Studienstiftung

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The German National Academic Foundation or German National Merit Foundation (German: Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, short: Studienstiftung) is an organisation to promote students of outstanding intellectual abilities and personality. It is financed mainly by the German government. It was founded in 1925, abolished under the Nazi regime and re-founded in 1948.

The foundation receives most of its funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research grant, while also being supported by states and municipal programs, and various corporate and private endowments.

Members of the Studienstiftung receive quarterly stipends for living and other expenses. Considered as even more important by the foundation, they can participate in a wide range of seminars and summer schools, often organised by the most reputed professors of their fields, language courses and special activities.

The program is restricted to:

Students with German citizenship
Students with a European Union nationality studying primarily in Germany or graduating in Germany
Students of other nationalities with the German Abitur and studying at a German university, if the parent's income are subject to German taxation

The Studienstiftung sponsors 5850 students (as of October 1, 2005)^[1], corresponding to 0.3% of the total German student population.

Current Studienstiftung affiliates sometimes call themselves Stifti.

1 Nomination
2 Notable Alumni
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Nomination

Student candidates may not apply themselves for the core scholarship, instead they have to be nominated (vorgeschlagen) by a person with the qualification for nomination in order to enter the selection process. Qualified are:

Headmasters (when graduating from the gymnasiale Oberstufe top of class)
Administrator of affiliated student competitions (for the top national finalists), with competitions being:
- International Biology Olympiad, International Chemistry Olympiad, International Mathematical Olympiad, International Physics Olympiad, and International Olympiad in Informatics
- Jugend forscht (science and engineering)
- Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik (mathematics), Bundeswettbewerb Informatik (computer science), Bundeswettbewerb Fremdsprachen (foreign language and classics)
- Schülerwettbewerb Alte Sprachen (classics), and Schülerwettbewerb Deutsche Geschichte (German history)
- Landeswettbewerb Deutsche Sprache und Literatur (German langauge and literature)
- The zis Foundation for Travel Grants
University professors, departments of German universities with Vorexamina that has numerical grades (for university students)
Professors and presidents of German Fachhochschulen (for Fachhochschule students)
Head of German national fine arts and music universities (for their art students)
Advisors of doctoral theses (for doctoral candidates)

A so nominated person is examined in a selection seminar, testing for both his intellectual abilities and his personality. The average acceptance ratio varies depending on the type of nomination, from 23.4% for freshmen to 47.8% for university nominations (2005).

One can argue that the need for a such an organisation is specially high in a country with a rather homogeneous range of universities, many of which are well reputed, but none of which would be called an Elite university (like Cambridge University, Harvard University or the Ecole Normale Superieure). It is here where many gifted young personalities make contacts with similarly interested and highly motivated students. The motto of this German Ivy League^[2] as it is sometimes called is Leistung, Initiative und Verantwortung (Merit, Initiative and Responsibility).

[edit] Notable Alumni

Andreas von Bechtolsheim, co-founder Sun Microsystems
Ulrich Beck, sociologist
Wolfgang Bernhard, manager
Hans-Jürgen von Bose, professor, composer
Emil Cimiotti, artist
Moritz Eggert, composer, pianist
Gudrun Ensslin, former member of the Red Army Fraction (RAF)
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, writer
Gerd Faltings, mathematician, Fields medal 1986
Justus Frantz, pianist
Annette Fugmann-Heesing, treasury secretary, senator
Petra Gerster, journalist
Anna Gourari, pianist
Stefan Homburg, economist
Robert Huber, Nobel prize chemistry 1988
Horst Janssen, artist
J. Hans D. Jensen, Nobel prize physics 1963
Dirk Kaesler, sociologist
Bas Kast, writer
Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel prize physics 2001
Christian Keysers, neuroscientist
Claus Kleber, journalist, anchor of the "heute-journal"
Wilfried Köpke, journalist
Heinz Rudolf Kunze, singer and composer
Michael Kunze, composer
Rolf-Ulrich Kunze, historian
Franz Massinger, pianist, professor
Ulrike Meinhof, editor, former member of the Red Army Fraction
Erwin Neher, Nobel prize medicine 1991
Felix Otto, mathematician, Leibniz prize 2006
Frei Otto, architext
Matthias Pintscher, composer
Detlev Poguntke, mathematicien
Gyburg Radke, philologist, Leibniz-prize 2006
Stephan Reimertz, art historian
Gerhard Roth (Biologist), President of the Studienstiftung since 2004
Karl Schiller, politician and scientist
Gesine Schwan, professor, SPD-candidate for the office of the federal president, 2004
Wolf Singer, neuroscientist
Christine Teusch, politician
Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden, economist
Robert Tillmanns, politician
Philipp Tingler, writer, journalist and economist
Antje Vollmer, politician, until 2005 Vice-President of the Deutsche Bundestag
Juli Zeh, writer