The “Berthold Beitz student trips to Berlin” funding programme starts into its second round
The Krupp Foundation, the City of Essen and the Jewish Museum Berlin are continuing their collaboration and are launching the second round of the “Berthold Beitz student trips to Berlin” funding programme. Starting 26 September, the 111th birthday of Berthold Beitz, school classes in Essen can once again apply for a trip to Berlin. The aim of the programme is to promote German-Jewish understanding by visiting the Jewish Museum Berlin as well as other important places of remembrance of the National Socialist dictatorship. The Foundation is funding the programme, which is scheduled to run for three years, with EUR 300,000. In the 2025/2026 school year, up to ten classes from grades 8 to 13 in Essen will be able to embark on the trip.
The programme pays tribute to the life and work of Berthold Beitz, the long-standing Chairman of the Krupp Foundation, who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish people during the Second World War and was honoured in Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations”. To this day, German-Jewish understanding remains one of the most important focal points of the Foundation’s work.
Young people are particularly exposed to the risk of disinformation: Fake news and communication manipulated for political purposes in the digital realm are just as commonplace these days as the rise of racism. This harbours dangers for the understanding of democracy as well as for the development of courage of their convictions. In this way, the programme aims to help sharpen young people’s historical judgement, totally in line with the need to engage with the past in order to shape the future.
E-mail applications for the 2025/2026 school year by 11 April 2025, to: wettbewerb@schulen.essen.de