Barbara Cogel studied Romance and German language and literature at the universities of Frankfurt/Main, Caen (France) and Bochum, worked in the field of press and public relations and has been a teacher of German, French and DaF/ DaZ at a Cologne secondary school since 2003. In addition, she has moderated teacher training courses for the district government in the area of German as a second language and has been a DemeK trainer at the Migration Office of the Cologne district government since 2013.
Since 2010, she has been on secondment at the Mercator Institute for Language Development and German as a Second Language and prepares student teachers for linguistic heterogeneity in schools and lessons as part of the DaZ module.