Katarina & Klaus-Dieter Gens
Two voices, one stance. We have lived and worked in a 'nonviolent' relationship for over twenty years, and have helped carry Nonviolent Communication into the German-speaking world since the 1990s.
Together — and each with our own voice. Below, two portraits: Klaus-Dieter, whose meeting with Marshall Rosenberg helped shape the story of NVC in Germany, and Katarina, who carries the active teaching today.
Born 1950 in Wolfenbüttel, living in Berlin and the Havelland since 1969. I share a 'nonviolent' relationship with Katarina Gens — my partner, and since 2009 my wife.
I first met Marshall Rosenberg in Berlin in 1993. That meeting changed everything. From 1999 to 2009 I was a CNVC-certified trainer; for personal reasons I did not renew the certification. The German Professional Association for Nonviolent Communication later made me an honorary member.
For more than a decade I volunteered as Marshall's coordinator for Northern and Eastern Germany. I founded and chaired the former Centre for Nonviolent Communication Berlin, trained trainers in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kassel and Kiel, and led countless seminars at home and abroad.
Today I no longer work regularly as a trainer — I sometimes accept invitations as a guest trainer. I am a father, a partner, an Aries, curious, impatient, easily enthused, persistent, gentle, reconciling, eccentric, an inventor, a tinkerer. I drive an electric car, own a solar system and a heat pump, and am a firm believer in the energy transition. And, in the best NVC tradition of saying what one is not: I am not musical, not a smoker, not a dancer.
- 1972 — Educator and deacon at Ev. Johannesstift Berlin
- 1979 — Studies in social work, EFHSS
- Around 25 years working as a deacon and social pedagogue
- 1993 — Training as supervisor (ISB)
- 1995 — NLP master trainer (Forum für Metakommunikation Berlin & NLP-Institut Berlin)
- Around 15 years as a freelance lecturer
- 1999–2009 — CNVC-certified trainer for Nonviolent Communication
- Teaching position at the Ev. Fachhochschule Berlin
- Honorary member of the Professional Association for NVC
Born 1965, mother of two daughters, married to Klaus-Dieter since 2009. I live and work in the Havelland — and travel to wherever people wish to learn how to truly meet one another.
Since 2000, Nonviolent Communication has been my daily practice. From 2004 to 2008 I was a CNVC-certified trainer. I served as managing director of the former Centre for Nonviolent Communication Berlin and have led countless seminars, in-house trainings and introductory events over the past two decades.
Since 2012, together with my friend and favourite colleague Annette Del Olmo, I have carried the ongoing training work — practice seminars, foundational programmes, and the annual five-day SFBB further-education seminars.
- 2001 — NLP Practitioner
- 2002–2005 — Mediation training
- 2004–2008 — CNVC-certified trainer for Nonviolent Communication
- Since 2001 — Teaching seminars at home and abroad