Municipal securities risk. The fund could be impacted by events in the municipal securities market, including the supply and demand for municipal securities. Negative events, such as severe fiscal difficulties,
bankruptcy of one or more issuers, an economic downturn, unfavorable legislation, court rulings or political developments, or reduced monetary support from the federal government could hurt fund performance. The value
of municipal securities is strongly influenced by the value of tax-exempt income to investors and changes in tax and other laws, including changes to individual or corporate tax rates, could alter the attractiveness
and overall demand for municipal securities.
Market risk. Deteriorating market conditions might cause a general weakness in the market that reduces the prices of securities in that market. Developments in a particular class of debt securities or
the stock market could also adversely affect the fund by reducing the relative attractiveness of debt securities as an investment.
Security selection risk. The securities in the fund’s portfolio may decline in value. Portfolio management could be wrong in its analysis of municipalities, industries, companies, economic trends, the
relative attractiveness of different securities or other matters.
Counterparty risk. A financial institution or other counterparty with whom the fund does business, or that underwrites, distributes or guarantees any investments or contracts that the fund owns or is
otherwise exposed to, may decline in financial health and become unable to honor its commitments. This could cause losses for the fund or could delay the return or delivery of collateral or other assets to the
fund.
Tax risk. Income from municipal securities held by the fund could be declared taxable because of unfavorable changes in tax laws, adverse interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service or state tax
authorities, or noncompliant conduct of a securities issuer. In such event, the value of such securities would likely fall hurting fund performance and shareholders may be required to pay additional taxes. In
addition, a portion of the fund’s otherwise exempt-interest distributions may be taxable to those shareholders subject to the federal AMT.
Liquidity risk. In certain situations, it may be difficult or impossible to sell an investment and/or the fund may sell certain investments at a price or time that is not advantageous in order to meet
redemption requests or other cash needs. Unusual market conditions, such as an unusually high volume of redemptions or other similar conditions could increase liquidity risk for the fund, and in extreme conditions,
the fund could have difficulty meeting redemption requests.
Prepayment and extension risk. When interest rates fall, issuers of high interest debt obligations may pay off the debts earlier than expected (prepayment risk), and the fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower
yields. When interest rates rise, issuers of lower interest debt
obligations may pay off the debts later than
expected (extension risk), thus keeping the fund’s assets tied up in lower interest debt obligations. Ultimately, any unexpected behavior in interest rates could increase the volatility of the fund’s share
price and yield and could hurt fund performance. Prepayments could also create capital gains tax liability in some instances.
Pricing risk. If market conditions make it difficult to value some investments, the fund may value these investments using more subjective methods, such as fair value pricing. In such cases, the value
determined for an investment could be different from the value realized upon such investment’s sale. As a result, you could pay more than the market value when buying fund shares or receive less than the market
value when selling fund shares.
ETF risk. Because ETFs trade on a securities exchange, their shares may trade at a premium or discount to their net asset value. An ETF is subject to the risks of the assets in which it invests as
well as those of the investment strategy it follows. The fund incurs brokerage costs when it buys and sells shares of an ETF and also bears its proportionate share of the ETF’s fees and expenses, which are
passed through to ETF shareholders.
Fees and expenses incurred by an
ETF may include trading costs, operating expenses, licensing fees, trustee fees and marketing expenses. With an index ETF, these costs may contribute to the ETF not fully matching the performance of the index it is
designed to track.
Operational and technology
risk. Cyber-attacks, disruptions, or failures that affect the fund’s service providers or counterparties, issuers of securities held by the fund, or other market participants may adversely
affect the fund and its shareholders, including by causing losses for the fund or impairing fund operations.
Past Performance
How a fund's returns vary from year
to year can give an idea of its risk; so can comparing fund performance to overall market performance (as measured by an appropriate market index). Past performance may not indicate future results. All performance
figures below assume that dividends and distributions were reinvested. For more recent performance figures, go to dws.com (the Web site does not form a part of this prospectus) or call the phone number included in
this prospectus.