| Federal Agency for Technical Relief | |
| Native Name: | Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk (THW) |
| Type: | agency |
| Seal: | Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk logo.svg |
| Preceding1: | Technische Nothilfe |
| Jurisdiction: | Germany |
| Headquarters: | Bonn-Lengsdorf |
| Employees: | 2,000+;[1] 88+ thousand volunteers |
| Budget: | EUR 428,629,000 (2023)[2] |
| Chief1 Name: | Sabine Lackner, President[3] |
| Parent Agency: | Federal Ministry of the Interior |
| Child1 Agency: | 3 training centers |
| Child2 Agency: | 8 regional offices |
| Child3 Agency: | 4 logistic centers |
| Child4 Agency: | 66 branch offices |
| Child5 Agency: | 668 local sections |
| Website: | www.thw.de |
The German: Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk (pronounced as /de/, (THW) pronounced as /de/, English: Federal Agency for Technical Relief) is the federal civil protection organisation of Germany. It is legally part of Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat and controlled by the German federal government. 97% of its more than 80 thousand members (2021) are volunteers.[4]
The obligations are defined in section 1 of the THW act (German: Gesetz über das Technische Hilfswerk).[5] These includes:
After World War II the German: Technisches Hilfswerk was founded in 1950, by order of the minister of the interior Gustav Heinemann. The first president of the THW was, who had founded the THW's predecessor, the German: [[Technische Nothilfe]], in 1919. The main purpose of the THW was civil defense in the event of war. This has changed over the decades; today the THW intervenes in a wide spectrum of disasters, such as traffic accidents, industrial disasters, or earthquakes.
The largest disaster control action took place in August 2002 after the flooding of the Elbe river in eastern Germany. About 24,000 THW members participated in the operation, with up to 10,000 people helping simultaneously along the Elbe and its tributaries.[6] [7]
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. The main contribution was supplying temporary electrical power for hospitals and other important institutions and rebuilding parts of the electrical system.
The organisation has also been active in many disaster relief operations abroad, for example in Thailand and Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake,[8] in the United States after Hurricane Katrina in 2005,[9] in Pakistan after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake,[10] in 2010 during the flooding in Poland,[11] the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan,[12] the April 2015 Nepal earthquake,[13] and the 2020 Beirut explosions.[14]
In 2021, the THW provided relief during major flooding in southwestern Germany, particularly in the Ahr Valley.[15]
In February 2023, THW personnel deployed to Turkey in the aftermath of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.[16]
As a federal authority which is part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the THW is headed by a president and board. Its headquarters (German: THW-Leitung) are in German: Bonn-Lengsdorf, together with the German: Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (BBK) (Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance).
The THW comprises 668 local chapters, 66 regional offices, 8 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 THW logistics center has its office in Heiligenhaus, and is, via its attachment to the Logistics Unit E4, part of the THW administration.
The THW is stationed all over Germany in 668 local chapters, called German: Ortsverbände (OV). Some 80,000 people are active in this organisation including about 15,000 young volunteers (members of the THW Youth). The majority of those are volunteers, while about 1,800 work full-time in its administration.[1] Each local chapter (German: Ortsverband) maintains one or more German: Technische Züge (technical platoons), each consisting of one German: Zugtrupp (command squad), comprising four volunteers, one German: Bergungsgruppe (rescue units) comprising nine to twelve volunteers, and one to three German: Fachgruppen (technical units), comprising four to eighteen volunteers.
The main type of THW unit is one of two German: Bergungsgruppen (1st and 2nd Rescue Groups), equipped with heavy tools like hydraulic cutting devices, chain saws, and pneumatic hammers. Their vehicles are the German: Gerätekraftwagen 1 (GKW 1) (Equipment Truck 1) for the 1st Rescue Group and the German: Mehrzweckkraftwagen (MzKW) (Multi-Purpose Truck) or the older German: Gerätekraftwagen 2 (GKW 2) — which is scheduled to be phased out — for the 2nd Rescue Group.
The German: Fachgruppen (Technical Units) include:
Furthermore, two types of technical units exist outside of technical platoons. They provide support mainly during major incidents or multi-regional operations:
For relief in foreign countries, there are four German: Schnelleinsatzeinheiten Bergung Ausland or SEEBA (Rapid Deployment Unit Search and Rescue Abroad) units according to INSARAG standards, able to go airborne within six hours,[17] and three German: Schnelleinsatzeinheiten Wasserversorgung Ausland or SEEWA (Rapid Deployment Unit Water Supply and Treatment Abroad) units.
The Schlauchschwinger also operates high capacity pumping (HCP) modules for the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
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. Those experts are also active in capacity building operations.
Technical threat prevention
Infrastructure technical support
Command and communication, logistics
Technical support in the protection of the environment
Provision of the population
Technical support
In Germany, military service was mandatory for adult males until 2011. Instead of joining the military for a shorter period full-time, one of the alternatives was to join a non-combatant volunteer organisation within the German German: Katastrophenschutz (disaster relief) or German: Zivilschutz (civil defense) for a minimum of four years (this is calculated so that although serving far less time every week, in the end the number of served hours was about the same). The THW was one of those organisations. 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 German: [[Ehrenzeichen des Technischen Hilfswerks]] are approved by the President of Germany.
In general, the rank structure of the THW is divided into two groups: the volunteers and the full-time employees.
The German: THW-Jugend (THW Youth) is the youth organization of the THW. It has set itself the target to introduce boys and girls from the age of six in a playful way to the work of the THWs. The German: THW-Jugend is not part of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, but is an independently registered charity. This arrangement was made in order to avoid maintaining a state youth organization.