Our Team
About DeutschTutor
DeutschTutor is an online language school for German as a foreign language. It was founded 2013 by Réka Licht with the aim of offering adult learners of German high-quality language tuition that is in no way less effective than the best face-to-face lessons, irrespective of time and place. The basis for realising this vision are individual course concepts based on the latest didactic and methodological findings, a powerful digital teaching platform and – most importantly – a team of committed, competent German tutors who are distinguished by many years of experience, solid training and a pleasant, motivating personality.
May we introduce…
Réka Licht
Founder, Management
Christina Stattelmann
Tutor
Tiina Rintamäki
Tutor
Natalia Maruniak
Tutor
Severine Fetzer
Tutor
Judith Schnetler
Tutor
Susanne Kreuzig
Tutor
Alisha Mennenga
Tutor
Thomas Licht
Co-Founder, MarketingTestimonials
Réka Licht
Réka founded “DeutschTutor”, one of the first online-only language schools for German as a foreign language, and is a pioneer of digital language teaching. She lives in the beautiful Rheingau region in the “sparkling wine capital” of Wiesbaden and has been helping people learn and teach German for over 20 years. She has developed German exams for the ÖSD Institute and used them at language schools around the world, from Mexico to Taiwan and Cameroon. The insights she has gained into cultural diversity and the different needs of German learners and teachers form the basis for the individual, personalised DeutschTutor lessons. In addition to her role as head teacher, Réka actively supports German as a foreign language teachers as a speaker and coach in optimising their digital and analogue teaching.
Christina Stattelmann
Christina lives in Würzburg and is a dedicated teacher. Following her passion, she studied German language and literature at the University of Osnabrück and then worked as a teacher at various primary and secondary schools. Since 2015, she has been teaching German as a foreign language as a freelance lecturer with great commitment. She is also a certified telc examiner for professional language courses and courses for medical and nursing staff, among others. Christina is not only a dedicated German teacher, but is also enthusiastic about sports and travelling. She has a degree in sports, worked as a water skiing instructor, is a qualified travel agent and has learned to keep a cool head in stressful situations as a flight attendant.
Tiina Rintamäki
Tiina is a true European: her Nordic-sounding name comes from her Finnish father, she was born and raised in Germany and has been living in beautiful Portugal for many years. With so much internationality, it’s no wonder that she is also enthusiastic about foreign languages. Consequently, Tiina studied languages in Mainz and Lisbon and has been working as a translator and teacher of German as a foreign language for over 10 years. Tiina also has other talents: she is a certified fitness trainer, teaches fitness and yoga classes and occasionally lends her voice to the characters in commercials.
Natalia Mariuniak
Natalia was born in Berliner and currently resides in the beautiful South of France. She not only holds a successful master’s degree in German Studies from the Technical University of Berlin and a specialist diploma in German as a Foreign Language from the Goethe Institute in Munich, but also possesses various additional qualifications in online teaching. She is one of our most experienced online tutors. Since 2020, she has been exclusively teaching learners from all over the world at all proficiency levels, both in individual and group sessions. Her extensive experience includes not only traditional language courses but also business German, grammar courses, conversation classes, corporate training, exam preparation, and writing workshops.
Thanks to her various stays abroad in English-, Spanish-, and French-speaking countries, she is fluent in all these languages and has significantly broadened her cultural horizons as well as her understanding of linguistic nuances and cultural contexts. These experiences enable her to build close connections with her students and to empathize particularly well with their challenges and motivations as language learners.
Severine Fetzer
Severine holds a master’s degree in German Studies, which she earned at the University of Heidelberg. For over five years, she has been working as a German teacher at various educational institutions. She is deeply passionate about developing tailored course concepts and programs that help her students achieve their goals quickly, efficiently, and with motivation.
In addition, Severine has extensive international experience and intercultural skills, gained through her stays and work in Mexico, Ireland, Spain, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Colombia. During her time working for the DAAD, she also gained experience in creating, grading, and administering language exams.
Colombia, in particular, captured her heart during her travels abroad. As a result, she permanently relocated there in 2021 and now teaches German online to students worldwide from her home in Cali. In her free time, Severine enjoys staying active, especially outdoors, where she loves to go bouldering.
Judith Schnettler
Judith has over 10 years of experience teaching German as a Foreign Language. Her solid academic qualifications come from her studies in Philology, Education, and Linguistics at the Universities of Cologne and Santiago de Compostela, as well as the distance learning program “Teaching German” from the Goethe Institute and the University of Munich – all of which she completed with top marks.
During the Covid pandemic in 2020, Judith worked as a DAAD lecturer at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Like many of her colleagues, she was forced to transition from in-person to online teaching due to the pandemic. It was during this time that she discovered her passion for online teaching and realized that it offers an ideal opportunity, especially for people in leadership positions who often have very limited time, to learn a language alongside their professional duties.
Judith then devoted all her energy to understanding the nuances of online teaching and attended various professional courses. She is now a seasoned and enthusiastic online teacher. For the past three years, she has been living in Portugal. From there she primarily trains foreign specialists and executives from major German companies in the German language.
In her private life, Judith finds balance through yoga and meditation.
Susanne Kreuzig
Susanne lives in Dresden, the city of her birth, and has always had a soft spot for languages. She studied linguistics at the universities of Hamburg and Trieste and taught German as a second language at the adult education centre (VHS) when she was still a student. Since then, she has acquired a wide range of experience and skills in teaching German over a period of more than 20 years. Be it in her numerous teaching assignments at universities and renowned educational institutes or as a language trainer at large companies such as Airbus and Olympus. In addition, Susanne is a licensed examiner and, as a mentor and job application coach, supports international professionals in entering the German labour market. In her free time, Susanne loves to travel – lately she has especially enjoyed going to Portugal. She benefits from the fact that she speaks English, Italian, Russian, French and a little Portuguese.
Alisha Mennenga
Born in Oldenburg, Alisha lives in Bielefeld and is a real multi-talent when it comes to languages. After studying German as a foreign and second language at the Universities of Jena and Bielefeld, she was able to acquire extensive specialist knowledge and skills in various functions: as a lecturer for company and integration language courses at various educational institutions, as a telc language examiner and as a pedagogical manager at the International Federation in Gütersloh. Alisha loves languages and is not only fluent in German but also has basic knowledge of Spanish, Turkish and Indonesian.
Thomas Licht
Thomas Licht is a freelance marketing consultant with many years of experience from management positions at international companies in the consumer goods industry. He is co-founder of DeutschTutor and supports his wife Réka in marketing and sales. He also regularly passes on his marketing know-how to interested online teachers in webinars and workshops.