About AFP Deutschland

AFP Deutschland

AFP Deutschland is the German-language service of Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French international news agency headquartered in Paris. Operating through AFP GmbH in Berlin, it provides German-language world news to media throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The German service dates back to 1947, making it one of the longest-established foreign agency operations in the country — nearly eight decades of German-language world news. AFP itself was founded in 1835 in Paris by Charles-Louis Havas, making it the world's oldest news agency still in operation. The agency reports in six languages from 151 countries, and its German subsidiary has owned the sports agency Sport-Informations-Dienst (SID) outright since 1998.

Overview

AFP Deutschland supplies German-language international news to the German-speaking media: daily newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and online outlets draw on its wire for world news, while its German domestic coverage complements the output of the German national agency dpa. The Berlin-based AFP GmbH houses the German service's editorial and business operations.

As one of the world's three great international news agencies — alongside the Associated Press and Reuters — AFP gives German newsrooms access to global reporting of the highest standard: correspondents in 151 countries, coverage in six languages, and the speed and reliability that wire journalism demands. The agency's photo and video services — among the world's most-awarded visual journalism operations — supply German editors with images and footage from the front lines of world news. The German service translates this global newsgathering into German-language journalism tailored to the needs of German-speaking editors.

The agency's ownership of the Sport-Informations-Dienst (SID) since 1998 gives AFP Deutschland a unique position: the combination of international general news and Germany's leading sports wire under a single corporate roof.

History

AFP's origins lie in 1835, when Charles-Louis Havas founded the Havas agency in Paris — the world's first news agency. Havas's innovation — the systematic gathering and sale of news — created the agency journalism model that the world's media still use. Through the nineteenth century, the Havas agency grew into a global newsgathering organisation, forming the famous cartel with Reuters and Wolff that divided the world's news coverage: Havas took the French-speaking world and southern Europe, Reuters the British Empire and the Far East, Wolff Germany and northern Europe. The cartel — formalised in 1870 and lasting until 1934 — shaped the geography of world newsgathering for more than six decades.

The German service began in 1947, in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the re-established French agency recognised the need for German-language world news in the emerging West German media landscape. From these post-war beginnings, AFP Deutschland grew into a fixture of the German media scene, serving newsrooms through the Cold War — when Berlin was the front line of the East-West confrontation and AFP's correspondents covered the divided city — through reunification and the digital transformation.

The 1998 acquisition of the Sport-Informations-Dienst gave AFP Deutschland a sports dimension unmatched by other foreign agencies in Germany. The SID — founded in 1945, Germany's leading sports wire — became a 100 percent AFP subsidiary, combining French international newsgathering with German sports expertise. The acquisition was a strategic masterstroke: it gave AFP Deutschland the Bundesliga, the German national team and the Olympic movement alongside its world news, making the Berlin operation a comprehensive news provider that no competitor could easily replicate.

Content and Programming

AFP Deutschland's wire carries German-language world news: politics, economics, culture, science and sport from the agency's 151-country network. The German service's journalists select, translate and adapt the agency's global output for German-speaking editors, adding German angles and context where the story requires. From the American presidency to the Chinese economy, from the climate summits to the conflicts of the Middle East, the German service ensures that German newsrooms receive world news in their language, at wire speed, with the accuracy that agency journalism demands.

The agency's German domestic coverage complements its international reporting, giving customers a comprehensive news service. Its picture and video services — among the world's leading visual newsgathering operations — supply German newsrooms with photography and footage from the world's news events.

Through the SID subsidiary, AFP Deutschland offers Germany's leading sports wire: Bundesliga results, Olympic coverage, international football and the full spectrum of sports journalism. The combination of AFP's world news and the SID's sports coverage makes the Berlin operation a comprehensive news provider for the German-speaking media — the only foreign agency in Germany that can offer both world news and domestic sports from under one roof.

Coverage and Audience

AFP Deutschland serves media throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland — daily newspapers, magazines, public and private broadcasters, online media and the newsrooms that require international coverage. Its wire reaches editors across the German-speaking world, where it stands alongside dpa as a source of world news. The Berlin bureau's journalists cover German politics, economics and society for the agency's global network, while the German service delivers the world's news to German-speaking editors — a two-way flow that makes AFP Deutschland both a window on the world and Germany's voice in the global news conversation.

Through its media customers, AFP's journalism reaches millions of German-speaking news consumers daily. The agency's global network — correspondents in 151 countries reporting in six languages — gives German newsrooms a window on the world that no domestic agency can match. In an era of global news, AFP Deutschland remains the German media's connection to international journalism of the highest standard.

Ownership

AFP Deutschland operates through AFP GmbH in Berlin, the German subsidiary of Agence France-Presse, headquartered in Paris. AFP is one of the world's three great international news agencies, alongside the American Associated Press and the British Reuters. The French agency's history stretches back to Charles-Louis Havas's 1835 founding, making it the oldest news agency in continuous operation — a heritage that gives its journalism a depth and perspective few competitors can match.

The Berlin subsidiary's ownership of the Sport-Informations-Dienst (SID) since 1998 — a 100 percent holding — makes AFP Deutschland unique among foreign agency operations in Germany: a combination of international general news and domestic sports journalism under French ownership, serving the German-speaking media from a single Berlin base.

Digital Presence

AFP's global digital presence is anchored at afp.com, the agency's multilingual portal presenting its journalism, services and corporate information. The German service's output reaches customers through digital wire delivery, powering the newsrooms, websites and apps of the German-speaking media in real time.

AFP is present on social media globally, sharing its photojournalism and news coverage with international audiences. The agency's visual services — photography and video from 151 countries — are among the most-used in world journalism. As the German arm of the world's oldest news agency, AFP Deutschland combines nearly two centuries of journalistic tradition — from Havas's 1835 founding to the present — with the digital delivery that contemporary newsrooms require.

The website field in this profile reflects the parent agency's official online home. Operating from Berlin as the German arm of the world's oldest news agency — founded by Charles-Louis Havas in Paris in 1835, serving Germany since 1947, and owner of the SID sports wire since 1998 — AFP Deutschland brings global journalism to the German-speaking media with nearly two centuries of newsgathering heritage behind it — a living link to the birth of agency journalism itself and to the future of global newsgathering.