After the collapse of the German Democratic Republic and the reunification of the evangelical churches in Germany a new concept of training in social work in general and within the Diakonie in particular had to be drawn up. In the course of this process the "Evangelische Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit Dresden" was set up as a foundation in 1991. Challenged by increasing social problems in the East-German federal Lands, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony, the "Das Rauhe Haus" foundation in Hamburg, the Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony and the Evangelisch-Lutherische Diakonenhaus Moritzburg participated in this foundation along with the State Ministry of Science and Art of the Free State of Saxony. The refoundation was also supported by the Evangelische Hochschule der Diakonenanstalt des Rauhen Hauses, the Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical Church in Germany, the North-Elbion Evangelical-Lutheran Church, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover, the Evangelische Darlehensgenossenschaft Kiel, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Körber foundation.

For the past 15 years our institution of higher education has been pursuing the aim of meeting the current social challenges by ensuring a qualified basic, advanced and further training of specialists in social work, nursing care science and pre-school and nursery education in cooperation with the churches of the federal Lands and the Diakonische Werke of the church province of Saxony, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia, the Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia and the Evangelical Church in Germany. Our institution is jointly financed by the Free State of Saxony and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony.

All degrees are recognized by the state. Right from the beginning of its development our institution has taken a lively interest in questions of social work in Eastern Europe. Based on the extension of our activities towards Europe within the scope of the ERASMUS program over the last years, our institution wants to act as a bridge to enable and intensify a transfer of information, structures and models of social work between East and West European universities and other institutions of higher education and their individual schools.

We also maintain a close cooperation with deacon training colleges of the former Association of Churches of the GDR such as the deacon training in Martinshof Rothenburg/Neiße which is a forerunner of our institution.