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Dear readers
“It’s really difficult to get in. You have to get through a selection process; but once you’ve got through it, it’s wonderful,” said Claudia Schramke recently in an interview about her entrance exams at the weissensee school of art and design berlin. Today, she is one of Germany’s most renowned graphic designers and has been responsible for the Berlinale’s visual identity for four years.
The 178 new students who will begin their studies next week at the weissensee school of art and design berlin have also come through this process successfully! New paths are now open to them. We warmly welcome them and are delighted that they will enrich our international university community with their ideas, creativity and critical spirit.
Above all, we are grateful that we can offer them and all our other students a stable future at our university – something that seemed highly uncertain last semester in light of the Berlin Senate’s proposed budget cuts. Fortunately, the Senate’s new amendment agreement now stipulates no further cuts for 2026 and even slight increases in the following years. Between 2026 and 2028, the impact of the necessary savings will be cushioned by a solidarity model that will, in particular, support small universities that do not have their own capital reserves.
Even though we remain concerned, the significant improvements on the cuts that were originally planned are a remarkable success! This outcome is the result of intensive negotiations conducted with great commitment by the president Dr Angelika Richter and the chancellor Hinnerk Gölnitz, who, in turn, were supported by the vice-presidents Antonella Giannone and Joseph Imorde. Both vice-presidents have been re-elected by the Academic Senate for a further three years with a strong majority. We extend our warmest congratulations to them on their success.
We would also like to congratulate the outstanding students and graduates who have been recognised with awards and scholarships. Some of them are featured in this newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for more insights into what is happening at the university. Soon, you will also be able to watch the full interview with Claudia Schramke on YouTube. We look forward to connecting with you.
Your weissensee school of art and design berlin
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Lectures on Art Therapy
The master’s course in Art Therapy at the weissensee school of art and design berlin is offering two double-lecture sessions by the course director Uwe Herrmann on how the creation of art can promote and restore mental health. Case studies from art therapy practice will offer a vivid insight into how artistic work within a therapeutic relationship can lead to transformative healing processes.
The lectures take place on 12 October 2025 from 11 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. at the Park-Klinik Weißensee. The lecture sessions can be attended independently of each other.
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Whilst there is a lack of affordable housing in Berlin, apartment buildings are being demolished just an hour and a half away in Eisenhüttenstadt. As part of the work of greenlab, our laboratory for sustainable design strategies, and in cooperation with the Eisenhüttenstadt Housing Cooperative, students, under the direction of Prof. Steffen Schuhmann, explored alternatives to demolition and asked: How much utopian potential does prefabricated housing hold for our coexistence on a damaged planet? The results of this project are now going to be exhibited at the Club am Anger in Eisenhüttenstadt.
Opening: 10 October 2025 at 6 p.m., Club am Anger, Eisenhüttenstadt.
Read more
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Goethe Intervenzioni
The Casa di Goethe in Rome is a German museum that - based on Goethe’s journey to Italy – focuses on art and culture between Germany and Italy. In the winter semester 2022-23, the studio mut.und.anmut [courage and grace] at the weissensee school of art and design berlin developed a new critical narrative level that intervened in the museum’s largely unchanged permanent exhibition of the last twenty years. A documentation of these “intervenzioni” has now been published, explaining how museums can become more adaptable, lively, and future-oriented.
Book presentation: 6 November 2025, 6:30 p.m., Werkbund Archive – Museum of Things.
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Sofía Mariaca Ewel has been awarded a DAAD Prize. Her artistic practice combines personal themes with strong political awareness. In “A Conversation with my Mother” (2024), she addressed her mother’s breast cancer in the form of an embroidered letter - intense yet subtle. She also engages with socially relevant issues, participating in projects on postcolonial discourse and current conflicts. Together with other women, she initiated embroideries in the style of arpilleras (colourful patchwork pictures popularised in Chile), a form of artistic protest and female empowerment.
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Carl Bahra, a Product Design graduate, has won the UX Design Award 2025 (category: New Talent), which is offered by the International Design Centre [Internationales Design Zentrum – IDZ], for his master’s thesis Anamnesis Plus. The idea enables medical professionals to intuitively capture ultrasound data, supported by AI-based real-time feedback and visual body projection. The data collection requires no extensive specialist training, whilst the execution of the procedure and its evaluation are clearly separated. What has been created is an accessible diagnostic tool that strengthens primary care and frees up healthcare capacities, especially in rural areas.
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The following students have received certificates for a Deutschlandstipendium:
Elon Arkless, Marlies Brennauer, Dawa Boyoung Chung, Bruno De Marco, Severin Dellwisch, Mona Masuyama, Dayanira Tania Yupanqui Ramos Altamirano, Johanna Reichhart, Heidi Rondak, Alec Ross, Luis Humberto Sánchez Gutiérrez, Kolja Ida Lilly Sörgel, Katarzyna Suchecka and Obaida Zrik. The monthly scholarship of €300 is jointly funded by the federal government and the mart stam foundation for art + design. We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to the sponsors of this foundation for their enormous commitment. The selection criteria included academic achievement, social engagement, and personal or family circumstances.
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Christiane Stohmann and Cécile Wagner, graduates of the Art Therapy master’s course, have been awarded the Joachim and Frauke Baumgarten Prize.
Established by the Park-Klinik Weißensee in memory of its long-time managing director Prof. Dr Joachim Baumgarten, who was instrumental in helping to set up the master’s course in Art Therapy, the prize honours the graduate(s) with the highest grades on their master’s course each year and comes with €1,000.
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The German Design Award Newcomer is a milestone in the careers of successful designers. The Newcomers of the Year demonstrate what design can achieve in the future. The German Design Council [Rat für Formgebung] awards this prize to promote talents who stand out with exceptional creativity and strong ideas. The Newcomer of the Year 2025 is our graduate Juni Sun Neyenhuys.
For 2026, five of our graduates have been nominated: Mareen Baumeister, Julia Huhnholz, Helen Eisen, Ony Yan, Jasper Mendel and Benedikt Trojer.
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The Lucia Loeser Foundation has provided three scholarships this year for our university. Recipients are Charlotte Brandhorst (Stage and Costume Design), Sivan Sureskumaran (Product Design) and Anna Dmytrenko (Visual Communication).
The scholarship supports particularly talented students with a monthly grant of €550 for one year and helps them to achieve success in their studies.
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FORM IT
How can students actively help to shape teaching at the university? With the project “FORM IT – Experimental Formats in Art and Design”, the weissensee school of art and design berlin explored new ways of integrating student perspectives into teaching and developing participatory formats. Students from all departments were invited to take part in a diverse programme of workshops and a festival during the 2024-25 academic year. A comprehensive publication marking the project’s completion is now available for download.
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