As part of our SFB TRR 161, we, the doctoral students, have the opportunity to organise and attend a yearly PhD retreat. This year, 2025, we were lucky enough to be welcomed by the Humboldt-Haus Achberg at the beautiful Lake Constance (Bodensee).
The location offered us a fantastic venue for presenting and discussing our respective areas of research and strengthening the connections inside the TRR. Be it the view from the lunch room, the surrounding area or the conference hall.
Our retreat lasted from the 26th to the 28th of May. On the evening of our arrival, we began with the typical procedure – saying hi, coffee, and room distribution. After that, I had the pleasure to officially welcome everyone with my presentation, which we spontaneously (and not all that seriously) declared to be a keynote talk.
After dinner, we came together for a board game night. While our group frantically tried to outplay each other in our game of cards, the other group piled new rules towards how to actually play theirs.
On the second day, we started with exhaustively discussing our areas of science as well as our experiences with networking, travelling, and more that are important for PhD students in different stages of their studies.
In the late afternoon, we revisited an activity which we already tried last year: Bowshooting. While we did not have an instructor this time, we did have a ranking! And I would like to eternalise our top three in order: Patrick, Michael, and Frederik. Congratulations!
On the last day, we went for a small hike towards the castle in Achberg. We actually expected it to be closed, but for some magical reason, we were able to take a peek. So: good for us.
Our way back was not only marked by great conversations, but also by quite a bit of rain. Fitting, since we were all getting ready to get home after an interesting, productive, and fun doctoral retreat 2025.
