Trafo Talks

In 2000, we launched our flagship event “Trafo Talks” (“Talk im Trafo”), at which every year a renowned guest speaker shares his or her thoughts on a fundamental topic with our guests at the Trafo Hall in Baden. The event seeks to embrace a theme that our high-caliber speaker can share with us in a way that brings breadth and depth to the topic and is not subjected to the staccato style of communication that has unfortunately become common in our daily routines.

By 2020, every January we have held a total of 21 events.

What started small in 2000 has grown over the years into a major event with over 800 invited guests from business, politics, culture and society.

We have brought a number of renowned speakers to Baden to share their thoughts on fundamental social issues with our guests.

In 2012, Joachim Gauch, shortly before he became the President of Germany, spoke on his life’s theme of “freedom”. In 2008, the then co-editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Frank Schirrmacher, gave a speech on the “Century of Women”. In 2010, Mojib Latif presented us “Facts about the World Climate”. Marianne Gronemeyer taught us “the right way to deal with time” in 2005. The German philosopher Wilhelm Schmid gave a speech on “Serenity” in 2017, the Austrian genetics scientist Markus Hengstschläger on “Talent” in 2018, the Austrian psychiatrist Reinhard Haller on “Narcissism” in 2014. In January 2020, Linus Neumann, IT expert and speaker of the Chaos Computer Club, elaborated on the risks of “cyber crime”.

Shortly thereafter, the pandemic induced lockdown – not of the digital but of the real world – was unavoidable. For this reason, the “Trafo Talks” had to be skipped in 2021 and will not take place in 2022.

We are looking forward to reviving the event in a renewed form as soon as the pandemic allows.