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ERSTE Foundation

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ERSTE Foundation

Positive change is based on shared values. On this platform you have access to ideas and people.Together with our partners we create development.

ERSTE Foundation is active in the Central and South Eastern European region including Austria. Founded in 2003, we began our work two years later by developing strategies that support awareness raising and knowledge creation for responsible and active citizens enabling them to stand for and support liberal, democratic values and European cohesion. Other than that ERSTE Foundation offers inspiring

models of successful social integration and cultural innovation to stimulate the engagement of others, as examples of good practice and as a reference for partnerships with other actors. It also promotes engagement with critical societal developments by artists and cultural producers and mediates their works to a wider public.

28/05/2026

Democracy Re:boot Camp is an in-person, pan-European gathering designed to strengthen democratic resilience by empowering a new generation of leaders. At a time when civic space is shrinking, misinformation is spreading, and authoritarian tendencies are rising, the camp provides young changemakers with the tools, knowledge, and network they need to actively defend and renew democracy.

Bringing together promising young activists, aspiring politicians, journalists, and civil society leaders aged 18–28, the programme combines practical skills training, strategic insight, and experiential learning in an intensive, immersive setting. Participants engage directly with experienced mentors, explore real-world case studies, and build meaningful peer connections that continue beyond the bootcamp itself.

At its core, Democracy Re:boot camp is about rebooting democratic energy - equipping young leaders not only to respond to democratic backsliding, but to proactively shape a more resilient, participatory, and hopeful democratic future.

The programme is open to people aged 18 to 28, who reside in Europe and who are genuinely in the middle of something. Not people who study democracy from the outside - people who are trying to do something about it, and hitting real resistance, real complexity, or real doubt.

We are looking for:
• Activists and organizers building or sustaining movements, campaigns, or civic initiatives
• Journalists and communicators working where the information space is contested or under pressure
• Civil society practitioners working on advocacy, rights, or accountability
• Emerging political figures and researchers translating democratic values into practical action

All details: https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/events/democracy-needs-you-apply-for-the-reboot-camp-2026-by-7-june/

15/05/2026

On 13 May, historian and author Anne Applebaum took the stage at Vienna's Judenplatz to deliver this year's Speech to Europe, »The European Moment«. In a world where the EU's achievements are too easily dismissed as bureaucratic inconvenience, and where both Russia and the United States are working to weaken European unity, Applebaum made the case for Europe to recognise its own weight and act accordingly.

Since 2019, »A Speech to Europe«, initiated by ERSTE Foundation to mark Europe Day, has offered a moment of reflection on Europe's past, present, and future. Judenplatz, steeped in layers of European history, is no coincidental stage.

Read the full speech in our journal: https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/a-speech-to-europe-2026-the-european-moment/

A joint event by Wiener Festwochen, ERSTE Foundation and the IWM - Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, in cooperation with Jüdisches Museum Wien.

📷: Valerie Maltseva

15/05/2026

Come and find Marc at this year’s Impact Days Vienna!

Under the motto »Holding tensions, creating impact«, Impact Days will take place at Vienna’s Rathaus. We’ll be there with the Marc Impact Programme! Join us for conversations, connections and fresh perspectives on social and green entrepreneurship.

Look out for:
- the Marc Breakfast & Get Together (Monday, 18 May, 09:00–10:30)
- Panel: From Breakthroughs to Ventures (Monday, 18 May, 16:00 - 17:00)
- the Marc Lounge throughout both days

Will we see you there?

06/05/2026

Care work is largely invisible: it happens within families, alongside jobs and everyday life, rarely counted or supported. In Austria alone, around 42,000 children and young people regularly take on care responsibilities, many without anyone around them noticing.

Nicole Traxler is Executive Director Social and Digital Innovation at ERSTE Foundation. Together with her team, she works at the intersection of digitalisation and social inclusion, supporting initiatives like Alles Clara App, a free counselling service for the millions of people in Austria who care for a family member at home.

A recent EcoAustria study, supported by ERSTE Foundation, has begun to map what this means for the labour market. In our conversation, Nicole speaks about what Alles Clara offers and why it is needed now, why young carers remain so hard to reach, and what the data reveals about the hidden costs of family care.

Read the full article in our journal: https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/three-questions-to-nicole-traxler/

***

Join us at: »(In-)Compatible? Family Caregivers as the Foundation of the Health and Care System« – a panel discussion on family caregiving and the health system, organised by Alles Clara.
📅 7 May 2026
📍 Vienna & online
More infos: https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/events/in-compatible/

28/04/2026

This year, Anne Applebaum takes the stage at the Judenplatz in Vienna: In »The European Moment«, the historian and author asks whether Europe's hour has come, and what it - what we - will do with it. Systems of oppression and authoritarian control, once seen as anomalies, are increasingly treated as models. What does Europe have to offer in response?

Since 2019 »A Speech to Europe« has offered a fundamental reflection on Europe's present and future. The choice of Judenplatz is no coincidence: The location serves as a reminder that Europe can only be understood in the mirror of its history.

🗓 13 May 2026
⏰ 18:00
📍 Judenplatz, Vienna
The speech will be held in English.

More information: https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/events/a-speech-to-europe-2026/

This event is a joint project of Wiener Festwochen, ERSTE Foundation, and the IWM - Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, in cooperation with the Jüdisches Museum Wien.

27/04/2026

Polarisation is tearing democracies apart, and few European countries illustrate this more starkly than Poland.

The book »Let's Agree on Poland« brings together leading Polish thinkers from across the political spectrum to argue that as political preferences increasingly follow geographical lines, distributing power rather than concentrating it may be the most effective way to stabilise democracy.

For Austrians, who often view their own federal system as cumbersome, that may sound counterintuitive. Does decentralisation actually reduce conflict — or does it simply multiply veto players and deepen gridlock?

The book's co-editors, Maciej Kisilowski and Anna Wojciuk, will put these questions to the test alongside Sepp Schellhorn and Martin Eichtinger, setting Polish reform ideas against Austria's own federal experience, and exploring what the two countries might learn from each other.

🗓️ 4 May 2026
⏰ 18:00–22:00
📍 ERSTE Foundation

More information and registration: https://www.erstestiftung.org/en/events/after-consensus-decentralisation-as-the-future-of-democratic-governance/

24/04/2026

With the exhibition »By the Means at Hand« on view in Zagreb, ERSTE Foundation Library recommends the publication that accompanies it.

The project was Vlatka Horvat contribution to the Croatian Pavilion at the 60th Biennale di Venezia. Horvat invited around 200 artists, all living abroad, to exchange small-scale works with her, everything travelling to Venice and back in the bags of couriers informal and otherwise.

The publication, co-produced by Archive Books, Unstable Object, and Oaza, doesn't read like a conventional catalogue. It documents the process: the exchanges, the logistics, the relationships that held the project together. We supported the production of the publication.

The exhibition Vlatka Horvat: By the Means at Hand is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb:
🗓️ until 21 June 2026
📍Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

More information: http://www.msu.hr/dogadanja/vlatka-horvat-by-the-means-at-hand-prirucnim-sredstvima/1893/en.html

23/04/2026

For , historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum will address whether Europe’s time has come and what characterises this historic moment in her lecture »The European Moment«.

Applebaum is among the most prominent voices on the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of liberal democracy, and she puts the challenge squarely to her audience: »This is the hour of Europe — but do the Europeans even know it?«

Since 2019, A Speech to Europe, initiated by the ERSTE Foundation, has provided a fundamental reflection on the present and future of Europe. The venue is Vienna’s Judenplatz, which serves as a reminder that Europe can only be understood in the mirror of its history.

🗓 13 May 2026
⏰ 18:00
📍 Judenplatz, Vienna
The speech will be held in English.

More information:

This event is a joint project of Wiener Festwochen, ERSTE Foundation, and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM - Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen), in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien).

📷: Mateusz Skwarczek

21/04/2026

Algorithmic platforms optimise for speed, outrage, and simplicity. Democracy needs the opposite: active citizens who can discuss, disagree respectfully, and make informed decisions.

Hana Martínková, current Europe's Futures Fellow, researches how platform design shapes children's freedom, safety, and cognitive development. In this VIEW, she explains how platform design shapes the public sphere, and why banning ads to children would be a straightforward first step toward change.

Europe's Futures is a fellowship programme by ERSTE Foundation and the IWM - Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, bringing together thinkers and practitioners to work on the challenges facing European democracy.

17/04/2026

tranzit.hu celebrates twenty years of independent artistic practice and
institutional practice, and marks the occasion with a full day of events! Running in Budapest since 2006, tranzit.hu has been a significant actor in the contemporary art scene. It creates platforms for discursive, non-formal educational, research, and publication projects, and initiates collaborations on both international and local levels. Transdisciplinary and critical approaches are key features of the initiative; historical, political, and social topics and urgencies have been addressed in various formats. Hundreds of events and countless collaborators and participants mark the last 20 years, most of the time in a politically repressive atmosphere.

The programme opens with an international seminar on public space as a political field, with contributions from curators and researchers from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine. Featuring: Dóra Hegyi, Judit Árva; Judit Angel (tranzit.sk); Eliška Mazalanová, Florin Bobu & Livia Pancu (tranzit.ro), Jelena Vesić, and Oksana Briukhovetska.

A participatory performance by Dorottya Szonja Koltay follows, and art historian Tímea Junghaus delivers a lecture titled »Care Under Pressure: Feminist Strategies Against the Politics of Anxiety in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe«.

The evening closes with the launch of the book »tranzit 20+«, introduced by Katrin Klingan, with editors Flóra Gadó, Borbála Soós, and representatives of the tranzit.org network.

🗓️ 29 April 2026
⏰14:00–20:00
📍Józsefváros Museum, Budapest
❗️Free entry, but registration required by 25 April.

More information and registration: https://lnkd.in/dvmjjQfQ

Adresse

Am Belvedere 1
Wien
1100

Öffnungszeiten

Montag	10:00 - 17:00
Dienstag	10:00 - 17:00
Mittwoch	10:00 - 17:00
Donnerstag	10:00 - 17:00

Telefon

+435010015100

Webseite

https://www.erstestiftung.org/

Benachrichtigungen

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