How can I be sure that my donation is well spent? What defines a trustworthy donation organization? What information do social workers need in order to successfully carry out their demanding job - and where do they get it? How do migrants live in Germany? Why is puberty such a difficult phase in life? Questions that concern us today, but which were already decisive when the DZI was founded.

When Jeannette Schwerin, Wilhelm Foerster and other socially committed people founded an information center about Berlin welfare institutions in 1893, they did not know that they were laying the foundation stone for the most important information and testing center in the German donation system. They certainly would not have expected that the German Society for Ethical Culture, which they headed, would become the largest documentation center for social work in Germany.