70 years of Outward Bound in Baad: Education that moves
Anniversary in Kleinwalsertal with over 270 guests, a variety of programme items and a special expedition for young people with Diane and Reinhold Messner as sponsors
On June 27, 2026, we were able to celebrate our 70th anniversary of our education center in Baad. More than 270 guests from Germany and Austria came to the “most beautiful cul-de-sac in the world” to look back with us on seven decades of experiential education work and to take impulses for the future with them.
For 70 years, Outward Bound in Baad has been supporting young people in taking on challenges, taking responsibility and developing confidence in their own abilities. Every year, over 8,000 young people participate in Outward Bound’s programs. The focus is on personality development, the ability to work in a team, self-efficacy and a sense of responsibility.
“This work is an investment in our society – today more important than ever,” said our managing director Christine Mangold during the anniversary.
A weekend full of encounters, history and future impulses
The anniversary weekend kicked off on Friday with a leadership workshop for entrepreneurs, executives and trainers as well as trainers from business and education. Representatives of companies such as Airbus and Ehrmann, school principals and representatives from the banking and financial sector gained insights into the experiential education method and developed approaches for their own work with groups, teams and trainees.
In the evening, VAUDE Managing Director Antje von Dewitz spoke about the connection between sustainability, responsibility and economic action. In doing so, she took up a topic that is also of central importance to Outward Bound: combining education, the experience of nature and social responsibility.
Saturday was dedicated to the anniversary at the Baad site. Visitors were able to experience the work of Outward Bound from different perspectives during guided hikes, hands-on activities and historical insights. A lecture on the history of Baad and a specially set up historical room made the development of the education centre visible. The program was supplemented by a raffle with prizes from various outdoor brands.
A special item on the program was the highline performance of the multiple world record holder Lukas Irmler and his partner Antonia, which attracted the attention of the audience high above the valley.
The Alpine Challenge: An Expedition from Schwangau to Baad
As part of the anniversary, a special educational project was also completed: the “Outward Bound & Reinhold Messner Alpine Challenge”. A total of ten young people from the Riezlern secondary and secondary school in Kleinwalsertal and the Zieglersche youth welfare service Martinshaus Kleintobel had set off two weeks earlier on an expedition lasting several days from Schwangau to Baad. They were accompanied by the Outward Bound trainers Sebastian Antolak and trainer Lisa Rademacher as well as the accompanying persons of the youth welfare Robert Schölz and Jörg Holzapfel.
The route took them by canoe across the Forggensee, by bike to the Lech Valley and finally on foot over the mountains into the Kleinwalsertal. At the finish they were welcomed by Reinhold Messner, as godfather of the Alpine Challenge. Together, they reflected on their experiences, challenges and personal learning moments of the past few days.
The expedition showed how intensively experiential educational learning spaces can work: Young people experience themselves in concrete challenges, take responsibility for each other and experience that together they can cope with more than they would have dared to do before.
Here’s a glimpse of the incredible expedition:
Reinhold Messner pays tribute to learning in nature
Reinhold and Diane Messner visited us for the second time, the first time they were last year at our 75th anniversary in Schwangau. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of experiences in nature, our most valuable teacher, for personal development. His own biography is closely linked to learning in the mountains – an approach that he also finds in the work of Outward Bound. “I would like all German children, all Austrian children too, all South Tyrolean children to have the chance to go out for a week once a year. This applies to all of us in Europe,” said Reinhold Messner on Friday evening about the Alpine Challenge.
For us, this connection is central: learning is not only created through knowledge, but also through experience, reflection and the courage to engage in new situations.
Education through experience – for over 70 years
Outward Bound is part of an international educational movement that goes back to the progressive pedagogue Kurt Hahn. The first courses were held in Kleinwalsertal as early as the 1950s. The name “Outward Bound” comes from seafaring and describes a ship that is ready to leave the harbor – an image of young people’s departure into life.
Today, Outward Bound stands for experiential learning in nature. The pedagogical core has been preserved over the decades: strengthening people, making challenges tangible, promoting community and developing responsibility.
Support for non-profit educational work
As a non-profit organization, Outward Bound pays purely through participant fees. In the future, we would like to finance such important educational work more through donations and subsidies in order to be able to open up personality-enhancing educational programs and nature-based experience spaces for more young people.
Supporters thus make a direct contribution to educational work that strengthens young people and makes social responsibility tangible.
We say THANK YOU!
