ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius
The ZEIT-Stiftung promotes research and scholarship, art and culture, as well as education and training. It also initiates debates on political and social topics and provides forums for digital development. The foundation realizes its aims through its own projects and institutions, but it also grants funding to individuals and organizations who dare to innovate, and thus inspire change in science and research, culture and education. The foundation’s international activities are centred on Central and Eastern Europe as well as Israel, with a strong emphasis on intercultural dialogue.
Mission
They lend their support to creative endeavour and open-ended experimentation, but also invest in the preservation of our cultural heritage. The Foundation helps highly gifted and motivated individuals – especially young people – to discover and realize their potential. The aim is to stimulate intercultural debates and provide networking opportunities in the spirit of cosmopolitan exchange. The Foundation is motivated by the need for open debates on current issues in politics, society, culture and science, and by the need to find interdisciplinary solutions to local as well as global challenges.
Geographic Focus
Northern Germany, Eastern Europe, Israel and USProgramme Areas
The foundation provides support for the following areas:
• Research and scholarship
• Art and culture
• Education and training
• Digital Development
Research and Scholarship
Supports ground-breaking international structures of teaching and research in the fields of law, history, and humanities and arts; sponsors new fields of study; and promotes the talented up-and-coming young generation by applying an international and interdisciplinary approach. In 2000, the foundation established the Bucerius Law School, the first privately operated law school in Germany, with the goal to provide prospective law students with an alternative to the legal education programmes available at German state universities. The school offers an academically accomplished, practice-oriented, and bi-lingual legal education with a focus on international business law. Furthermore, the ZEIT-Stiftung invites 30 students and PhD candidates each year to its annual summer academy ‘History Takes Place’. In addition, it offers a grant programme for postgraduates in the fields of law and history.
Arts and Culture
Provides funding mainly directed to art exhibitions, contemporary music as well as literature. In 2002, the foundation established its own arts forum, the Bucerius Kunst Forum, which presents exhibitions ranging from the art of the Ancient World to classic modern art. Another important funding objective is the preservation of cultural heritage, such as the restoration of classical organs in East Germany, historic buildings and churches or precious manuscripts.
Education and Training
Supports school projects that prepare young people for their professional career. Activities include an annual summer school which brings together young leaders from around the world to discuss issues of global governance with international experts; a writing competition “”Schreibmal”” (time for writing); the Gerd Bucerius National Library Prize which promotes the importance of books as vital communicators of education, culture, knowledge, tradition and confidence in the future; and the Gerd Bucerius Prize ‘Free Press of Eastern Europe’ which supports eastern European media and journalists in an effort to promote a free press under restricted conditions – the latter prize is awarded in cooperation with the Institusjonen Fritt Ord, Oslo. The foundation also runs the Dönhoff Scholarship Programme which enables young and talented journalists from eastern European countries to work for the German media and gain experience for two months, while their German counterparts work at their respective editorial offices in return.