Gunther Dohmen

Hall of Fame Class of 1999

Born in Heidelberg in 1926, Gunther Dohmen is the refounding Director of the German Institute of Adult Education in Frankfurt. He has been a teacher of higher education in Germany since 1956 and has greatly contributed to the heritage of adult and continuing education in Germany and many other countries. He was the co-founder and Vice President of the European Association for Adult Education from 1988 to 1995.

Gunther Dohmen began teaching as Professor of Education at the University of Tubingen in 1966 and was the Founding Director of the German Institute for Distant Studies at the University of Tubingen, a position he held until 1979. From 1980 until 1994 he was the Senior Professor of Continuing and Adult Education at the University of Tubingen.

He served as Chairman of the German Association for Distance Studies from 1969 to 1995 and has been a continuing education counterpart representing the German Adult Education Association in the Exchange with AAACE. Since 1994, he has been a senior advisor for the implications of "Lifelong Learning for All" in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Bonn.

Dr. Dohmen has been a guest professor in 32 countries and is the author of more than 200 publications, some translated into English, French, and Japanese. In 1997, he wrote the official Report on Adult and Continuing Education in Germany for the UNESCO World Conference on Adult Education in Hamburg. He also wrote The Future of Continuing Education in Europe.

For his article "The Contribution of Education to International Understanding" he received an award from the United Nations. Among his many honors, he holds several crosses of honor, medals of merit, and honorary citizenships. In addition, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the British Open University.