DAAD Prize for Exceptional Achievement by International Students
DAAD award winner Kenneth Ting-Yu Lin with Nomad Papaya BOOKS in front of his work “The Map of the World”, 2025: photo: Lukes Engelhardt
Every year, the DAAD Prize for Exceptional Achievement by International Students, a sum of 1,000 euros, is awarded to a non-German student for exceptional achievements and special social/intercultural engagement. The prize is awarded by HFBK President Prof. Martin Köttering during the opening of the Annual Exhibition.
Application
All non-German Bachelor students having completed the 4th semester and all non-German Master students are eligible to apply for the DAAD Prize. An important selection criterion – in addition to your artistic work – is social or intercultural commitment. Applications and selection take place in the winter semester.
The first step is to apply by completing the online application form. After you have completed the form, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with the request to upload the following documents as one PDF into our cloud:
a short CV/resume,
a letter of recommendation by an HFBK professor,
your portfolio
Please note that each HFBK professor can only propose one student for the DAAD Prize.
Here you will find the current application deadlines in a timely manner.
Based on the application documents, a group of students will be selected to present a selection of their work to a committee.
Awardees (since 2003)
| 2025 | Kenneth Ting-Yu Lin |
| 2024 | Serafima Kalachenkova |
| 2023 | Junya Fujita |
| 2022 | Elizaveta Ostapenko |
| 2021 | Zhichao Zhu |
| 2020 | Domingo Martinez Rippes, Chile |
| 2019 | Violet Nantume, Uganda |
| 2018 | Krystsina Savutsina, Belarus |
| 2017 | Vladimir Vulević und Nina Zeljković, Serbien |
| 2016 | Denis Kudrjasov, Estland |
| 2015 | Shira Lewis, Israel |
| 2014 | Sho Hasegawa, Japan |
| 2013 | Nathaniel Clark, USA |
| 2012 | Bernhard Hetzenauer, Österreich |
| 2011 | Claire Macé, Frankreich |
| 2010 | YoungJin Song, Südkorea |
| 2009 | Jennifer Bennett, Schweiz |
| 2008 | Eriks Apalais, Lettland |
| 2007 | Trang Huyen Nguyen, Vietnam |
| 2006 | Dario Aguirre Guevara, Ecuador |
| 2005 | Meng Yin, VR China |
| 2004 | Adnan Softic, Bosnien und Herzegowina |
| 2003 | Kailiang Yang, VR China |