Offices
Deutsche Welle Headquarters in Bonn
DW relocated to the former capital city Bonn in the summer of 2003. The “Schürmann-Bau” was originally planned to house members of the German parliament.
Originally planned to house the elected members of the German parliament (Bundestag), the structure was named after the renowned architect, Professor Schürmann. However, with the reunification of Germany in October 1990 everything changed. Parliament voted to move from Bonn to Berlin, and as a result a new home for parliamentarians was planned and built on the shores of the Spree in Berlin.
Construction of the Schürmann complex in Bonn continued and a new concept to house Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle was conceived. A new broadcast center was constructed for DW as the broadcaster had to move from Cologne due to the use of asbestos in the former building's construction.
However, the move suffered a major setback when flooding along the Rhine swamped the construction site. In June 2000, a topping out ceremony was celebrated and the engineering staff took on the monumental task of installing new digital broadcast facilities.
DW moved into its new headquarters in the summer of 2003 - from Cologne to the four-story, nine-building complex on the shores of the Rhine in Bonn.