For more than two decades now, the Fördergesellschaft ZKM/HfG e.V. (Fund Support Association), with its 450 members, has been awarding HfG students substantial prizes for outstanding semester, master's or diploma theses in the disciplines of exhibition design and scenography, communication design, art research and media philosophy, media art and product design.

Nominated by their supervising professors and selected by a high-calibre jury of renowned artists and university lecturers, directors of museums and art associations, as well as senior curators of well-known art institutions, the financial awards are an important recognition of academic achievement and provide support for projects that have already begun and their continuation. Members eagerly await the annual award ceremony and presentation of the award-winning works, which takes place in a festive setting.

The Fördergesellschaft offers its members lectures, guided tours, excursions, workshops and regular exclusive special events that invite them to take an unusual look behind the scenes at ZKM and HfG.

By the time of its 30th anniversary in 2018, more than 180 projects from both institutions had benefited from funding totalling over €700,000. Members of the Fördergesellschaft have enjoyed numerous excursions, visits and presentations at the ZKM and the HfG Karlsruhe.

By its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2013, 140 projects from the two institutes had profited from 500,000 € worth of funding. Society members enjoyed numerous excursions, as well as visits and presentations at the ZKM and the HfG.

The ZKM and the university, by virtue of their unique concept, are recognized throughout the world. Our focused commitment assists these two institutions in their reflection and documentation of the complex present-day of consumer and media society.

In 1984, to mark the 25th anniversary of their company, Gunther and Ingrid Schroff established the Schroff Foundations from private funds, one for social purposes and the other for scientific purposes. Their objectives include scholarships in mechanical engineering at KIT, financing visiting professorships, promoting student exchanges, providing housing for students, and the Gunther Schroff Prize for students at the HfG.
More information at www.schroff-stiftungen.de

The ZKM/HfG Support Association itself has also been committed to supporting HfG students for 22 years, contributing at least €7,500 annually from membership fees. In addition to other HfG projects, it also supports numerous ZKM projects. More information on the homepage: https://zkm.de/de/preisverleihung-der-foerdergesellschaft-2025

The Heinrich Hertz Society is an association of scientists and citizens dedicated to promoting contacts between local and international scientists. Every year, it awards numerous scholarships and prizes to students at all universities, including €2,000 annually to the HfG for the past 22 years through the FG. More information is available on the homepage: https://hhg.gdh.kit.edu/index.php

The Badische Beamtenbank has also been supporting HfG students for several years with a prize of €1,000 for outstanding work. More information is available on the homepage: https://www.bbbank.de/privatkunden.html

The Achim and Melanie Krämer Prize was added last year with a sum of €2,000. Before retiring, Prof. Dr. Achim Krämer was a lawyer at the Federal Court of Justice and Melanie Krämer was a specialist lawyer for medical law.

Another prize sponsor is the Riemschneider Foundation. It promotes master classes and awards scholarships to HfG students. Since 2016, the Riemschneider Foundation has been awarding scholarships to students at the HfG Karlsruhe. Students are supported in the production of their diploma films. After internal consultation, the professors propose students to the board, and the decision on the scholarship recipients is then made at the board meeting. More information is available on the homepage: https://riemschneider-stiftung.de/

The list of nominees for the 2025 tour made it particularly difficult for the jury to reach a quick decision. After a detailed on-site review of the works, the following works were selected and awarded prizes after a meeting lasting several hours:

Promotion Society Award I Julian Jaffé with Emil: Ein typografisches Revival, das historische Auslöschung sichtbar macht

Promotion Association Prize II Josefine Pilar Scheu with Performende Körper und ihre militanten Accessoires: Zur Materialisierung von Dissens

Promotion Association Prize III Moritz Konrad with By Users for Users: Memes als digitale Folklore

Gunther Schroff Prize (€5,000) Emanuel Spiecker with Wrapping Waste: Generative Design-Tools für die Verwertung von Lederverschnitt

Heinrich Hertz Society Prize (€2,500) Cornelia Herzog with Wavebreaker: Schallabsorbierende Fliesen

BBBank Prize (€1,500) Chelsea Kim, Josephine Leicht with Known Unknown

Others:

In the presence of Gisela von Renteln, the Riemschneider Foundation awarded a €1,500 scholarship to Pauline Cemeris for her graduation film Bird House, which will be completed in spring 2026.

The HfG congratulates all the winners and once again all the other nominees of this year's Rundgang:

• Aqua Logistik - Finn de Bruyn
• Shadows of Reflection - Livia Lazzarini
• Manchmal ist Schmerz ganz leise - Luise Peschko, Sophie Reißfelder
• Wet Again - Laura Haag
• Plastic Fugue - Hoin Ji
• Ministry for the Future - Bettina Bessenyei, Birke Beyer, Juhee Han, Emily Hugger, Luca Ihns, Josephine Leicht, Ewa Wasilewska, Verena Zenker
• In Defense of Mis Caprichos - Juliana Vargas Zapata
• Big Hat Big Problems - Jesse Schmeller
• TOWER POWER - Laura Weser

The HfG Karlsruhe would like to express its sincere thanks to all sponsors and donors and would like to take this opportunity to once again congratulate all of this year's nominees and winners:

Gunther Schroff Prize worth €5,000: Jette Schwabe, Jaya Demmer - JJxH54D – Spring Collection

First Prize from the Fördergesellschaft worth €4,000: BookBoi

Prize II of the Fördergesellschaft with €2,500: Rita Andrulyte - Path Tiles – Knitting Coordinates into Patterns

Prize of the BBBank with €1,500: Calvin Kudufia - A man in the shape of...

Prize III of the Fördergesellschaft with €1,000: Alicia Luna Ripp- Spellbound

Prize IV of the Fördergesellschaft with €1,000: Amelie Enders – ZWISCHEN-RÄUME_N

Achim & Melanie Krämer Prize with €1,000: Víctor Fancelli Capdevila - Who cares? - Digital sociality, infrastructures of care, and convivial technologies

Heinrich Hertz Society Prize worth €2,000: Schwarm Publication Issue 2 Delusions

Riemschneider Foundation Prize worth €1,500 each: Kevin Beckmann, Alexander Thelen Kevin Beckmann for his film project “Katharsis” Alexander Thelen for his film project “Eine Scherbe ist ein Unfall, Mehrere eine Hochzeit ...” (One shard is an accident, several are a wedding ...)

Congratulations to the winners:

Lizzy Ellbrück, Lena Zwerina, Moritz Nebenführ, Lukas Dechau, Emanuel Spiecker, and the group A Place in the Woods with Jonathan Blaschke, Bruno Jacoby, Johanna Schäfer, Isabel Motz, Jonas Grünwald, Florian Knöbl, and Mona Mayer.

At the opening of the 2022 exhibition, as every year, HfG prizes were awarded to students for outstanding artistic achievements with the kind support of the ZKM / HfG Fördergesellschaft.

Erik Grunder from the Product Design program at HfG Karlsruhe was awarded the Gunther Schroff Prize for his sustainable undergraduate project “852.” BBBank awarded its prize to Sandra Schick (Communication Design) for her book “Celestial Bodies.” Arno Schlipf (Communication Design) received the Heinrich Hertz Society Prize for his diploma project “Miwos – An open platform and hardware for MIDI-based music interaction.” The ZKM / HfG Support Association awarded its prizes to Dohi Kim (media art) for her audiovisual piece “WHERE DO YOU GO IF DREAMS DON'T FIX YOU?” and Severin Geißler (communication design) for his diploma thesis “SPUREN FOLGEN” (FOLLOWING TRACES).

The HfG Faculty Award, presented for the first time this year, went to the Community Toolkit Workshop, an initiative by students and faculty at HfG Karlsruhe that develops tools and resources to help address structural and open issues.

Since 1998, the Fördergesellschaft has been supporting students at the State College of Design with an annual award ceremony for outstanding semester, master's, or diploma theses in the subjects of product design, media art, photography, scenography, communication design, and art history with substantial prizes financed by the Fördergesellschaft and numerous scholarship providers, such as the Gunther Schroff Foundation, the Heinrich Hertz Society, the City of Karlsruhe, BBBank, and, time and again, private prize sponsors. In addition to recognizing their achievements, these prizes enable students to continue their projects and initiate new ones.

Under the chairmanship of art historian Dr. Marlene Angermeyer-Deubner, a jury of local and external academics, artists, and museum directors selects the works.
In 2020/21, Prof. Dr. Georg Vrachliotis, Professor of Architectural Theory at KIT, Philipp Ziegler, Curator at ZKM, Margit Rosen, Curator at ZKM, Dr. Andreas Beitin, Director of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, and Anja Casser, Director of the Badischer Kunstverein, selected the works nominated by the professors of the individual departments.