EBS Business School (Germany)

EBS Business School is the business faculty of EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht (EBS University for Business and Law), located in Oestrich-Winkel in the Rheingau wine country near Frankfurt, Germany. EBS is one of Germany's leading private business universities, holding accreditation from AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and FIBAA (Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation). Its coaching provision is organised through the EBS Coaching & Leadership Hub, which has operated for over 20 years and works exclusively with certified coaches.

EBS's coaching education sits within its Executive School, the continuing education and professional development arm of the university, where certificate programmes for working professionals have been offered since December 2018. The Hub positions coaching as both a leadership competency and a standalone professional practice, offering programmes that serve both internal organisational leaders and external coaches seeking professional development.

Institutional Background

EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht traces its origins to 1971, when Klaus Evard founded it as the Europäische Business School in Offenbach am Main, making it the oldest private business school in Germany. The university relocated to its permanent campus at Schloss Reichartshausen in Oestrich-Winkel in 1980. Over more than five decades, EBS has built a reputation as one of Germany's most internationally oriented private business schools, with a student body and faculty that reflect Germany's integration into the broader European business and professional education ecosystem.

The university's AACSB accreditation places it among a globally recognised group of business schools meeting rigorous standards for faculty qualifications, curriculum design, and learning outcomes. FIBAA accreditation ensures independent programme-level quality assurance across EBS's degree and continuing education offerings.

EBS Coaching & Leadership Hub

The EBS Coaching & Leadership Hub is the institutional home for coaching-related education and development at EBS. It has operated for over 20 years and works exclusively with certified coaches, both as faculty and as practitioners within the Hub's network. This commitment to certified practitioners sets a quality baseline for all coaching-related education the Hub offers.

Its programmes serve two primary constituencies: executives and leaders within organisations who want to develop coaching as a leadership skill, and professional coaches seeking continuing education, community, and institutional affiliation within the German and European coaching market.

Certificate Programmes

EBS Executive School's certificate programmes offer structured short-format professional development for working professionals. These are designed for completion alongside existing careers, with concentrated workshop formats. Coaching-related certificate programmes offered through EBS include:

Change & Transformation in Organizations is a certificate programme teaching participants to professionally facilitate and guide organisational change processes. This programme draws on behavioural science, change management theory, and coaching methodology to develop practitioners who can support individuals and teams through transitions, restructuring, and cultural evolution.

Resilience Trainer Certification trains participants to build and sustainably strengthen individual resilience using evidence-informed methods and practical tools. This is designed for HR professionals, coaches, and leaders who work with individuals and groups in high-pressure professional environments.

Business Psychology & Coaching Specialisation is offered at the undergraduate level within EBS's Bachelor in Business Studies programme, providing the academic foundations of coaching within a rigorous business school curriculum.

Coaching as Leadership Competency

A distinctive feature of EBS's approach is that it treats coaching as a leadership competency as well as a standalone professional practice. The Coaching & Leadership Hub is named to reflect this: coaching and leadership development are treated as interconnected domains, with executives and leaders as a primary audience alongside professional coaches.

This integration reflects a broader shift in German and European organisational culture. As coaching moves from external specialist service to internal leadership behaviour, business schools are increasingly the venues where this integration is formalised and trained.

What This Means for You

A coach associated with EBS Business School operates within a German business school ecosystem that takes coaching seriously as both a professional practice and a leadership competency. The Coaching & Leadership Hub's requirement that it works exclusively with certified coaches sets a quality floor for the practitioners in its network.

EBS certificate programmes are institutional academic credentials rather than standalone professional coaching qualifications. Practitioners who want independent professional recognition typically pursue separate credentialing through the ICF or EMCC alongside their EBS training. EBS's location in Oestrich-Winkel, near Frankfurt, places it at the heart of Germany's business and financial sector. Coaches affiliated with EBS are typically oriented toward German, Swiss, and Austrian corporate markets, with particular strength in financial services, consulting, and professional services organisations.