International House Freiburg – Sprachschule zum Ehrstein has been acquired by Akademie Zeitgeist, a newly established German language course provider.
Zeitgeist has acquired 100 per cent shareholding from the previous owner, Jutta Volderauer, who will stay in the company for two more years.
Jutta said, “I started the language school Zum Ehrstein 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 programmes for learning German in the south of Germany.
“I’m happy that I got in contact with the people of Zeitgeist, who are all professionals in our business. I have no doubt that – with the knowledge and the network they share together – they will bring the school to the next quality level.”
The consortium behind Akademie Zeitgeist consists of Torsten Pankok, former Managing Director of Travelplus/TravelWorks, who will lead the group. Joining him are: Bernhard Roters (CLIC IH 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).
The idea behind Akademie Zeitgeist, as Torsten Pankok described, "was 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 (Deutsch als Fremdsprache).
The group aims to operate a small number of German language schools in different destinations across Germany. All of them will be part of the International House (IH) network. The full name of IH Freiburg is now Akademie Zeitgeist - International House Freiburg.
