During the 1960s and in the midst of the economic miracle, Germany attracted millions of immigrants from Southern Europe. In order to encourage the links of these people with their new country of residence and their homelands, the German Federal government created the radio stations for foreign residents on ARD, the main radio and TV channel in Germany. Since 1964 and in addition to the initial programmes in English and French, daily radio programmes were broadcast in Spanish, Italian, Greek and Turkish for over 40 years.

In parallel and taking advantage of the German economic boom, many companies began to consider the idea of expansion abroad. This led corporations such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, BASF, Swarovski Crystals (Austria), MAN, Bosch, Miele and Siemens, among many others, to design advertising campaigns based on marketing strategies specifically addressing each country and that had to be translated into the main European languages. This aspiration to succeed abroad that was born over fifty years ago still remains today within the fabric of German industry, with a new boost to conquer new markets in order to face the current economic challenges.

In response to this new demand, some German studios sought native voiceover professionals at ARD, where daily foreign language programmes were being broadcast by microphone-savvy voiceover professionals. Over the last 50 years, the talent of these voiceover professionals has contributed in a subtle but significant way to the successful brand recognition of many German products.

Some of those voiceover professionals who were trained at ARD and Deutsche Welle stations today are part of our international team.