facility closed down in 2012.

DW Akademie's journalism traineeship is an 18-month program for young journalists that provides editorial training in the three areas in which Deutsche Welle produces content: radio, television and online.

He succeeded DW Akademie director Gerda Meuer, who had previously been deputy editor-in-chief of Deutsche Welle's radio program, and had earlier worked for various media outlets and as a correspondent for Inter News service.

[65] Through Flash animation, the series tells the story of a fictional character named Harry Walkott, a man who is struck by lightning in the Black Forest during his vacation in Germany and, because of this, becomes stuck in time, with the same day repeating over and over.

[66] Winners include: Reporting from The Guardian in January 2020 raised allegations of "sexual harassment, racism, antisemitism, and severe bullying" within the organization.

[69] In November 2021, Süddeutsche Zeitung published an investigation into social media comments allegedly made by members of DW's Arabic service, including posts that appeared to downplay the Holocaust or perpetuate anti-Jewish stereotypes.

[70][71] On 3 December 2021, DW announced that it was suspending four employees and one freelancer during an external investigation, to be led by former German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and psychologist Ahmad Mansour, into the allegations.

"[72][73] Several of those fired stated that they had not been given a chance to defend their case, criticized DW's lack of clarity regarding guidelines for what constituted antisemitism, and said they felt they were being censored in what they could write about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A former colleague, Maram Salem, won her case in July against DW for unlawful termination, ruling that her Facebook posts were not anti-Semitic.

[75] Also in September 2022, Deutsche Welle updated its Code of Conduct to include "Germany's historical responsibility for the Holocaust is also a reason for which we support the right of Israel to exist" among their values and noted antisemitism is grounds for dismissal.

[76] The updated code of conduct is thought to improve Deutsche Welle's chances of successfully terminating antisemitic employees in the future.