About the scholarship

The Carl Hahn Scholarship, launched in July 2016, is designed to enable talented young people from Volkswagen’s catchment area in Wolfsburg, Chemnitz and Zwickau to study at universities national or international. Preference is given to applicants who can demonstrate social commitment in addition to very good ‘Abitur’ grades.
The financial situation of the student’s family is also taken into account. The duration of the scholarship is one year with the option of annual renewal until the end of the course. Regular performance records are obligatory and applicants are requested to send an informative letter of application to info@hahn-stiftung.org.

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Our current scholarship holders

Emilia Sofie Hendriok

My decision to apply for a Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation scholarship was influenced by several factors. As a former CEO and visionary, Prof. Hahn transformed Volkswagen into a global corporation and laid the foundation for a more diverse and inclusive work culture.

His influence strengthened my conviction that intercultural competences and the promotion of equal opportunities are crucial for the success of a society. Furthermore, the scholarship goal of enabling talented young people from Wolfsburg to study at university with an international focus aligns perfectly with my intention.

In the course of my practice-integrated bachelor’s degree at Volkswagen AG, my interest in business administration content intensified from an international and intercultural perspective. In addition, my stays abroad in Mexico and Hungary made the importance of intercultural skills clear to me. Since then, it was clear to me that I would like to gain a variety of experiences abroad in an academic and professional context. With this in mind, I am pursuing a Master’s degree in “Management and Leadership (M.Sc.)” at Andrássy University Budapest in Hungary to pursue my academic goals and further develop my intercultural competencies.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation. It is a great honour for me to be part of this scholarship programme and to have the opportunity to pursue my educational path. I am determined to carry on Prof. Hahn’s values and work for a more equitable education and intercultural cooperation.

Hejie Zhu

First baccalaureate, then a Bachelor degree, followed by a PhD. Those were probably the thoughts that crossed my mind the most when I was just about to graduate from high school.

While the academic pathway is a choice with a flourishing perspective, there are quite a few hurdles you can encounter along the way. For a motivated student the financial challenge can be the biggest issue. How would I be able to study full-time without interruptions or compromises in a difficult financial situation?

Fortunately, I encountered the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation. The uncomplicated and straight forward communication with the foundation, had me immediately convinced. Without losing time I got a fast response to my application and it was a positive one. A large part of my financial worries was therefore taken care of by the foundation and I was able to focus on my electronics studies at the Technical Univercity of Braunschweig.

I am impressed by the strong engagement of the foundation and its founder Prof Carl Hahn to promote more equality in the different areas of education and mobility. I hope that my studies will enable me to master my subject so that I may contribute something to the field of technology and the future in general. Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation and the founder Professor Carl Hahn for their support.

Sandra Sokolov

I became aware of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation through my work at Volkswagen. Through my dual studies at Volkswagen, I
already had the opportunity to earn a Bachelor’s degree in business administration. I am all the more pleased that I am now also being supported for my Master’s degree – by the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation.

I am particularly grateful for this because I myself come from a non-academic family and this path was therefore not preordained for me. According to recent studies, only 20% of non-academic children become Bachelor’s graduates and only 11% Master’s graduates, compared to 64% and 43% for academic children. It was the ambition of the founder of the foundation, Prof. Dr. Carl Hahn, to support people on their to support people on their educational path who do not have the best starting conditions. I am pleased to be part of the realisation of Prof. Dr. Carl Hahn’s vision.

I am currently spending a semester abroad in Paris to study in an international environment. I see this experience as a valuable investment in my future, as such opportunities are rare. I am convinced that the skills I have acquired here will be very useful to me in my future career. After my return from Paris, I will write my Master’s thesis in Bremen. I am already looking forward to the new challenges and to incorporating the experience I have gained into my thesis.

Sebastian Wucharz

During my practice-integrated bachelor’s degree at Volkswagen AG, I already experienced the lasting influence of Prof. Hahn and his significant role in the company’s history.

I admire Prof. Hahn’s vision, who was committed to fairer education and equal opportunities. He recognised early on that openness to the world and contact with people from different backgrounds are the basis for a society’s performance.

With this in mind, I am pursuing a Master’s degree in Hungary to further develop my intercultural competence. However, the path to academic excellence can come with financial challenges. With this in mind, I am all the happier that the Carl Hahn Scholarship supports talented young people from Volkswagen’s catchment area in Wolfsburg who are pursuing internationally oriented university studies. After submitting an unsolicited application for the Carl Hahn Scholarship, I had two very pleasant discussions with the foundation’s board of directors and shortly afterwards received confirmation of the sponsorship. With this, the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation takes away the pressure of the financial burdens of studying abroad and enables me to fully concentrate on my Master’s degree in Management and Leadership at Andrássy University in Budapest.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation for the unique opportunity and confidence in my abilities. Thanks to their generous support, I can successfully continue my educational journey and pursue my academic and professional ambitions. I am grateful for the financial and personal support I receive and look forward to representing the Foundation and its values.

Our former scholarship holders

Niklas Robert Tyler

In August 2022, as part of my holiday job, I had the special opportunity to accompany Prof Carl H. Hahn to a church service. During the journey, we talked about God and the world, as well as about his life. If I had been told at the time that this encounter would inspire me to study in China for six months two years later, I would never have thought it possible. But that’s exactly how it turned out!

After successfully completing my Abitur at the Neue Schule Wolfsburg, I began my degree in Business Administration at the University of Mannheim in the same year. Now the next big adventure of my studies is coming up: my semester abroad in Shanghai – a place that was also strongly influenced by Prof Hahn. Not least because of the many stories told by people from Wolfsburg who had been to Shanghai because of Volkswagen, I quickly realised that I would be drawn there. When I was accepted by Fudan University, I got the university place I had hoped for. It has always been important to me to get to know new cultures and people. That’s why I lived in Panama for a year after year 10 and I’m now very grateful for the valuable experience I gained there. Now I want to discover a completely new culture in China. I am particularly fascinated by modern Chinese culture and the many contrasts of a city like Shanghai. I hope to learn a lot of new things through many encounters with different people and to be able to develop personally. I am therefore looking forward to the next four months full of excitement and anticipation.

One trip to Shanghai and back! Unfortunately, time passed far too quickly, and so my four months in China are already over. Looking back, I can say that probably no experience in my life has shaped me as much as this short six months. A new culture, an unfamiliar environment and daily encounters with people who give you something to take with you on your journey.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Hahn family and the entire team at the foundation. The scholarship helped me a lot during my time in Shanghai and enabled me to really make the most of my time. I look back on my time as a scholarship holder of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation with gratitude. In conclusion, I have only one thing to say – thank you.

Finja Augsburg

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As a scholarship holder of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation, I spent the winter semester of 2022 as an international visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin.

Working with world-class mentors, colleagues, and experts in global communication practice made my time at Moody College of Communication unforgettable. Not only did I lay the foundation for my Master’s thesis at the University of Erfurt in Austin, but I was also able to set the course for my professional future in transatlantic communication. I return to Germany with both a laughing and a crying eye and am now already looking forward to spending the summer of 2023 as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, thus achieving another milestone in my career so far.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation in my hometown of Wolfsburg for the financial support I received during my semester abroad and for the confidence they have shown in my academic path.

After a successful semester abroad as a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation scholarship also accompanied me through the final phase of my Master’s degree. The financial support enabled me to complete an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin and to link the theoretical research areas of my studies with practical experience at the pulse of transatlantic communication. Building on this, I rounded off my academic training with a thesis on the dynamics in the German-American relationship since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which received great recognition in specialist circles even as it was being written.

I would like to sincerely thank the entire team of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation for their trust in my development and for the great tailwind that brought me from Erfurt via Texas to Berlin and enabled me to seize key opportunities for my professional future and to grow with new challenges.

Bastian Döring

During my one-year stay abroad at Volkswagen in Beijing, I already learned about the unique history that connects Dr. Hahn and the People’s Republic of China.

Furthermore, Prof. Hahn impressed me with decades of loyalty to Volkswagen and also with the interesting way of his life in different countries and cultures. Because of this and my wish to be able to take advantage of new opportunities in the international business world by studying, I decided to send an application to the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation. After an exiting conversation in Prof. Hahn’s office, the Foundation enabled me with a scholarship to start my studies in International Business at the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle, Netherlands. I am very grateful to Prof. Hahn and the entire Foundation for their financial and personal support. I would also like to emphasise the helpfulness of all those involved.

It is with great pleasure and gratitude that I would like to take this opportunity today to thank the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation for their valuable support during my four years of study in International Business. As a scholarship holder, I was able to embark on an extraordinary learning journey that has had a lasting impact on my life. During my years of study, I had the honour of studying in both the Netherlands and Munich as part of a dual degree programme. This opportunity gave me insights into different teaching methods and cultures. The scholarship from the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation not only supported my academic journey financially, but also gave me the opportunity to develop personally in a profound way and graduate with a 1.3. The generous support of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation has opened doors for me, but also illustrated the value of education, community and commitment. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity given to me through your scholarship and I try to carry on the values that the organisation embodies.

The degree I have completed has given me the opportunity to start my career at Audi AG.

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, I thank the entire team at the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation, and especially the Hahn family, for their generous support and the trust they have placed in my abilities.

Alexandra Lorena Leicht

The scholarship was not only a financial help for me, but also a source of inspiration. It gave me the courage to enter a new environment and take on new challenges.

These experiences have shaped my personality and helped me to grow beyond myself. The opportunity to pursue my interests in maths/engineering even back then ignited my passion for these subject areas and encouraged me in my choice of study. In the summer semester of 2024, I went to England for a second time. More precisely: to Cambridge. Since August 2021, I have been studying business informatics with a focus on logistics together with Volkswagen AG. I spent my semester abroad at the Cyber-Human Lab at the University of Cambridge, which is part of the Department of Engineering.

During this time, I had the opportunity not only to study in an academically challenging environment and work on an exciting collaboration project with Volkswagen, but also to get to know different people and cultures and gain interesting experiences.

I was particularly impressed by the diversity and high calibre of the international community at the University of Cambridge. I had the privilege of meeting brilliant and inspiring people from all over the world who enriched not only my professional but also my personal life. The numerous discussions, joint projects and events have created unforgettable memories and friendships. The historical atmosphere of the city of Cambridge, the impressive architecture of the colleges and the diverse cultural offerings made my semester abroad an all-round successful experience.

Sven Wiesner – Master of Science in Computer Science, 2022

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I became aware of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation scholarship through a Wolfsburg newspaper article and subsequently submitted my application.

At the time, I had already been accepted for a place at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and was therefore looking for scholarships that would also support studies abroad. After a pleasant conversation with Dr Hahn, I was accepted for the scholarship, which relieved me of a large part of the financial burden of studying.

The scholarship had my back during my time at university and enabled me to focus on my studies.

During my Bachelor’s degree, I also had the freedom to spend a semester abroad at the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, thus broadening my horizons not only professionally but also culturally. I am also very grateful that I was able to count on the Foundation’s support for my Master’s degree and was thus helped to obtain my degree.

I would particularly like to emphasise the extraordinarily friendly and uncomplicated contact with the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation from the very beginning, which enabled me to interact with the Foundation even from abroad. As a former scholarship holder, I remain connected to the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation and would like to express my sincere thanks for the long-lasting support, and especially to Dr. Hahn for his interest and commitment.

Carlotta Crome

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After successfully completing my Bachelor’s degree in Munich, I was able to start my Master’s degree with a year abroad at the TU Delft in the Netherlands and successfully complete my Master’s degree in Munich in the summer of 2021.

Thanks to the scholarship of the Carl and Marisa Hahn Foundation, I was able to complete half of my Master’s degree abroad. The constant support throughout my studies has given me a lot of freedom. I am very grateful to be part of the network of (now former) scholarship holders.

Prof. Hahn’s commitment is also admirable outside the Foundation. It is inspiring how he works for equal access to education worldwide and actively supports this by building schools. To add to this the foundation helps wheelchair-bound people in Wolfsburg with the MarisaMobil to gain mobility and freedom.

The life’s work of Prof. Hahn makes it clear that it is close to his heart to help people all over the world and make their everyday life easier. I am thankful that I have personal contact with Prof. Hahn, which creates a very familiar atmosphere in the scholarship.

In June 2021 I completed my master’s degree in economics and organizational sciences in Munich and completed two semesters abroad at the TU Delft in the Netherlands as part of my master’s degree. In my master’s thesis, I examined the influence of digital technologies on the sustainability reporting of organizations.

Many thanks for the support.