Newly established German language course provider Akademie Zeitgeist has completed the acquisition of International House Freiburg, with the aim of operating a small number of German language schools across Germany as part of the International House network.
The consortium behind the new brand comprises well known names from the language schools and education agency sectors.
“We are both looking at buying existing language schools and opening schools ourselves”
They include: Bernhard Roters (CLIC Seville, Cadiz, Malaga), Walter Denz and Sven Lidén (Liden & Denz St.Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk, Riga), Jos van Kerkhof (StudyTravel Nijmegen, Malaga) and Thomas Meier (ex Travelplus/Travelworks).
Torsten Pankok, former managing director of Travelplus/TravelWorks, is to lead Akademie Zeitgeist.
The idea behind Akademie Zeitgeist, Pankok pointed out “is to utilise the unique expertise of our stakeholders in the industry and channel their know-how into the growing market of German as a foreign language”.
“We are looking at buying existing language schools and opening schools ourselves. We had several contacts with school owners in Germany during the last year and we realised that quite a few struggled with succession planning,” Pankok said.
Akademie Zeitgeist has acquired 100% shareholding from the previous owner, Jutta Volderauer, who has committed to stay in the company for two more years.
Volderauer commented, “I started the language school… as a small boutique school in the heart of Freiburg 20 years ago and over the years the school has become a highly reputed institution providing quality programs for learning German in the south of Germany.”
“I have no doubt that – with the knowledge and the network they share together – [the team] will bring the school to the next quality level,” she said.
The full name of the acquired language school will be Akademie Zeitgeist – International House Freiburg.
