Korbinians Kolleg
Questions of our time
On questions of the times
With lectures by top-class scientists, politicians, artists, writers, business leaders, and philosophers. Korbinian Kohler invites all interested parties to attend lectures by scientists, artists, and writers. The sometimes controversial topics invite discussion. The program is led and moderated by Munich philosopher Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl.
“We want to give people food for thought that goes beyond everyday life and initiate a dialogue that will help us move forward as a society.”
(Initiator Korbinian Kohler)
A special place for dialogue
After completing his studies in philosophy, Korbinian Kohler initiated the Korbinians Kolleg, a philosophical lecture series.
Together with Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl (LMU Munich) as curator and alternating guest speakers, he has since guided his guests through insightful and profound discussions on the central questions of our time.
The exclusive setting of the Spa & Resort Bachmair Weissach provides the ideal venue for this exchange.
Each winter semester, Korbinian Kohler invites 250 guests from academia, business, politics, and culture to six of these special events.
The aim of the Kolleg is to provide intellectual impulses that go beyond everyday life and to foster a dialogue that drives our society forward.
The past semester was held under the title “Wars and Crises. The Risks of the Present.”
Curated by Prof. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl, it has, thanks to him, established itself in a remarkable way as a signature event at the Spa & Resort Bachmair Weissach.
Both hotel guests and external visitors greatly appreciate the speakers and topics he has selected, as well as his fine sense for meaningful and intelligent discussions.
Professor Vossenkuhl will open the first lecture of the new winter semester on Friday, October 17, 2025, while at the same time bidding farewell as curator of the Korbinians Kolleg lecture series.
For the upcoming winter semester, the curation of the Korbinians Kolleg will be taken over by Prof. Dr. Karsten Fischer (LMU Munich), Geschwister-Scholl-Institute of Political Science.
Professor Fischer is a political scientist, holds a chair in Political Theory, and will accompany the lecture series in the future.
DATES FOR THE 2025/2026 WINTER SEMESTER:
October 17, 2025
November 21, 2025
December 12, 2025
January 23, 2026
February 27, 2026
March 20, 2026
Wilhelm Vossenkuhl on his friendship with Korbinian Kohler
Surely, we could not have launched Korbinians Kolleg if we had not become friends. The meaning of 'friendship' has become dubious and devalued with social media. Friends on the internet are acquaintances without obligations. Anyone and everyone can become a kind of 'friend' with anyone and everyone around the globe. It's quick, like everything that is superficial and commits to nothing. It has nothing to do with friendship. Aristotle, whom Korbinian and I hold in such high esteem, described friendship as a very special virtue. It is a firm bond that holds people together in such a way that community can develop from it. Friends not only feel affection for each other, they support each other without taking advantage. It is particularly difficult to understand this idea in our time, when communication is fuelled by the pursuit of advantage and profit. Friendship just for its own sake, without advantages, enriches everyone who participates in it. This is how mutual trust is built. Friends can rely on each other. Friends stand up for each other, help each other without being asked, forgive each other's mistakes and stupidities, take responsibility for each other.
People look for a peaceful and calm experience in hotels, to recover from everyday life, to find a relief from stress and the constant rush. Rarely is the need for rest only of a physical nature. The centre of restlessness is mostly in the mind and what is going on it, the constant churning of thoughts accumulating into worry. Calmness of mind can be achieved in yoga, meditation and sport, but also in concentrated reflection and contemplation sparking a reorientation, a readjustment of thinking. Ideal is a combination of both, the physical quieting and the mental focus on something new, something different. The mental powers, like the physical ones, can become stronger with activity, in active contemplation.
Korbinian Kohler told me during the winter semester 2015/16, when we met at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in a seminar on practical philosophy, that he would like to offer something in his hotel that serves a person holistically, not only the physical well-being, but also the mental well-being. His question was how he could introduce philosophy, something like the philosophy of Aristotle, in his hotel. Korbinian was particularly enthusiastic about Aristotle's doctrine of virtue. We thought about it together and a plan developed: Korbinians Kolleg on questions of our current time. It soon became an event of interest not only for the guests of the hotel, but for the people of Tegernsee. Renowned academics talk about current issues, that are on everybody’s mind, that preoccupy our thinking, that we sometimes feel overwhelmed by without competent explanation and an orientation. It turned out that the guests did not only want to listen, they also want to have a discussion. That is good, because mental powers are strengthened much more by active participation than by passive listening. It is amazing how lively and enriching the discussions are in every Korbinians Kolleg.
At the centre of every friendship there is great calm, the peace and certainty that one can rely on the other at all times. This calmness suits Korbinians Kolleg perfectly, is the centre around which the event can evolve. The Kolleg, which is always a winter semester, offers something from which the hotel draws no advantage, on the contrary. The guests are invited. They do not pay to attend. Of course, this can be interpreted as a particularly clever advertisement. But that would certainly be a misunderstanding, the majority of the Kolleg’s attendees live in the region and not in the hotel. They go home after the event. Some travel from far, enjoy the hotel's exquisite cuisine and then stay overnight.
Korbinians Kolleg represents an exceptional, time-critical hotel concept: the hotel as a location to find peace by learning to live in the present again. Nothing is more challenging for us humans today than to be present in the present. We tend to get lost in thoughts about tomorrow, about what is to come. We are driven, wondering and worrying about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. We try to be magicians of the future, knowing full well that these incantations won’t succeed. We must learn to be present in the present, to focus on the now. Goethe expressed this contemplation in his tragedy "Faust" with the infamous verses: "If ever I to the moment shall say: Beautiful moment, do not pass away!Then you may forge your chains to bind me, then I will put my life behind me." Goethe wrote these verses foreseeing the challenges of the industrial age, the great restlessness of "ever onwards", "ever faster" coming, the fate of modernity. "Faust" is a tragic figure who is driven by acceleration and perishes because of it - at the end of "Faust II".
Learning to live in the present is a practice for mental recovery. It can begin at the Hotel Bachmair Weissach, by participating in Korbinians Kolleg.
WILHELM VOSSENKUHL
Get in touch
Our Event Team is happy to answer your questions and takes care of your requests by e-mail event(at)bachmair-weissach.com or by phone +49 (0) 8022/278-566.