Deutschlandsender (German: [ˈdɔʏtʃlantˌzɛndɐ], Radio Germany), abbreviated DLS or DS, was one of the longest-established radio broadcasting stations in Germany. The name was used between 1926 and 1993 to denote a number of powerful stations designed to achieve all-Germany coverage.
Deutschlandsender I at first was the name of a powerful transmitter situated at Königs Wusterhausen in Brandenburg near Berlin, put into operation on 7 January 1926. The station was run by the Deutsche Welle GmbH, a commercial company – unconnected to today's similarly named international broadcaster – which had been set up by the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) network for nationally relaying programmes from Germany's nine regional broadcasting stations.
Broadcasting on long wave (182 kHz) from what was then a central position in the German Reich, the Deutschlandsender I transmitter enabled programmes from these stations to be heard throughout the country and its name was adopted as a station identification. The first programme broadcast was a concert from the RRG Berlin regional station, the Funk-Stunde AG. With effect from 1 January 1933, the Deutsche Welle company was renamed Deutschlandsender GmbH. Within a few weeks of this date the Nazi Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was to take over direct control of all broadcasting in Germany in the course of the Gleichschaltung process.
A second transmitter, Deutschlandsender II, broadcasting from nearby Zeesen, had been opened on 20 December 1927. Also in Brandenburg, Deutschlandsender III, then with a height of 337 m (1,106 ft) the world's second largest structure after the Empire State Building, started its transmissions on 19 May 1939 from Herzberg. These transmitters were destroyed and dismantled by the Red Army in 1945.