History
After World War II the Technisches Hilfswerk was founded in 1950, by order of the minister of the interior. The first president of the THW was Otto Lumitzsch, who already had founded the THW's predecessor, the Technische Nothilfe, in 1919. The main purpose of the THW was civil defense in the event of war. This has changed during the decades; today the THW is a capable helper 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 severe flooding of the Elbe river in eastern Germany. All in all, about 24,000 THW members participated in the operation, with up to 10,000 people helping simultaneously along the Elbe and its tributaries.
The largest engagement outside Germany was in France in 2000, after storms Lothar and Martin had destroyed much of the overhead electrical overland wires and overturned trees blocked many streets from December 26 to 28, 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 after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (for both relief operations and medium-term rebuilding), Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, in 2010 during the flooding in Poland, and the 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami.
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