First Courses
In 1983, the first Vipassana meditation course in this tradition took place in a youth hostel in Germany.
Due to a lack of suitable premises, it then took another two years before at least one or two German-language 10-day courses could be offered each year in various rented houses in Germany and neighbouring countries between 1985 and 1994.
The Vipassana Association Germany, which was founded to organise and run the courses, was granted non-profit status in 1987.
In 1994, an ageing former hotel was rented on very favourable terms in Bad Herrenalb in the northern Black Forest, just an hour’s drive from the new (second) meditation centre, Dhamma Sampatti. It was converted into a Vipassana meditation centre (‘Dhamma Geha’). This was the first time a continuous course programme was offered in Germany.
At the same time, a search was conducted throughout Germany for a property that met all the criteria to become the first German Vipassana centre. Due to the growing demand, the Dhamma House in Bad Herrenalb soon reached the limits of its capacity.
First Centre
In the winter of 1998/99, in the freezing cold, we visited a former carpet dealer’s villa, a listed building in a secluded location on a hill in the heart of the Vogtland region. It proved to be ideal for becoming a meditation centre due to its location and the expansion possibilities. The purchase contract was signed in December 2000.
After extensive construction and renovation work, the first 10-day course took place two years later.
S.N. Goenka himself gave the new centre its name: ‘Dhamma Dvāra’, which translates as ‘Gateway to the Dhamma’.
Non-Centre Courses
In order to meet the constantly increasing demand for course places, the Vipassana Association Germany decided at the beginning of 2004 to offer ‘non-centre courses’ at various locations outside the centre. This meant that additional course places could be offered during particularly popular times around annual public holidays and the summer holidays.
Committed meditators and regional Vipassana groups rented suitable seminar houses and youth hostels for this purpose. As a result, the number of course participants increased considerably, enabling more than 400 meditators to attend 10-day courses simultaneously at various locations in Germany.
Centre Expansion
In the first ten years of running courses at Dhamma Dvāra, around 100 participants took part in each course. However, registrations for the courses quickly exceeded the centre’s capacity by far, and even the non-centre courses were unable to cope with the applications of interested participants. As a result, a formal application was submitted in 2008 to expand the centre from 100 to 150 course participants, which was approved by the Vogtland municipality in 2011.
Construction work on House C, an accommodation building with 23 single rooms with en-suite bathrooms, began in 2012, and the building was ready for occupancy the following year.
At the same time as House C was completed, the Vipassana Association began construction of the new meditation hall (House D), which in the future would accommodate 150 meditators in a spacious Dhamma hall, as well as providing space for individual meditation cells, a multilingual room (providing the evening discourses in different languages), and an additional Dhamma hall.
As with the initial construction work following the acquisition of the centre, countless meditators helped with the construction of the individual accommodation and the meditation building.
In March 2015, the first 10-day course was held in the new Dhamma hall.
New Accommodation for long-term Servers (House H)
In order to be able to offer individual and comfortable accommodation to the long-term helpers, who come to the centre for stays of several weeks to several months for Dhamma Service, a new building was constructed outside the course boundary, offering self-contained rooms which also allow the long-term helpers times of retreat and the reception of visitors.
In addition, House H includes new office facilities for the administration of the centre and course management.
Second Centre
The steadily growing number of people who want to attend courses at the Dhamma Dvāra centre in Triebel or at the non-centre locations has long demonstrated the need for another centre. The search for a suitable property began in several parts of Germany.
The former Kolping Hotel Hohritt in Sasbachwalden in the Black Forest had already been deemed suitable in 2019, but the owner at the time, a foreign investor, was not yet ready to sell.
The Vipassana-Vereinigung Süd e. V. was founded in Tübingen in 2023 to drive forward the creation of the second centre.
After lengthy negotiations, the contract was finally signed in November 2024. The purchase by the Vipassana Association was welcomed and supported by the community.
The former hotel has borne the name ‘Dhamma Sampatti’ since 2025, which translates from the ancient Indian Pali as ‘Magnificence of Dhamma’.
Although the buildings had not been used for 13 years, they were still heated and maintained by a caretaker, so that the house was handed over in such good condition that courses could already begin in autumn 2025.
Participant Numbers
