Manfred Günther

Manfred Günther (born in Bochum, 1948), is a German educational psychologist, specialised in young people, the prevention of violence and social therapy methods; today he works as an author and lecturer. He lives in Berlin, Germany and Tazacorte, Spain.

At the beginning of his career, he discovered the psychological works of Frederick Kanfer and Heinz Heckhausen in Bochum and of Klaus Holzkamp and Eva Jaeggi in Berlin. He graduated in 1974. Günther is also an Economics-and-Work teacher, school psychologist, as well as being a dovish follower of cognitive behavioural therapy. Later, from 1984-1986 he studied Health Sciences at famed Professor Dieter Kleiber’s institute.

Professional Experience

In 1977, Günther became the director of a private residential treatment centre (therapeutic boarding school). In 1979, he discovered Sam Ferrainola's Camp, namely the Glen Mills Schools close to Philadelphia, discussed this with Howard W. Polsky in New York City.and got internships 1980 in Boston's famous counseling-team Bridge Over Troubled Waters and in the very special Robert White School. While travelling he inspected other psychosocial projects in countries like Denmark, Ukraine (USSR), Canada, Italy (and after 1990 in Hungary). After than, feeling inspired, Manfred founded and took charge of a consultancy for young people called "JOKER" in West Berlin's City in 1982, a position he held for 17 years. Later (2003-2006) he moved to the Bonn-institution "German Crime Prevention Forum (DFK)" to investigate and write surveys on "Prevention of violence for children in schools" after the first extreme german school shooting in Erfurt. From 2007-2013 he has been a consultant and in the emergency psychological service at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sciences in Berlin (Federal State).

To discuss his ideas, Günther was being interviewed on radio- and TV channels such as SFB 2, SFB 3, Hallo, N 24 and ZDF-Moma. The Ministry of Education, School, Youth and Family Brandenburg commissioned Manfred Günther with the curriculum development Social Work (Youth)

Universities

For 40 years, Günther has worked beside his main occupations in four different universities of Berlin and from 2011-2015 in Magdeburg. His main subject is "Rights of young people".

• 1977-1980: Trade union "OTV Berlin, in charge of the "churches" group
• 1993-1998: Member of the "Landesjugendhilfeausschuss" in Berlin
• 1992-2000: On the supervisory board of the "Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus"
• 1993-1997: Management team for "Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands, Berlin"
• 1996-1998: Management team responsible for "Aktion 70"

Today member of:

• "Archiv der Jugendkulturen"
• "Berliner Rechtshilfefonds Jugendhilfe" and
• "Netzwerk Archiv der Zukunft"