More than a million refugees arrived in Germany in 2015. In their baggage: Nothing but hope – and their smartphone. They use it to plan their escape and to stay in contact with family and friends. Arriving in Germany, they face another problem: They have to wait an average of three months for a German course – but language is the most important thing for successful integration.

We wanted to change the refugees’ situation und activate them to learn German to easily start their new life.

WhatsGerman started on December, 14th 2015 and is continuously updated.

WhatsGerman is not a separate app you have to install. It’s based on WhatsApp. Upon registration on www.whatsgerman.de, participants receive a lesson each day via WhatsApp consisting of text, emojis and videos.

The messages are sent with an external broadcasting service. The company offers a backend with which the project is controlled and statistics are evaluated.

It’s promoted with the help of print flyers and posters in refugee homes, social media and reporting/PR.

From NGOs like Caritas to magazines (Page, Vice), and leading national newspapers like BILD and radio stations as well. The medial success of WhatsGerman is based only on earned media.

Since early March Facebook is official partner of WhatsGerman providing a non-profit ad-campaign. WhatsGerman is also part of “Wir zusammen”, the refugee initiative of the German economy. It was featured in magazines and via TV ads.