drk-suchdienst

What drk-suchdienst does

DRK-Suchdienst is the tracing and family-reunification service operated by the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz e.V. (German Red Cross) as a designated core humanitarian task of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Founded in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II (with predecessor work dating to 1870) and headquartered at the DRK General Secretariat in Berlin, the service searches for persons separated by armed conflict, disaster, flight, expulsion, or migration, and clarifies the fates of those missing in connection with WWII and the division of Germany. Primary client groups are refugees and migrants in Germany (notably from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia), descendants of WWII missing persons (Wehrmacht soldiers, POWs, civilian internees, children separated during flight, and victims of NKVD special camps), ethnic German repatriates (Spätaussiedler) from Eastern Europe, and academic researchers.

The operational technology is built around the Central Name Index (Zentrale Namenskartei), approximately 50 million digitized index cards covering 20+ million individuals, organized with phonetic registration to flexibly match variant name spellings. The Munich site (Chiemgaustraße 109, since 1982) houses the Central Archive and Documentation Centre, including 225 volumes of digitized missing-persons photo collections (1.4 million persons, 900,000 photos, completed 2015) and access to records from Russian Federation archives (FSB Central Archive, Soviet POW/NKVD files). The product portfolio comprises International Tracing, WWII Tracing, Spätaussiedler Tracing, the Children's Tracing Service (Kindersuchdienst, ~300,000 children clarified since 1945), NKVD Special Camps Tracing, Family Reunification counseling, Red Cross Message exchange, and the Official Information Office that channels data to the ICRC Central Tracing Agency.

The business model is non-commercial: all tracing and reunification services are provided free of charge, funded through the German Red Cross general budget and Federal Ministry of the Interior grants. Distribution combines approximately 90 staffed counseling offices across 19 German state associations, 275 volunteer district inquiry offices (Kreisauskunftsbüros), online self-service tracing forms, and the international Red Cross network of 192 National Societies plus the ICRC. Reported outcomes include over 900 families reunited at the 2025 International Family Conference and 8.8 million tracing cases resolved by May 1950 out of 14 million requests received since the war's end.

Name

drk-suchdienst

Legal name

Deutsches Rotes Kreuz e.V.

Website

https://drk-suchdienst.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1945

Operating status

Operating

Short description

DRK-Suchdienst is the German Red Cross's humanitarian tracing service, helping refugees, migrants, and WWII descendants locate and reunite with missing relatives through a national office network and the global Red Cross/Red Crescent movement.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Humanitarian Tracing Services

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241), Emergency and Other Relief Services (62423), Other Individual and Family Services (624190)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Diaspora, Family Reunification & Case Management Services (BPADAHAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Refugee & Immigrant Support Services (BPAGAEAI), Migration, Refugees & Forced Displacement Assistance (BPADABAL)

Keywords

• Humanitarian tracing services
• Family reunification support
• Missing persons search
• WWII fate clarification
• Refugee tracing

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Humanitarian Services (Free): As a core humanitarian task of the Red Cross movement, all tracing services are provided free of charge to affected persons. The organization is funded through German Red Cross (DRK) general budget and government grants, particularly from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

DRK-Suchdienst is the tracing service of the German Red Cross, providing free humanitarian family tracing and reunification services. Its core offerings include international tracing for refugees and migrants separated from relatives, Second World War fate clarification via the digitized Central Name Index, Spätaussiedler (ethnic German repatriate) tracing, family reunification counseling with legal advice, Red Cross Messages connecting separated family members, the Children's Tracing Service, NKVD Special Camps tracing using Russian archives, and an Official Information Office that collects POW and civilian internee data and forwards it to the ICRC.

Product overview

DRK-Suchdienst operates as a comprehensive family tracing and reunification service organized as a core humanitarian task of the German Red Cross. The organization operates through two central locations (Munich and Hamburg) under the DRK-General Secretariat in Berlin, supported by approximately 90 counseling offices and 275 district information offices nationwide. Core services include: (1) International Tracing for refugees and migrants, (2) Second World War Tracing via the Central Name Index (Zentrale Namenskartei) containing 50 million cards on 20+ million persons, (3) Children's Tracing Service for minors separated during WWII, (4) Spätaussiedler Tracing for ethnic German repatriates, (5) NKVD Special Camps Tracing using Russian archives, (6) Connecting Relatives through Red Cross Messages, and (7) the Official Information Office. The digitized Missing Persons' Photo Collections provide online searchable access to 1.4 million WWII missing persons records.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Trace the Face: A photo-based tracing platform allowing relatives to post photos of missing family members for humanitarian tracing purposes, operated within the international Restoring Family Links network.
• Amtliches Auskunftsbüro
• Kindersuchdienst

Products and services

• International Tracing (Internationale Suche) Helps refugees and migrants in Germany search for family members separated due to armed conflicts, disasters, flight, expulsion, or migration. Cooperates with the worldwide Tracing Service Network of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including 192 National Societies and the ICRC.
• Family Reunification (Familienzusammenführung) Advises and supports family members separated by armed conflicts, disasters, flight, expulsion, or migration in the process of family reunification in Germany, including qualified legal advice on national and European law.
• Second World War Tracing (Suche Zweiter Weltkrieg) Searches for and clarifies the fates of relatives missing in connection with the Second World War or the division of Germany, including Wehrmacht soldiers, civilian displaced persons, prisoners of war, children separated from families, and prisoners in NKVD special camps.
• Spätaussiedler Tracing (Suche Spätaussiedler) Assists ethnic German repatriates and their families in searching for relatives who are missing due to resettlement from Eastern Europe to Germany.
• Children's Tracing Service (Kindersuchdienst) Dedicated to children separated from their families due to flight, expulsion, bomb attacks, or evacuation during the Second World War. Has clarified approximately 300,000 children's fates since 1945.
• NKVD Special Camps Tracing Traces and clarifies the fates of persons who disappeared into Soviet NKVD special camps (1945–1950) after the end of the Second World War, working with original Soviet NKVD files from Russian archives.
• Connecting Relatives (Verbinden) / Red Cross Messages Enables the exchange of messages between family members whose contact has been interrupted and cannot be reestablished through conventional means, including Red Cross Messages for transmitting important personal documents.
• Official Information Office (Amtliches Auskunftsbüro) Collects data on prisoners of war and civilian internees who fell into enemy hands and forwards this information to the Central Tracing Service of the ICRC.
• Archive and Documentation Centre Provides access to extensive archival holdings including the Central Name Index, prisoner of war files from Russian archives, camp archives with data on 12,800 POW and internment camps, historical maps, and photo collections related to tracing work.
• Missing Persons' Photo Collections Online (Vermisstenbildlisten online) Digitized photo collections containing 225 volumes with over 125,000 pages documenting missing Wehrmacht soldiers and civilians from the Second World War. Provides online searchable database of approximately 1.4 million missing persons.
• Online Tracing Request Forms Web-based forms allowing individuals to submit tracing requests online for international searches, Spätaussiedler family searches, and Second World War related searches.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 900 families reunited at International Family Conference 2025
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Soviet Red CrosscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 1957In May 1957, DRK and Soviet Red Cross agreed to cooperate in tracing service matters. By end of 1980s, DRK received almost half a million information requests from Soviet Red Cross. This cooperation enabled access to POW documentation and prisoner records.
• Polish Red CrosscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1955Initial talks with Polish Red Cross in 1955 brought movement to the issue of German minorities. This enabled progress in family reunification for ethnic Germans from Poland.
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDRK-Suchdienst cooperates worldwide with the tracing service network of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. ICRC serves as the central coordinating body for the network of 192 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The ICRC provides access to international detention confirmation (Health & Welfare Reports) and operates Restoring Family Links platform including Trace the Face.
• National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (192 organizations)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational tracing network comprising 192 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Each national society handles tracing requests for their country/region, enabling cross-border family tracing and reunification.
• British Red CrosscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorBritish Red Cross submits tracing requests to DRK-Suchdienst on behalf of family members in the UK seeking relatives in Germany. Example: Search for Ann Gisela Hubbard from Cardiff, UK.
• Trace the FacecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational tracing platform operated jointly with ICRC featuring photos of missing persons. DRK-Suchdienst contributes German cases and participates in global Trace the Face initiative including Trace the Face -Kids- for unaccompanied minor refugees.
• Federal Ministry of the Interior (Bundesministerium des Innern)coreOthersThe Federal Ministry of the Interior provides funding and political support for DRK-Suchdienst operations. The organization operates based on humanitarian mandate with government recognition, including participation in government commemoration events for victims of flight and expulsion.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Arolsen Archives (formerly International Tracing Service, ITS): The most direct peer, originally established by the international Red Cross movement in Bad Arolsen for tracing Nazi-era victims and survivors; both organizations share the WWII fate-clarification mission, hold overlapping document collections, and serve families seeking information on missing relatives from the same historical period.
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): Global coordinator of the Restoring Family Links network that DRK-Suchdienst operates within; ICRC's Central Tracing Agency and detention-related services share the same mandate, use the same Red Cross Messages infrastructure, and exchange data with DRK-Suchdienst on international cases.
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC): Umbrella body for the 192 National Societies; IFRC sets policy for restoring family links across the movement and coordinates migration-related tracing work, making it the natural strategic counterpart for DRK-Suchdienst's international tracing function.
• Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge: German organization responsible for maintenance of German war graves and documentation of WWII fallen; shares the WWII remembrance and fate-clarification mission with DRK-Suchdienst, and the two organizations frequently cooperate on documenting missing Wehrmacht personnel.
• Austrian Red Cross Tracing Service: Austrian counterpart within the same Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, performing the same Restoring Family Links and WWII-era tracing functions for Austria; structurally a near-twin service that exchanges tracing requests with DRK-Suchdienst through the international network.

Broad incumbents

• Caritas Germany (Deutscher Caritasverband): The largest German welfare organization alongside the Red Cross, providing refugee and migration support, family reunification counseling, and humanitarian assistance; comparable as a domestic German humanitarian peer addressing overlapping client populations, though broader in scope and without the tracing/archive specialization.
• UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency): The global intergovernmental body for refugee protection and family reunification; comparable in serving separated families from conflict zones, including through its own family reunification tracing programs, and often refers cases to the Red Cross network that DRK-Suchdienst serves.
• Diakonie Deutschland: The social welfare arm of Germany's Protestant churches, providing refugee and migration services, family counseling, and case management; comparable as a domestic German humanitarian peer serving the same refugee and Spätaussiedler populations, with overlapping but broader social services.

Emerging players

• Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center: Israel's official Holocaust memorial and research institution, holding Names Database records of millions of Holocaust victims; comparable as a peer in the WWII-era victim documentation and family research domain, with overlapping but distinct documentation focuses.
• Missing People UK: UK charity providing a tracing helpline and family liaison service for people reported missing in the UK; comparable as a peer in the family tracing and missing persons support category, though operating domestically with a different legal and population context.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/TraceTheFaceMigrantsEurope
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/drk-generalsekretariat-suchdienst-hamburg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about drk-suchdienst