Private company

DHL Global Forwarding

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Division of Deutsche Post DHL

DHL Global Forwarding, formerly known as DHL Danzas Air & Ocean, is a division of Deutsche Post DHL providing air and ocean freight forwarding services. It also plans and undertakes major logistics projects under the brand name DHL Industrial Projects. Together with DHL Freight, it forms Deutsche Post's Freight/Forwarding department.2 It is headquartered in Bonn.1 It employed about 38,000 people.1 It is part of DHL Group.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

2006Founded1
  • Industryfreight forwarder1
  • HeadquartersBonn1
  • Founded inBasel1
  • Websitewww.dhl.com
  • Legal formAktiengesellschaft1
DHL-AY06EYR
Photo: Graham Richardson from Plymouth, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

DHL Global Forwarding, formerly known as DHL Danzas Air & Ocean, is a division of Deutsche Post DHL providing air and ocean freight forwarding services. It also plans and undertakes major logistics projects under the brand name DHL Industrial Projects. Together with DHL Freight, it forms Deutsche Post's Freight/Forwarding department.2

Corporate structure

DHL Global Forwarding is part of a group headed by DHL Group. 44 entities, 14 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Danzas was founded in 1815 and was originally based in Saint-Louis, Alsace, France.

Louis Danzas fought at Waterloo for Napoleon. After that battle, he joined a transport company owned by Michel l'Eveque and by 1840 became joint owner. The company, Danzas, and l'Eveque, obtained a mail delivery franchise from Le Havre to New York City in 1846. A Basel branch was opened in 1854.

The company began to use air transport in 1920 between France, and England, and opened its own freight terminal in Paris in 1962.

In 1999, Deutsche Post World Net acquired Danzas. When Deutsche Post AG acquired 100% of DHL in 2002, it fully integrated Danzas, DHL and EuroExpress under the DHL brand, thus renaming Danzas to DHL Danzas Air & Ocean.

In 2005, Deutsche Post dropped the Danzas brand and renamed the business unit DHL Global Forwarding/DHL Freight.

In 2006, it also combined parts of Danzas and other ground-based freight subsidiaries in its Global Forwarding, Freight division.

From Wikipedia’s article on DHL Global Forwarding, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2006Founded Founded in Basel1