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The DGfSL´s meetings are mainly held as online conferences (Technical Instructions).
Conference overview (all times are CET/CEST):
Board Meeting, Sun 13 Sep 2026, 8:00–9:00 pm
16th General Meeting, Sat 21 Feb 2026, in Munich and via Zoom: Formal session 1:15–2:05 pm Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Astrid Brüggemann Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Ramiz Mahmudov Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder and Moritz Thiele as additional Board members.
- 3:00–4:00 pm Oliver Schäfer (association member): “Experiences with Three Years of Advanced Speed Reading.” During the presentation, the 2022 cost-benefit analysis was also reviewed. We examined to what extent the estimate made at the time—which cited a high “30% increase in productivity”—still holds true. Result: Visual line reading and two-dimensional speed reading work just as well as they did in 2022, but only 55% of current work documents can be read at high speed (compared with 65% in 2022). Therefore, the productivity increase is “only” 24.5% compared with the period before the training. pptx pdf
- 4:30–5:30 pm Ramiz Mahmudov & Peter Rösler: “How significant is the positive side effect of speed reading training on other languages?” pptx pdf
Board Meeting, Wed, 12 Nov 2025, 8:00–9:00 pm: Moritz Thiele was elected Vice Chair of the DGfSL, succeeding Urszula Wojtinnek, who had stepped down from the Board upon her retirement.
50th Conference, Tue 22 Jul 2025, 8:00–9:30 pm
Working session to discuss the DGfSL’s long-term plans, including collaboration with science- and research-oriented YouTube channels, reaching out to potentially “all” reading researchers worldwide, and other initiatives. 2025-07-22_DGfSL_Overview_Publications_v1.0.pptx
49th Conference, Wed 21 May 2025, 8:00–9:15 pm
Peter Rösler presents “Sleeping Beauty” publications such as O’Brien (1921). See List_of_Speed_Reading_Publications_v2025-05-06.xlsx, mit Links auf Volltexte, z.B. auf O´Brien (1921), which includes links to full-text versions, e.g., O’Brien (1921), possibly the most important publication on “Basic Speed Reading.” mp4
15th General Meeting, Sat 8 Feb 2025, in Munich and via Zoom: Formal session 1:45–2:40 pm
- (Fri 7 Feb) 7:00–8:00 pm Elizabeth Schotter, Ph.D.: Skilled deaf readers exhibit efficient reading behavior: Does that mean they are speed reading? pdf mp4
- (Sat 8 Feb) 3:00-4:00 pm Johannes Haack: How Does Speed Reading Training Alter Cortical Regions of the Brain? Experimental Findings from Ferguson et al. (2014) and Sun et al. (2024). pptx pdf mp4
- 4:30-5:30 pm Peter Rösler:10 tips for speed reading. pptx pdf mp4
14th General Meeting, Sat 24 Feb 2024, via Zoom: Formal session 1:40–2:15 pm Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Urszula Wojtinnek Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder and Harald Drescher as additional Board members.
- (Fri 23 Feb) 8:00–9:00 pm Dr Gerd Fabian Volk: Can the inner voice be “trained away” using electromyography?
- (Sat 24 Feb) 3:00–4:50 pm Ronny Hecker (owner of HeKu IT): Presentation of the latest version (2.0) of the internationally available “Speed Reading/Reading Trainer” (top-rated by Stiftung Warentest in 2015).
- 5:10–6:00 pm Johannes Haack: a) Measures of text comprehensibility in speed reading training – a comparison of readability formulas. b) The usefulness of standard corpora for speed reading practice texts. pptx pdf mp4
- 8:25–7:00 pm Peter Rösler: The new training format introduced in 2022 is good, but not as good as reported on January 21, 2023. pptx pdf mp4
48th Conference, Wed 22 Mar 2023, 7:30 pm–(max.) 9:30 pm
M.Sc. Laura Schwalm (PhD student, University of Wuppertal): “Speed-Accuracy Trade-off while reading?”
13th General Meeting, Sat 21 Jan 2023, in Munich and via Zoom: Formal session 1:50–2:25 pm
-3:15–4:45 pm Peter Rösler: A new training format for Advanced Speed Reading. pptx pdf mp4 (Background information: In 2022, a new training format for Advanced Speed Reading emerged. Compared with the previous best training format—the finger-sweep-based “high-speed training right from the start,” in the tradition of Wood/Michelmann—it offers several improvements, including a doubled success rate (approximately 90% instead of 50%) and 3.5 times less effort.)
12th General Meeting, Sat 29 Jan 2022, via Zoom: Formal session 1:45–2:30 pm Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Urszula Wojtinnek Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder and Harald Drescher as additional Board members.
- (Fri 28 Jan) 8:00 pm Prof. Marc Brysbaert: How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate, 2019.
- 3:00–4:00 pm Johannes Haack and Agnieszka Onak shared their experiences as speed reading teachers.
- 4:30–5:30 pm Ramiz Mahmudov (working student): To what extent does Basic Speed Reading training have a positive side effect on reading in other languages?
- (Sun 30 Jan) 09:30–10:30 am: Marketa Malkova: The speed reading training program of Legentas, Prague.
Working meeting, Tue 21 Dec 2021, approx. 5:00 pm in Munich.
Meeting with Prof. Bruce Brown, who has written two of the most important publications on speed reading.
11th General Meeting, Sat 30 Jan 2021, via Zoom: Formal session 3:00–4:00 pm Michael Buse was appointed Honorary Chair of the DGfSL.
- 4:30–5:20 pm M.Sc. Laura Schwalm (PhD student): The current state of speed reading research at the University of Wuppertal.
- 18:30-19:30 h Marcia Biederman (author of “Scan Artist: How Evelyn Wood Convinced the World that Speed-Reading Worked“): How the research for Evelyn Wood´s biography went, materials from the Utah State Historical Society and photos are shown.
- 7:45–8:30 pm A course participant gives a live demonstration of a speed reading exercise. Notably, this participant now reads at over 600 wpm. This is followed by a discussion of whether the participant has acquired Visual Line Reading through a technically “incorrect” training method, or whether Ronald P. Carver’s proposed upper limit of 600 Wpm for rauding rate needs to be called into question.
Board Meeting, Sat, Jan. 30, 2021, 2:15–2:45 pm: Urszula Wojtinnek was elected Vice Chair of the DGfSL, succeeding Michael Buse, who had stepped down for health reasons.
10th ("Anniversary") General Meeting, Sat 25 Jan 2020, in Munich (BR Abendschau - Der Süden 19.02.2020Feb. 19, 2020 [available until Feb. 18, 2021]):
- 2.00 pm Measuring reading rates in Natural Speed Readers – Part 1
- 3:00–4:00 pm: Formal portion of the General Meeting, including board elections. Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Michael Buse Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder, Harald Drescher, and Urszula Wojtinnek as additional Board members.
- 4:00–5:00 pm Measuring reading rates in Natural Speed Readers – Part 2 (see the “Samstagsblatt”, 7 December 2019: Link pp. 1 & 12)
Half-hour (telephone) interviews:
- 5:30–6:00 pm Prof. Ralph Radach (important publications on speed reading)
- 6:00–6:30 pm [5:00 pm GMT] Phil Chambers (organizer of speed reading competitions and author of books on speed reading)
- 7:00–8:00 pm [11:00 am Utah time] Prof. Bruce L. Brown (who was taught by Evelyn Wood; author of important publications on speed reading in 1981/1982)
- 8:00–8:30 pm [11:00 am Vancouver time] George Stancliffe (author, SPEED READING 4 KIDS)
- 8:45–9:30 pm Dr Thomas Gehlert (DGfSL member): Speculations on a Model for Explaining Speed Reading.
47th Conference, Tue 5 Mar 2019
Discussion of the current state of research and research needs regarding speed reading.
9th General Meeting, Sat 23 Feb 2019, in Munich: Doors open at 2:00 pm; Formal session from 3:00 pm to 3:15 pm, followed by an informal session until approximately 5:00 pm
8th General Meeting, Sat 24 Feb 2018, in Munich: 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Michael Buse Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder, Dominik Jung, and Urszula Wojtinnek as additional Board members.
7th General Meeting, Sat 4 Feb 2017, in Munich: Doors open at 2:00 pm; Formal session from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm, followed by an informal session until 5:30 pm
46th Conference, Sun 6 Nov 2016 (with a second session held on Wed 9 Nov 2016)
Discussion with interested speed reading teachers about the current status of the certification process.
45th Conference, Sun 17 Apr 2016
Discussion with members of the Brainboard forum and other interested participants about Peter Rösler’s book “Grundlagen des Schnell-Lesens [Principles of Speed Reading]”.
6th General Meeting, Sat 12 Mar 2016, online meeting from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Michael Buse Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder, Dominik Jung, and Urszula Wojtinnek as additional Board members.
44th Conference, Tue 20 Oct 2015
Telephone interview with Edeltraud Steinbrink-Wessling (a visual speed reader known for her appearances on Stern-TV and the RTL show “Unglaublich” [“Unbelievable”]).
Board meeting, Mon 13 Jul 2015
Discussion with a student from Washington D.C. about an English-speaking Natural Speed Reader he knows (one measurement: 1,250 wpm).
43rd Conference, Sun 17 May 2015
Discussion of the Stiftung Warentest study on speed reading courses [Stiftung Warentest (2015). Lesetrainings im Test. [Reading training under test conditions]. www.test.de/pdf-lesetechniken, audio feature].
42nd Conference, Fri 13 Feb 2015
Follow-up discussion on the study of Visual Speed Readers at the University of Wuppertal. The three participants share their subjective experiences. (The results of the study are not included here, as they are not yet available and will be published separately by Prof. Radach.)
5th General Meeting, Sat 7 Feb 2015, in Munich: Doors open at 2:00 pm, Formal session from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm, followed by an informal session until 8:00 pm. Among other things, one of the guests had his reading skills assessed, and it turned out he was a natural speed reader.
41st Conference, Mon 22 Dec 2014
Preliminary discussion with Prof. Ralph Radach and Dr Christian Vorstius regarding the planned scientific study on Visual Speed Readers from the DGfSL. (Michael Buse and Peter Rösler are participating as “trained” speed readers, while D. J. will join as a Natural Speed Reader.)
40th Conference, Mon 11 Aug 2014
Competitive analysis of the speed reading market in German-speaking countries by the Prague University of Economics and Business.
39th Conference, Sun 4 May 2014
a) Discussion with Dr Maik Maurer, CTO and co-founder of Spritz Technology Inc. b) Report by an association member on reading disorders that developed while learning speed reading.
4th General Meeting, Sat 15 Feb 2014, in Munich: Doors open at 2:00 pm for informal discussions; Formal session from 3:00 pm to 3:45 pm, followed by a social program until 6:00 pm Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Michael Buse Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder and Dominik Jung as additional Board members.
38th Conference, Sun 12 Jan 2014
Discussion with Prof. Nicole Jekel, author of the book “Speed Reading für Controller und Manager”.
37th Conference, Sun 20 Oct 2013
Discussion on speed reading with Johannes Haack from the Cognitive Sciences research unit at the University of Potsdam.
36th Conference, Sun 28 Jul 2013
Telephone interview with Ingrid Kleimenhagen regarding her planned doctoral thesis on reading techniques.
35th Conference, Sun 5 May 2013
Working session with D. J. to measure his reading rate. Based on the results, D. J. is a Natural Speed Reader. He is one of only two Natural Speed Readers known to us who learned to read in school. (The other Natural Speed Readers we know learned to read before starting primary school.)
3rd General Meeting, Sat 2 Feb 2013, in Munich: Doors open at 2:00 pm for informal discussions; Formal session from 3:00 pm to approximately 3:30 pm, followed by a social program including dinner until 7:00 pm
34th conference, Sun 2 Dec 2012
Discussion of the newspaper article “Rasante Lektüre” [A fast-paced read] (about Japanese speed readers, Stern, 27 May 1987).
33rd Conference, Sun 30 Sep 2012
Discussion of the newspaper article “WpM - die Machzahl der Schnell-Leser” [WpM – the Mach Number for Speed Readers] (about Wolfgang Zielke, Germany’s first speed reading teacher, DIE ZEIT 10 JUN 1966).
32nd conference, Tue 31 Jul 2012
Working meeting (via teleconference) on the topic “Which areas of the brain are thought to be active during speed reading?”
31st Conference, Tue 8 May 2012
A lawyer from Brazil reports on his personal experience with a speed reading course, followed by additional context on the study of Brazilian speed readers.
30th Conference, Tue 3 Apr 2012
A lawyer from Brazil reports on the study of two Visual Speed Readers.
2nd General Meeting, Sat 18 Feb 2012, in Munich: Doors open at 2:00 pm for informal discussions; Formal session from 3:00 pm to approximately 4:30 pm, followed by a social program including dinner until 9:00 pm There were no changes to the Board following the Board elections: Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Michael Buse Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder as additional Board member.
29th Conference, Tue 24 Jan 2012
Peter Rösler presented Stanislas Dehaene’s book “Lesen: Die größte Erfindung der Menschheit und was dabei in unseren Köpfen passiert [Reading: The greatest invention of mankind and what happens in our heads”].
28th Conference, Tue 1 Nov 2011
Moritz Thiele, a member of the DGfSL Board, presented his high school project on speed reading. (Thiele, M. (2010). Speed-reading. Unpublished term paper in English at school, Humboldt-Gymnasium Vaterstetten (Bavaria), year of college 2008/2010.)
27th conference, Sun 21 Aug 2011
Discussion and Q&A with members of the Brainboard forum on the topic of “speed reading”.
26th Conference, Sun 5 Jun 2011
Pascal Gehlert reported on how he learnt Purely Visual Speed Reading. Of particular interest are his notes from the moment just before the speed reading effect worked for the first time. Furthermore, he is the first speed reading student known to us who, following his training, kept a record of how his reading times were broken down into speed reading, visual line reading and normal reading.
25th conference, Tue 15 Mar 2011
Telephone interview with Prof. Niels Birbaumer. The discussion centred on how “neurofeedback” can support the learning of speed reading.
1st General Meeting, Sat 12 Feb 2011, in Munich: Doors open at 3:00 pm for informal discussions; the Formal session runs from 4:00 pm to approximately 5:30 pm, followed by a social program including dinner until 9:00 pm
24th conference, Sun 23 Jan 2011
Second telephone interview with Prof. Ralph Radach. His experiments represent the first study known to us that is methodologically sound and demonstrates the effectiveness of a speed reading program (doubling reading rate with no significant loss of comprehension). The training format could be described as “comprehension-maintaining speed training”.
23rd meeting, Sun 16 Jan 2011
Preparation of our list of questions on “The science of speed reading: Exploring the impact of speed on visuomotor control and comprehension” for our second telephone interview with Prof. Ralph Radach.
22nd Conference, Tue 21 Dec 2010
Telephone interview with Romilly Cocking (UK), a Natural Speed Reader.
21st Conference, Sun 21 Nov 2010
Telephone interview with George Stancliffe, Speed Reading for Kids.
20th conference, Tue 26 Oct 2010
Telephone interview with Prof. Ralph Radach. Prof. Radach presented experiments in which reading rate was doubled with no significant loss of comprehension. (Radach, R., Vorstius, C. & Reilly, R. (2010). The science of speed reading: Exploring the impact of speed on visuomotor control and comprehension. 17th annual meeting, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Berlin, Germany.)
19th Conference, Sun 19 Sep 2010
Telephone interview with Brigitta Ernst, speed reading teacher, non-fiction author, knowledge coach, and DGfSL member.
18th Conference, Sun 25 Jul 2010
Telephone interview with Dr Georg Winter—entrepreneur, environmental pioneer, poet and Germany’s fastest speaker. The topic of “speed-speaking” is of interest to us because, according to Sticht (1974), training in speed-speaking or speed-listening can presumably increase reading rate for normal reading.
17th conference, Tue 29 Jun 2010
Telephone interview with Bruce Brown (see also 19 June 2010).
Working meeting, Sat 19 Jun 2010, 3:00–8:00 pm in Munich.
Meeting with Prof. Bruce Brown, who has written two of the most important publications on speed reading. Among other topics, Prof. Brown recounted how he learned purely visual speed reading directly from Evelyn Wood in 1974.
16th conference, Sun 16 May 2010
Second telephone interview with Anne Jones, multi-time World Speed Reading Champion.
15th Conference, Tue 20 Apr 2010
Telephone interview with Oliver Devrient—natural speed reader and DGfSL member.
14th conference, Sun 21 Mar 2010:
Telephone interview with Anne Jones, multi-time World Speed Reading Champion.
13th conference, Tue 23 Feb 2010:
Interview with Marianne May, who may well be a Natural Speed Reader. Interview with Dr M. D., who has a fascinating history of learning to read.
Founding Meeting, Sat 23 Jan 2010:
The “German Society for Speed Reading” was founded in Munich by eight people. At the first Board meeting held immediately afterward, 26 people who had been unable to attend the founding meeting were admitted as additional members of the association. Peter Rösler was elected Chair, Michael Buse Vice Chair, Matthias Baur Treasurer, Moritz Thiele Contact Person for School Pupils and University Students, and Matthias Schroeder as additional Board member.
12th Conference, Tue 8 Dec 2009:
Includes a report on the reading assessment of A. E. conducted on 16 Oct 2009 by Moritz Thiele. Based on the results, A. E. is a Natural Speed Reader. Includes a report on the reading assessment of Cornelia Clay (Ludwigsburg) on 8 Nov 2009 conducted by Peter Rösler. At age 24, Ms. Clay learned a specific speed reading method focused on proofreading technical manuals.
11th Conference, 7 Nov 2009:
Includes a presentation of all 16 theoretically conceivable combinations of learning goals A–D. (Preliminary conclusion: No further surprises are expected, similar to Visual Line Reading in spring 2009.)
10th conference, 4 Oct 2009:
Includes a report on experiences with the imagination drills from the book “Dynamisches Schnell-Lesen (Informations-Training) [Dynamic Speed Reading (Information Training)]” (author: Aghte)
9th Conference, 30 Aug 2009:
Supplementary report on “purely visual line reading”.
8th Conference, 28 Jul 2009:
Report on an intermediate form of speed reading—tentatively coined “Purely Visual Line Reading”—functioning at a rate of approximately 700 wpm.
7th Conference, 28 Jun 2009:
Report on the reading test conducted on Oliver Devrient on 19 May 2009 by Moritz Thiele. Based on the results, Oliver Devrient is a Natural Speed Reader.
6th conference, 19 May 2009:
Discussion of the publication: Stevens, G. L. & Orem, R. C. (1963). Characteristic Reading Techniques of Rapid Readers. The Reading Teacher, 17(2), pp. 102–108.
5th Conference, 26 Apr 2009:
Results of a speed reading course with 13 participants. Updated slide deck: Schnelllesen_Train2008_11.07.2009.ppt
4th conference, 31 Mar 2009:
Discussion of the current state of knowledge based on slides 57–83 of the presentation Schnelllesen_24.04.2008.ppt.
3rd conference, 8 Mar 2009:
Discussion of the current state of knowledge based on slides 20–56 of the presentation Schnelllesen_24.04.2008.ppt.
2nd conference, 10 Feb 2009:
Discussion of the current state of knowledge based on slides 1–20 of the presentation Schnelllesen_24.04.2008.ppt.
1st conference, 18 Jan 2009:
Technical test call to check infrastructure (Talkyoo, TeamViewer, Skype); no formal agenda. |
