German linguist and ethnologist specializing in African languages and culture.

In 1962 Köhler was appointed to the first professorship of African studies at the University of Cologne, where he founded an institute with a broad linguistic, historical, and cultural anthropological approach to his discipline. From his first contact with Khoisan (Khoisan languages) peoples in 1955, Köhler devoted himself tirelessly to the study of their endangered languages and cultures, gaining through his scholarship the reputation of doyen of Khoisan scholars. His magnum opus on the language, culture, and history of the Kxoe, a Khoe group of southeastern Angola and the western Caprivi Strip in Namibia, is a monumental and unparalleled piece of scholarship in the Khoisan field. The first two volumes in a projected five-volume series titled Die Welt der Kxoé: Buschleute im südlichen Afrika were published in 1989 and 1991.