Vera F. Birkenbihl

Vera Felicitas Birkenbihl (born April 26, 1946 in Munich ; † December 3, 2011 in Osterholz-Scharmbeck ) was a German management trainer and non-fiction author .

Life

The daughter of the personal trainer and management consultant Michael Birkenbihl initially fled from the conflicts at home and dropped out of high school. She later began studying psychology and journalism.

From 1969 Vera F. Birkenbihl developed learning techniques . In 1970 she gave her first lectures and seminars in the USA and after her return to Europe in 1972 she worked as a freelance trainer and author. She last lived in Osterholz-Scharmbeck .

In spring 2011 she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and had an operation. She died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 65 .

Act

In the mid-1980s, Vera F. Birkenbihl became better known through a self-developed method of language learning, the Birkenbihl method.

In seminars and publications she dealt with the topics of brain-friendly learning and teaching, analytical and creative thinking, personality development, numerology , pragmatic esotericism , brain-specific gender differences and future viability. For esoteric topics she referred to Thorwald Dethlefsen .

Vera F. Birkenbihl founded a publishing house and in 1973 the institute for brain-friendly work. In addition to her program Kopfspiele with 22 episodes, which was produced in 2004 , she was seen as an expert in the series Alpha - Perspectives for the Third Millennium on BR-alpha in 1999.

By the year 2000, Birkenbihl had sold two million books.

One of her priorities until the end was the subject of playful knowledge transfer and the corresponding learning strategies ( NLLS = Non-Learning Learning Strategies ), which should make practical work easier for both learners and teachers. Among other things, she developed the method of the ABC list .

Birkenbihl's particular success was a. a. from the fact that she always combined the business world (management training) with the latest research ( learning , psychology , neuro-research , business , especially future topics). She then passed this knowledge on to top managers, trainers / coaches and learners of all ages.

She also wrote regularly for popular media such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the Harvard Business Manager and Brain & Spirit .

Birkenbihl learning methods

Birkenbihl's learning concepts were marketed as brain-friendly from the end of the 1990s . This term is a translation of the English brain-friendly that she propagated . This method of learning promises without cramming to get along vocabulary. She claimed that her self-developed method is similar to learning the mother tongue naturally.

The method consists of four steps:

1. “Decoding”: Working out the foreign language text through word-for-word translations in order to get used to the foreign syntax .
2. Active listening (via CD, MP3, etc.) of the foreign language text while reading the word-for-word translation from step 1.
3. Passive listening to the foreign language text in everyday life while doing other activities.
4. Speaking - reading - writing, depending on the learning objective pursued.

These steps can improve understanding of the language to be learned. Vera F. Birkenbihl also emphasizes the sense of language learned through this, which is due to the repeated listening to conversations between native speakers. You understand the grammar of the language automatically by repeating the four steps frequently.

For learning the speech , the part of "choral speech" contained in the fourth step is. Here you can hear the foreign language text and speak it out.

Controversial statements

In her lecture From zero clue to some quantum physics? , Birkenbihl interprets the findings of quantum physics from the point of view of a layperson and thus justifies the existence of paranormal phenomena. In doing so, she attributes consciousness to the physical observer and describes matter as a possible epiphenomenon of spirit. It claims that everyone lives in their own universe and that statements that sound nonsensical in their own universe can be useful in the other universe.

Birkenbihl describes déjà-vu delusions of memory as supernatural experiences. She attributes clairvoyant abilities to herself and to all people and tells of her experience how this ability helped her to find the ideal potato pancake in Kansas City, despite being ignorant of the location.

Birkenbihl also dealt intensively with esotericism in her lectures and sees an approach of modern physics to the esoteric worldview.

Awards

• 2008 Hall of Fame - German Speakers Association
• 2010 Coaching Award - Special Achievements and Merits

Books

• Learn anyway: learn to learn. mvg-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86882-448-3 .
• Straw in the head ?: From brain owner to brain user. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-07227-6 .
• Communication training: successfully shaping interpersonal relationships. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-07236-8 .
• Negotiating correctly psychologically: Professional negotiation techniques. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-07224-5 .
• From zero to a little Chinese. This is not a language course. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-06371-7 .
• From zero clue to something Japanese. This is not a language course. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-06362-5 .
• From zero clue to some Arabic. This is not a language course. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-06361-8 .
• From zero clue to something Turkish. This is not a language course. mvg-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-636-06380-9 .
• Language learning made easy !: the Birkenbihl method of learning foreign languages. mvg-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-636-07215-3 .
• The personal school of success. mvg-Verlag, 1973, ISBN 3-478-04090-6 , ISBN 978-3-478-04090-7 .
• Boys and Girls: How They Learn. Knaur, 2005, ISBN 978-3-426-64235-1 , ISBN 3-426-64235-2 .
• Signals from the body. Understand body language. mvg-Paperbacks, 1988, ISBN 3-478-02280-0 .
• The Birkenbihl method: Spanish for advanced learners 1. birkenbihl-media, 1998, ISBN 3-931084-30-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Vera F. Birkenbihl in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Vera F. Birkenbihl  in the German Digital Library
• Vera F. Birkenbihl in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Overview of all official Birkenbihl websites
• Website that archived various of her contributions after the death of Vera F. Birkenbihl
• Obituary on the Gabal Verlag website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ life data. Retrieved on April 5, 2020 (German). 
2. ↑ Mario Assmann: For 40 years learning and teaching in focus . In: Osterholzer Kreisblatt . October 18, 2010, p. 1 ( Online [accessed January 18, 2011]).
3. ^ Obituary for Vera F. Birkenbihl , protalk.ch
4. ↑ Obituary at Spektrum der Wissenschaft
5. ↑ Vera F. Birkenbihl: Numbers determine your life. Numerology - a way to get a better understanding of people . 12th edition. MVG-Verlag, 1999, ISBN 978-3-636-07225-2 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Vera F. Birkenbihl: Pragmatic Esotericism . 2006 (DVD).
7. ↑ What are you angry about? In: birkenbihl-insider.de
8. ↑ ^{a b} Entry in who's who
9. ↑ SOCIETY "Tsjakkaa !!!" - Can you really do it? Focus No. 5/2000, January 31, 2000.
10. ↑ Creativity through ABC lists. In: Spektrum.de
11. ↑ Co-founder of LernDerZukunft
12. ^ FAZ series: Brain training The dance of the phantoms
13. ↑ "Time bombs in management"; Harvard Business Manager April 2007
14. ↑ Overview of all Birkenbihl articles in Brain & Spirit, Spektrum Verlag
15. ↑ http://www.hintertreppe.com/2010/09/17/wer-hats-erfunden/
16. ↑ Vera F. Birkenbihl: Language learning made easy! 40th edition. mvgverlag, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-86882-211-3 , p. 22nd ff .
17. ↑ Vera F. Birkenbihl: From zero idea to some quantum physics? Walhalla Publishing Group, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8029-4656-1 (DVD).