1935
Born on January 28 in Frankfurt am Main

1954
Trip to Madrid, Toledo, Spain and Portugal

1955/56
Student of Prof. Theo Garve, evening school of the Städel, Frankfurt am Main;
Traineeship at the Klingspor type foundry, Offenbach am Main

1956 - 1957
Studied under Prof. Heinz Battke and others at the Städelschule Frankfurt am Main

1957 - 1963
Studied under Prof. Erich Glette and others at the Munich Art Academy

1958
Study visit to the island of Giglio, Italy (with Max Ackermann, Menke, Heino Naujoks and others)

1959
Founding of the WIR group with Helmut Rieger and Heino Naujoks, Munich
With Heino Naujoks participation in the "School of Seeing" by Oskar Kokoschka
Trip to Vienna with Kokoschka and the students
Establishes close contacts in the Munich art scene, including Otto van de Loo and Hans Platschek
Discussion of the publication by Platschek: "Neue Figuration", Munich 1959 (Piper)
In the 1970s, Köhler met Platschek again in Hamburg; in the 1980s, he maintained close friendly contact (via Studio Galerie, Galerie von Loeper)

1964 - 1965
Cooperation between the SPUR and WIR groups, Munich
Publication of the magazine SPUR-WIR, Munich (Köhler)
Journey with Heino Naujoks through Spain and Portugal in a Fiat 500
August 1965 SPUR/WIR travels to Basel in August to meet the Malanggans from Northern Ireland at the Ethnographic Museum there

1966
Merger of the WIR and SPUR groups to form the GEFLECHT group, Munich
Publication of the magazine GEFLECHT, Munich (Köhler)
GEFLECHT trip to Berlin in September for the exhibition "Labyrinthe", Akademie der Künste. Literature read and discussed in the groups, according to Anne Köhler: Mitscherlich (inhospitality of cities), Platschek (new figuration), Wilhelm Reich (sexual liberation), Jakob Levy Moreno (group dynamics, psychodrama).

1967
In January, GEFLECHT travels to Paris, visit from Jaqueline de Jong
GEFLECHT travels to Freiburg in May

1968
Trip from GEFLECHT to the art market in Cologne.
Group trip to documenta IV. Anne reports that Pop Art was of particular interest, Warhol, Wesselmann, Oldenburg. Intense discussions about the production of pictures and screen prints, Bachmayer against, Köhler and Naujoks in favor.
Opening exhibition of the group GEFLECHT at the Forum Galerie Van de Loo, Munich
Dissolution of the GEFLECHT group

1969
Moves to Hamburg together with Anne Köhler. Started work at the beginning of October in the shared apartment at Dorotheenstr. 143.

1970
Winner of the "Young Art in Hesse" prize.
Marriage to Anne Köhler

Early/mid 1970s: member of the "Gruppe Montag" with address in the (Adam Jankowski, Tomislav Laux, Florian Köhler, Dieter Rühmann, from this period a letter "RE-AKTION" to the director of dokumenta V, Harald Szeemann, possession as offset print in the Albertina, Vienna, INV.Nr.: DG2004/8747, ill.). Close working contacts with the Hamburg "Gruppe Werkstatt" (especially Christoph Krämer, Jürgen Hockauf) and with students of the Institute of Art History at the University of Hamburg, seminars by Klaus Herding (especially Martin Deppner, Waltraud Brodersen, Klaus Haubner, Rosi Huhn, Claus Mewes).
Committed to the anti-nuclear movement (Brokdorf)

1974 - 2013
Member of the Professional Association of Visual Artists Hamburg.

1990
First longer trip to the Ile d'Oléron, southwest France, since then numerous stays in the rental studio there in La Chefmalière, Côte Sauvage.

1996
Visiting professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Pentiment (painting)

2013
Died on August 7 in Hamburg