Collection of Fred Bänfer
The donation by the Cologne collector of a large part of his private library complements the UCL collection in several areas. On the one hand, there are 234 volumes, mainly printed in German and Latin, covering various topics from the publication period 1684 to 1850. The books published after 1800 contain fictional works in French and English, as well as a collection of humorous and satirical texts in German, English and French. A smaller focus of the collection is on poetry, children's and youth literature, bibliophilia and curiosities. Since 2013, more than 1.200 books have been handed over to the USB by Mr. Bänfer himself.
Fred Bänfer
The long-time employee of an international automobile group lived for nine years abroad with his wife Katja and travelled from Cologne as an export area manager to the Mediterranean region, the Middle East and Southeast Asia for four more years. Since 1986 he has been self-employed as a management consultant and management trainer. In 1989 he started a training programme for managers and entrepreneurs in the former USSR on behalf of the Federal Government and with the support of the German Marketing Association. The project ran until 2006 and took him on 45 trips to over 30 cities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Moldova, where he held seminars and guest lectures.
The Katja and Fred Bänfer Foundation
Fred Bänfer has already dedicated himself to charitable commitment at a young age. Since 2006, the married couple have been increasingly devoting themselves to voluntary projects, especially in the fields of education, further training and integration. In 2012, they founded the "Katja und Fred Bänfer Foundation" under the umbrella of the Kölner Gymnasial- und Stiftungsfonds with a focus on the education and integration of young people. Their long-term stays and travels abroad, in which they met other cultures and people, motivated the couple to take special care of foreign students unable to receive sufficient support from their parents.