According to § 32 of the DW Act, the Broadcasting Council represents the interests of the general public and supervises the compliance of DW with general program guidelines.
The Broadcasting Council elects the Director General and advises him/her in matters relating to the programming. The 17 unpaid members of the committee come from politics, business and society. The tenure of the current council (members listed below) began in March 2014.
Dr. Karl Jüsten, Chairman
Commissioner of the German Catholic Bishops Conference, nominated by the Catholic Church
Dagmar Freitag, Deputy Chairman
nominated by the German Bundestag
Elisabeth Motschmann
nominated by the German Bundestag
Vera Szackamer
Member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Central Council in Germany, nominated by the Jewish Central Council
Sibylle Spoo
Head of Division at the trade union ver.di (ret.),
nominated by the German Trade Union Central Organisations
Frank Kopania
Executive Director Global Ministries, Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), nominated by the EKD
Dr. Bärbel Kofler
Parliamentary State Secretary , Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, nominated by the German Federal Government
Claudia Roth
Minister of State for Culture and the Media, nominated by the German Federal Government
Katja Keul
Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, nominated by the German Federal Government
Ulrike Hiller
Former State Councillor, nominated by the German Bundesrat, Upper House of the German Parliament
Markus Ulbig
Minister of State (ret.), nominated by the German Bundesrat, Upper House of the German Parliament
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Chair of the Management Board, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), nominated by GIZ
Prof. Dr. Klaus Reichert
President of the German Academy for Speech and Literature, nominated by the Academy
Prof. Christian Höppner
President of the German Culture Council, nominated by the German Culture Council
Professor Dr. Dieter Lenzen
Former President of the University of Hamburg, nominated by the German Rectors' Conference
Frank Thewes
Spokesperson for the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK)
nominated in coordination with the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA)
Torsten Burmester
Secretary General / CEO of the German Olympic Sports Confederation,
nominated by the German Olympic Sports Confederation