The design by artist Lorenz Crössmann from Berlin impresses with its vivid depiction of the human and technical aspects of the work of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), for example in the search and rescue of injured people, flood defence and a typical deployment situation with heavy equipment. The activities shown are grouped around the THW logo in the centre
THW logo in the centre and are framed by a polymer ring in the characteristic THW blue. The openly gendered design of the
The openly gendered emergency services illustrate the organisation's claim to versatility. The vivid composition of pictorial elements, logo and typography harmonises very well with the identical value side for all coins in the series.
The coin focuses on special groups of people who are indispensable for the people affected and the functioning of our society. Founded on 22 August 1950 as a civil security service, the THW can look back on a history of over 70 years. In 1953, the THW became a federal organisation under the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Since then, it has followed the legal mandate to provide technical assistance in emergencies and disasters to protect the population, in foreign missions on behalf of the federal government and in local hazard defence. The structure of the THW is unique in the world: only 2% of its more than 90,000 members are full-time employees, 98% - around 88,000 people, including around 11,300 women - are volunteers. The head office is in Bonn, there are eight regional organisations as well as 66 regional offices and 668 local chapters in which everyday volunteer work is carried out. Whether it was the storm surge in Hamburg in 1962, the mining accident in Lengede in 1963 or the flood of the century on the Oder and Elbe rivers in 2002, the THW was deployed everywhere and provided valuable assistance. The largest deployment to date took place in 2021: After the flood disaster in the Ahr valley and other parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, all 668 local branches were involved in clearing roads, building bridges, securing houses and looking after the local people. THW is also repeatedly active abroad, whether after periods of drought, civil wars and earthquakes in Africa, Europe and South America, after the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia, Hurricane Katrina in the USA in 2005 or the natural disaster in Haiti in 2010. In 2022, the focus was on providing aid for Ukraine, at home by setting up emergency shelters for refugees and abroad by transporting relief supplies. In total, the volunteers completed over one million deployment hours and more than 240,000 hours of training. The THW is a prime example of how important volunteer work is for society and the positive impact it has.
