The APD news agency celebrated its 40th anniversary in Germany in 2024. APD® is the legally protected abbreviation for the Adventist Press Service (Adventistischer Pressedienst).
In 1876, the first two local Seventh-day Adventist churches on German soil were founded in Solingen and Vohwinkel (today, a district of Wuppertal). To mark this milestone, the Adventist church in Germany is celebrating its 150th anniversary, this year, under the motto "Courage for Tomorrow".
Through up-to-date news, the APD provides information about the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church as well as general Christian developments around the world. Its news is primarily aimed at secular media (print, online, radio, television), the church press, and other public information institutions. The agency is integrated into the communication structure of the Adventist Church. However, it operates independently of church leadership and other interest groups, following journalistic guidelines. This includes a commitment to true, objective, and comprehensive reporting.
Beginnings in Switzerland
The APD news agency was founded in Basel in 1974 on the initiative of journalist Christian Bernhard Schäffler, who worked as the head of press and advertising for an international railway company. From 1974 to 2003, he served on a voluntary basis as the head of the Department for Communication and Inter-Church Relations for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in German-speaking Switzerland. In this capacity, he founded the Adventist Press Service in 1974, serving as its voluntary director and editor. In 2004, Schäffler took early retirement from the railway company and, on behalf of the church, expanded APD Switzerland into a news agency. Schäffler played a key role in founding the French Adventist press service (BIA) in 1982 and APD Germany in 1984.
For media pioneer Schäffler, a core principle since APD's inception has been "the truth is the best quality feature." According to Schäffler, it must also be possible to report objectively on unpleasant matters within the church, because a church that portrays itself as better than it is will lose its credibility in modern society.
APD also in Germany
Erich Lischek was the deputy director, secretary (general manager), and head of the communication department for the Adventist church in Baden-Württemberg when he founded the Adventist Press Service in Germany in 1984 with the support of Christian B. Schäffler.
In 1984, there were no computers, no internet, no emails, websites, or social media. Back then, the monthly APD-Informationen was typed onto wax stencils, and a limited number of copies were produced using a stencil duplicator and sent out by mail. Each issue, printed on DIN A4 paper, was 10 to 15 pages long.
In January 1986, Lischek was sent to the USA for further training to establish an office of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in the Federal Republic of Germany. This was accomplished in 1987, and Lischek served as the director of ADRA Germany for many years. His successor from the Baden-Württemberg church leadership was Holger Teubert, who had previously worked as a local pastor in Karlsruhe, Pforzheim, Wasserburg am Inn, and Heidelberg. In addition to his new duties, Teubert was temporarily responsible for publishing the monthly APD-Informationen.
When Erich Lischek returned to the Federal Republic to found ADRA Germany, he resumed leadership of the APD in October 1986. The monthly APD-Informationen editions were now printed and distributed by Grindeldruck in Hamburg. Wolfgang Tulaszewski, who holds a doctorate in philosophy, worked on a freelance basis in the APD editorial office for 28 years. He earned his doctorate in German studies from the University of Munich in 1955 and worked for many years as a staff member for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, primarily focusing on church affairs.
APD State Edition: Baden-Württemberg
After Lischek resumed responsibility for APD Germany, Holger Teubert founded the APD Baden-Württemberg state edition in October 1986, with its editorial office in Stuttgart. As a result, APD Germany received the supplementary title "Central Editorial Office Germany". The monthly APD information from Stuttgart primarily contained reports on the activities of local Adventist churches in Baden-Württemberg. Recipients included secular and church media within the state. Press officers in local Adventist churches could also use the APD reports to service the local desks of their newspapers.
With the September 1994 issue, the church leadership discontinued the publication of the Baden-Württemberg APD-Informationen, as it appeared to have become "dispensable" following the establishment of a nationwide press and information office for Adventists.
Press and Public Relations
In 1991, Holger Teubert was tasked with managing the press and public relations work of the Church in reunified Germany. To this end, he founded the Press and Information Office, the Department for Inter-Church Relations, and the Central Office for Worldview Questions. He also took over as editor-in-chief of the APD from Erich Lischek. From May 1991 onward, the page count of the monthly printed APD-Informationen increased up to 20 pages per issue, and later even more.
Cooperation Between APD Switzerland and APD Germany
Since 1992, there has been close editorial collaboration between the APD editorial offices in Switzerland and Germany. Starting in 1998, the monthly APD-Informationen was also published on the Adventists' website homepage in Germany (www.adventisten.de). In 1998, the German Patent and Trademark Office granted trademark protection for the word and figurative mark "Adventistischer Pressedienst", including the abbreviation "APD", designating the APD as a news agency.
In 2001, APD Germany secured the domain www.apd.info. Since 2006, in close cooperation with APD Switzerland, daily APD news reports have complemented the monthly information. Until 2015, these were also sent out centrally via email to recipients in Germany by APD Switzerland. They can be subscribed to as a free newsletter. From 2006 to 2015, there were between 287 (in 2007) and 447 (in 2013) APD reports annually and, from 2016 onward, between 203 (in 2025) and 301 (in 2016).
On February 20, 2007, the APD signed a cooperation agreement with the Protestant Press Service (Evangelischer Pressedienst) to freely reproduce two of its texts per month. The monthly print edition of APD-Informationen would include a credit line for the reproduced texts.
Since July 2007, daily APD reports can also be found on the new homepage www.apd.info.
Misuse of the "APD" Abbreviation
At the end of 2009, the former news agency Deutscher Depeschendienst and the German service of the American news agency Associated Press (AP) began forming a new news agency called Deutscher Auslands-Depeschendienst, or DAPD. This upcoming news agency began issuing news in December 2009 to acquire clients, using the abbreviation "APD". However, the APD news agency had already secured word trademark protection for this abbreviation with the German Patent and Trademark Office since 1998, thus, prompting legal action.
Consequently, the upcoming news agency issued a cease-and-desist declaration, renounced the abbreviation "APD", and, starting in March 2010, used the lowercase abbreviation "dapd" to distinguish itself. According to its own figures, DAPD had a core base of 700 clients in 2012, supplying them with up to 850 news items and 2,500 photos daily. However, in October 2012, DAPD had to file for insolvency, and the agency ceased operations on April 11, 2013. As a result, 98 permanent employees lost their jobs and numerous freelancers lost their income.
Further Development of the APD
Since 2012, every APD report has been accompanied by a photo. On July 29, 2013, the APD concluded a cooperation agreement with Kathpress in Vienna regarding the free adoption of articles by the APD. In 2016, the monthly print edition of APD-Informationen was discontinued but the monthly updates continue to be available on the APD website.
New APD Editors-in-Chief
Holger Teubert: Served as editor-in-chief of APD Germany from May 1991 until his retirement in April 2015. He remains active in the editorial office.
Jens Oliver Mohr: Pastor and holder of a degree in theology, he succeeded Teubert from April 2015 to June 2019 and continues to serve as the press spokesperson for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany.
Stephan G. Brass: Has been the communication officer for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany since 2017. Following internal staff changes, he additionally assumed the role of editor-in-chief of the APD from July 2019 to July 2021. Brass was among the earliest internet users in Germany, starting with field tests under the former Bildschirmtext (BTX) system. During his service as a pastor, he supported regional church leaderships as a press spokesperson or public relations officer in various federal states.
Thomas Lobitz: A longtime journalist (53 at the time), he took over the APD editor-in-chief role in August 2021. He has worked as a magazine editor at the Advent-Verlag in Lüneburg since 2005 and took over the editorship of the church magazine Adventisten heute in 2016, a role he continues to hold.
APD Germany
The APD news agency is an institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany, a public law corporation. The APD central editorial office in Germany is located in Darmstadt. Agency reports can be accessed online at www.apd.info. The news agency is also present on Facebook and will soon be launching on Instagram.
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