[citation needed] The most important domestic operations in the 1960s were the North Sea storm flood in 1962 and the mining accident of Lengede in 1963.

[7][8] The largest engagement outside Germany was in France in 2000, after storms Lothar and Martin blew down power lines and trees, blocking many streets, between 26 and 28 December 1999.

Its headquarters (THW-Leitung) are in Bonn-Lengsdorf, together with the Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (BBK) (Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance).

The THW comprises 668 local chapters, 66 regional offices, eight state associations, and the THW administration in Bonn, which consists of the management staff, the commissioner of volunteers, and the Deployment Section with the units E1 mission, E2 foreign, E3 training, E4 logistics, and E5 technology, and the Central Services Section with the units Z1 volunteers and staff, Z2 organization, Z3 finance, Z4 security and health protection, and Z5 information and communication.

The main type of THW unit is one of two Bergungsgruppen (1st and 2nd Rescue Groups), equipped with heavy tools like hydraulic cutting devices, chain saws, and pneumatic hammers.

Furthermore, the THW has a pool of experts which can be rapidly deployed to places of crisis to perform assessment and coordination tasks within the fields of technical and logistical support.

Others were too, such as volunteer fire brigades and various organisations engaged in emergency medical service; however, the THW relied more heavily on such quasi-conscripts, as it tends to have less local popularity than, e. g., volunteer fire brigades (who tend to be the chief social club of their respective village or town-quarter), and as it had less of an infrastructure of paid employees than, for instance, the German Red Cross.

The THW has its own decoration for meritorious service or exemplary achievements in the field of emergency management or civil protection: All three classes of the Ehrenzeichen des Technischen Hilfswerks are approved by the president of Germany.