550 kilometres for a good cause

From 27 April to 3 May, students from ESB Business School cycled from Reutlingen University to Geneva in Switzerland. On the approximately 550-kilometre-long tour, the twelve-strong team from ‘ESB Cycling for Charity’ raised funds for a good cause. The final total amounts to more than 20,000 euros and will go to the Support Association for Children with Cancer (Förderverein für krebskranke Kinder in Tübingen e.V.) and Integramus e.V..

“We have been supported by ‘ESB Cycling for Charity’ for over 20 years. This makes the partnership one of our longest-standing and most loyal ones,” said Anton Hofmann, Chairman and Managing Director of the Tübingen Support Association for Children with Cancer, at the presentation of the donation cheque on 18 June. “It’s impressive that young, active people in particular are so committed to our cause and have managed to raise such a large sum of donations.”

For the past 23 years, students at the ESB Business School at Reutlingen University have been organising an annual charity cycle tour lasting several days entirely on their own initiative. Most recently, the tour went to Hamburg in 2025, to Volonne in 2024 and to Alicante in 2023.

Luba Maier, founder of Integramus e.V., emphasised how important the students’ support is to her organisation: “‘ESB Cycling for Charity’ is our biggest supporter; we can always count on their donations,” she said at the donation ceremony. “We have now been able to use these funds to build 15 drinking water wellsin Togo and Kenya, as well asto carry out further projects in these countries as well as in Ukraine.”

For tour participant Johanna Hain, a student on the International Management Double Degree  programme in her 4th semester, it was above all the sense of community that made the biggest impression: “It was a fantastic experience to cycle all the way to Switzerland. The countryside there is simply beautiful. The tour there was a genuine physical challenge, during which we really bonded as a team. And at the same time, we were able to support our partner associations."

In the run-up to the tour, the students had raised donations through a number of events at Reutlingen University. The team was supported in this by the student-run ‘Culture and Charity’ department at ESB Business School.

Next year, too, there are once again plans to cycle for a good cause. Preparations for the 24th edition of “ESB Cycling for Charity” are already underway.