Silja Graupe

Silja is the founder and president of the Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG) in Koblenz. She comes from a family of entrepreneurs in Hamburg and studied technical chemistry, economics and philosophy in Berlin and Tokyo. She spent many years researching intercultural philosophy in Germany, Japan and the USA, aiming towards renewing economic thinking across the boundaries of cultures and world views.

As head of the university, she combines her entrepreneurship with her academic creativity to create a new educational centre that does both – criticising the existing education system as well as creating a counter-design to it. This idea is not to create a another academic ivory tower, but a breeding ground and inspiration for the reorganisation of education and society everywhere.

„Give your life meaning!“ With this motto, the Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung is revolutionising education. It is a young, state-recognised and ideologically independent university that organises teaching and research democratically. Its concept of transformative learning enables people to ignite and nourish the fire of change for the common good. The HfGG researches and tests new ways of thinking and acting in times of crisis and shares its educational innovations with other universities, schools, organisations and civil society groups.

Education empowers people to protect nature and strengthen democracy. Instead of greed and selfishness, it teaches people to focus on the common good, cooperation and meaningful work in the economy. This gives rise to ideas for a future worth living, which are increasingly becoming a reality.

The HfGG offers one Bachelor’s and two Master’s programmes, all of which combine personal development with the strengthening of vision, new thinking, community building, project work and commitment. A key focus is on the new economic education, which enables students to work for the common good and overcome egoism and systemic injustice. The HfGG is not a university in the traditional sense, but a ‘think and do tank’ that initiates and supports hundreds of projects, activities and networks together with young people. It shares its education and research programmes with other universities and schools and brings them to companies and the public sector. In this way, the HfGG acts as a meaningful place of change for education, science and society as a whole.