Protestant Academy Bad Boll

The Protestant Academy Bad Boll is a meeting place for people from all walks of life, who are interested in topics relating to education, society, politics, religion, economics or the environment. It is located 45 km south-east of Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Wuerttemberg in southern Germany. The aim of the Academy is to build bridges between people and also between traditional conceptions and new, unfamiliar or perhaps even forgotten ideas.

The Academy is an institution of the Protestant Church, but does not seek to lay down specific rules on religious beliefs. In fact, the Academy encourages discussion of controversial issues, as well as the awareness and acceptance of differing points of view. Since it was founded in 1945, the Academy has continuously provided a forum for intellectual, intercultural and ecumenical exchange.

Tolerant and Protestant

The Protestant Academy Bad Boll attends to the message and consolation of the Gospels. The conferences are guided by the reference to Christian humanity and the spirit of an open-minded, tolerant Protestantism as one possibility in the search for orientation and clarification of ethical viewpoints. The Protestant State Church of Baden-Württemberg has assigned the Academy the task of participating in ”efforts to achieve a Christian way of life and a better sense of community”.

Thematic areas

The Protestant Academy Bad Boll focuses particularly on work with professional groups. The Academy's conference activities are structured around three closely related thematic areas:

• economy, globalisation, sustainability
• society, politics, the state
• culture, education, religion

Conferences and more

The Academy employees not only organise conferences, seminars and symposia but in “teams of experts”, they also provide training, advising and accompany projects above and beyond the confines of Bad Boll.

The Church Service in the World of Work (KDA) focuses on issues related to creating appropriate economic, social and political framework conditions in businesses and enterprises, establishing connections between the Church and the economy, and attending to the training and further education of vicars and pastors.

The Academy for Management and Responsibility (AFV) targets people in management positions and, on the basis of a Christian image of man, offers support through coaching and supervision, and advice on questions relating to organisational development as well as team formation.

For more than 25 years, the Meeting Point 50plus has been mediating the services provided by the Offene Altenhilfe (Senior Citizens’ Assistance) in Stuttgart. These include education, encounter, advice and involvement of elderly people.

The Socio-Political Youth Education programme addresses themes and questions relevant to young people at the junctures between society and individual, school and vocation. Its aims are to strengthen young people's social competence and equip them for participation in a democratic society.

Your conference in Bad Boll

The Academy has three large auditoriums with modern conferencing technology and interpreter cabins. These are complemented by an additional 17 larger and smaller rooms. A total of 135 guests can be accommodated with a capacity for catering to 250 guests. There is a spacious cafeteria with a sun terrace available for rounds of talks during the breaks and in the evenings. The refurbished Wilhelminian style Villa Vopelius and the Symposion restaurant of the Academy are worth particular mention. The latter has won several architecture prizes. All these facilities can be rented for your conference. You are very welcome to contact us.

Sustainable hospitality

The concept behind catering and housekeeping at the Protestant Academy Bad Boll is to harmonise service, hospitality and the best of ingredients with environmental awareness. Chef de cuisine Wolfram Siebeck awarded the Bad Boll catering team the silver Biostar Prize, which acknowledges creative organic concepts for large-scale catering. The slogan which guides our purchase of ingredients is »seasonal, regional, fair«. The Academy also makes its contribution to the environment through its use of rainwater, thermal power, pellets and photovoltaics. The Academy has also developed a certified sustainability management in the areas of economics and social welfare.

Art and culture

The Academy is also an exhibition venue, presenting artists and their works, and is itself a site for art, with its own sculptures and reliefs. Villa Vopelius houses Blumhardt's Literature Salon, which was set up in cooperation with the Marbach Literature Archives in memory of Johann Christoph and Christoph Blumhardt who, as pastors and through their connection to Eduard Mörike, Ottilie Wildermuth, Effi Briest and Hermann Hesse, influenced the ”genius loci” of Bad Boll before the Academy was founded.