German Dispatch Service

Deutscher Depeschendienst (ddp) was a German news agency headquartered in Berlin. It was founded in 1971 by eight former employees of the US news agency UPI, including the German journalist Manfred Schell, after UPI discontinued its German-language service. The agency reported on events in Germany and abroad that were relevant to Germany. At its peak, ddp employed more than 140 full-time editors and photographers and around 350 freelance correspondents, serving approximately 350 clients with text and image news. Its basic service covered politics, business, culture, and miscellaneous news, and it operated 22 correspondent offices across 12 state services covering all 16 German federal states. In cooperation with Dow Jones Newswires, ddp produced the business news service ddp.djn. The ddp image service, led by Dirk von Borstel, supplied round-the-clock images of important events in Germany. The agency also produced print-ready pages for daily newspapers and content for websites, and offered ddp-LeuteNetz, a software for building internet communities, in cooperation with the Austrian software house Knallgrau. In December 2009, ddp took over the German service of the Associated Press (AP) and merged with it to form a full-service agency renamed dapd Nachrichtenagentur. The new agency aimed to establish itself as a comprehensive full-service agency and a serious competitor to market leader dpa. It expanded its offering considerably within a few years, delivering news from politics, business, society, and other departments, and offering photo and video services. It also expanded internationally, including into France. However, the rapid growth was accompanied by high financial burdens. In October 2012, central companies of the group filed for insolvency. After several attempts to restructure the news service and find new investors, the agency ceased operations on 11 April 2013. The rights to the ddp text archive were sold by the insolvency administrator and are now held by dts Nachrichtenagentur. The ddp brand had a turbulent ownership history. It filed for insolvency in 1983 and 2004, leading to changes in major shareholders. In 1992, ddp took over the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (ADN), the former state news agency of East Germany, and renamed itself ddp/ADN. From 2000, it reverted to the name ddp. From 2004 to early 2009, ddp was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Starnberg-based holding company Arques Industries. In spring 2008, ddp announced its highest revenue in company history at 11.7 million euros and said it had reached the profit zone. In January 2009, the ddp holding was taken over by Peter Löw and Martin Vorderwülbecke as private owners. After the insolvency of ddp and its successor dapd, the dapd.de domain was later revived as an independent business and financial portal, which today publishes news, analyses, and background information on economic and financial topics, and also documents the history of the dapd news agency.

The Deutscher Depeschendienst (ddp) was founded in 1971 by eight former employees of the US news agency UPI, including the German journalist Manfred Schell, after UPI discontinued its German-language service. The agency was headquartered in Berlin and reported on events in Germany and abroad with relevance to Germany. Over the decades, ddp expanded its services and faced multiple ownership changes and financial difficulties. In 1983, ddp filed for insolvency, leading to a change in major shareholders; Bolko Hoffmann took over. In 1992, ddp acquired the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (ADN), the former state news agency of East Germany, and renamed itself ddp/ADN. From 2000, it reverted to the name ddp. In 1994, Wolf E. Schneider became a major shareholder, and in 1999 the ProSieben Group (later ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) took over. In 2004, ddp filed for insolvency again. From 2004 to early 2009, ddp was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Starnberg-based holding company Arques Industries, operating as ddp Deutscher Depeschendienst GmbH. In spring 2008, ddp announced its highest revenue in company history at 11.7 million euros and said it had reached the profit zone. In January 2009, the ddp holding was taken over by Peter Löw and Martin Vorderwülbecke as private owners. In December 2009, ddp took over the German service of the Associated Press (AP), including the Swiss AP office, and merged with it to form a full-service agency renamed dapd Nachrichtenagentur. Since February 2010, the company cooperated with the Swiss news agency sda; the newly acquired Swiss office was closed. The new agency aimed to establish itself as a comprehensive full-service agency and a serious competitor to market leader dpa. It expanded its offering considerably within a few years, delivering news from politics, business, society, and other departments, and offering photo and video services. It also expanded internationally, including into France. However, the rapid growth was accompanied by high financial burdens. In October 2012, central companies of the group filed for insolvency. After several attempts to restructure the news service and find new investors, the agency ceased operations on 11 April 2013. The rights to the ddp text archive were sold by the insolvency administrator and are now held by dts Nachrichtenagentur. The dapd.de domain was later revived as an independent business and financial portal, which today publishes news, analyses, and background information on economic and financial topics, and also documents the history of the dapd news agency.

• Deutscher Depeschendienst founded by eight former UPI employees, including Manfred Schell.

• ddp files for insolvency; Bolko Hoffmann becomes major shareholder.

• ddp takes over Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (ADN) and renames itself ddp/ADN.

• Wolf E. Schneider becomes major shareholder.

• ProSieben Group (later ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) takes over as major shareholder.

• ddp/ADN reverts to the name ddp.

• ddp files for insolvency again; becomes wholly owned subsidiary of Arques Industries.

• ddp acquires pwe Verlag GmbH and integrates it into the newly founded Deutscher Fotodienst (dfd).

• ddp announces highest revenue in company history at 11.7 million euros.

• ddp holding taken over by Peter Löw and Martin Vorderwülbecke as private owners.

• ddp takes over the German service of Associated Press (AP) and merges to form dapd Nachrichtenagentur.

• Cooperation with Swiss news agency sda begins; Swiss AP office closed.

• Central companies of the dapd group file for insolvency.

• dapd ceases operations.

Full-service news agency and alternative to dpa, providing text, image, and video news for German media.

• ddp-Basisdienst

  Basic news service covering politics, business, culture, and miscellaneous news.

• ddp.djn

  Business news produced in cooperation with Dow Jones Newswires.

• ddp-Bilderdienst

  Image service providing round-the-clock images of important events in Germany.

• ddp-LeuteNetz

  Software for building internet communities, offered with Austrian software house Knallgrau.

1. 1Dapd.de official websitedapd.de
2. 2Über uns - Dapd.dedapd.de
3. 3dapd Nachrichtenagentur: Geschichte, Aufstieg, Ende und der Neustart 2026dapd.de
4. 4Mediengeschichte Archive - Dapd.dedapd.de
5. 5Wikidata: Deutscher Depeschendienstwikidata.org
6. 6Wikipedia: Deutscher Depeschendienstde.wikipedia.org