Südwestrundfunk
radio and television network in Germany
Südwestrundfunk (pronounced [zyːtˈvɛstˌʁʊntfʊŋk]; lit. 'Southwest Broadcasting'), shortened to SWR (pronounced [ˌɛsveːˈʔɛʁ]), is a regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany, specifically the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The corporation has main offices in three cities: Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz, with the director's office being in Stuttgart. It is a part of the ARD consortium.
It broadcasts on two television channels and six radio channels, with its main television and radio office in Baden-Baden and regional offices in Stuttgart and Mainz. It is the second largest broadcasting organization in Germany behind WDR. SWR, with a coverage of 55,600 km2 (21,500 sq mi), and an audience reach estimated to be 14.7 million. SWR employs 3,700 people in its various offices and facilities.
History
SWR was established on 1 January 1998 through the merger of Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR, Southern German Broadcasting), formerly headquartered in Stuttgart, and Südwestfunk (SWF, South West Radio), formerly headquartered in Baden-Baden. The new corporation began broadcasting on 1 September 1998. Its predecessor organizations, SDR and SWF, were formally dissolved at 24:00 on 30 September 1998, SWR legally succeeding them with effect from 0:00 on 1 October 1998.
The existence of two public broadcasting corporations in southwest Germany was a legacy of the Allied occupation of Germany after the Second World War.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Südwestrundfunk” as radio and television network in Germany. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as radio and television network in Germany. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q700133. VIAF identifies the subject as 159093244. The Library of Congress control number is n99027904. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Südwestrundfunk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.