DA was established in Pune, with the vision ‘Freude an dem Studium’, meaning, ‘Eternal Joy in Learning’ by Uma Apte. Pune has a rich educational heritage, often called as Oxford of the East. The students in the city have been learning German, since 1914. In the same place, DA had a humble start and several students started joining the institute.

Eight years after our foundation, we collaborated with a school in the city, to establish a German Department. We trained the teachers in language training & cultural sensitization. The goal was to develop a department where students can have fun while learning the language.

Besides our courses for school and college-going students, we started a new department, dedicated to training students and professionals for Goethe Institute Examinations. Since then, thousands of students have appeared and cleared their Goethe Examinations with flying colours, after their training at DA.

Uma Apte, our director, helped design one of the first educational tours to Germany where over 20 students participated and lived in Germany for over a month to learn about the country, their language and their culture.

Our first project with a college. DA collaborated with a college in the city to set up a German Department for students of multiple streams like Management, Engineering, Bio-sciences, etc. In the following 3 years, the department was established with teachers’ training and syllabus design from DA.

Our director, with our teachers’ team at DA, was one of the founding members of the Indo-German Teachers’ Association, now known as InDaF. As the West-Zone head, we worked to get teachers from the West-Zone of India together in several conferences and seminars to discuss new teaching techniques and the nuances of the language.

DA established a new learning centre in the city, where weekend batches for professionals were also started.

DA started partnering with companies in the city to train their teams in the language and culture to enhance the quality of their experience while living in Germany and working in German companies.

We started a professional course for budding German translators. Many students pursuing German as a hobby, could now pursue it as a profession. Several expert lectures, orientation programmes are conducted by experienced German translators.

Our silver Jubilee was celebrated by our Alumni, students and teachers. Students and teachers participated in music & theatre performances. Several students also shared their experiences of learning at DA, and a few of our students living in Germany joined us live and shared their fond memories of DA.

Deutsch Activ Culture Club was established. The purpose of this club is to create a German learners’ community where they can engage with the language, beyond the book. Seminars, competitions, workshops are conducted over the weekends and in between lectures, to make language learning, even more fun. Several of our Alumni also took up memberships to grab opportunities to engage with different activities around the language and culture.

DA starts teaching students online, from all around the world. Besides students from several Indian cities, students from the US, UK and Germany also joined in to experience online learning from the experts at DA.

DAPIP (Deutsch Activ Partner Institute Program) is a flagship initiative of DA, with the vision to spread the culture of learning German, across the state of Maharashtra. DAPIP works with various leading educational institutes in the state.