🎓 About the Caspar David Friedrich Scholarship 2027

The scholarship is named after Caspar David Friedrich, the German Romantic painter born in Greifswald, who is famous for his Baltic coastlines and solitary figures facing vast landscapes. It is funded under the state’s Graduate Funding Act (LGFG M-V) and Graduate Funding Regulation (LGFVO M-V), which also fund doctoral scholarships. This strand, however, is reserved for artistic work.

At Hochschule Wismar, the project is based in the Faculty of Design (Fakultät Gestaltung) and supervised by a Wismar professor. Recent winners from 2023 to 2026 have developed projects from their final theses, which is how the scheme is meant to work: it gives graduates one funded year to turn strong student work into a mature artistic practice.

How it compares: Germany’s state graduate schemes usually fund PhDs, like the University of Erfurt PhD Scholarships in Thuringia. The Caspar David Friedrich Scholarship is rare because it funds non-doctoral creative work. For artists outside Germany, the better-known route is the DAAD’s study scholarships in fine art, design, film, music and architecture, which are open to applicants abroad.

📚 What Kind of Projects Are Funded?

The scholarship funds an artistic development project (künstlerisches Entwicklungsvorhaben) rather than academic research. At Wismar, this sits within the Faculty of Design and can include fields such as communication design, interior and spatial design, product and fashion design, illustration, photography or media art, depending on which professor supervises you (verify on official website).

Reviewers judge your project on:

• Quality of the project: strength of your previous work, originality, expected insight, artistic significance, and wider cultural or social relevance
• Your qualifications: study results and how well suited you are to the project
• Working environment: facilities, supervision and the creative setting
• Aims and work programme: clarity, suitable methods, scope, and whether it can be done in one year

At hmt Rostock (music and theatre) and Greifswald’s Caspar David Friedrich Institute (fine art), separate calls apply. Check each institution’s own page.

📄 Required Documents

1. Application form: “Antrag auf ein Caspar-David-Friedrich-Stipendium (Landesgraduiertenförderung)”
2. Tabular CV, signed and dated
3. Certified copy of your degree certificate, with your overall grade, grade average and semesters studied added if not shown. Wismar graduates may use confirmation from the examinations office
4. Description of your artistic career, including achievements outside university
5. Project description of no more than 5 pages, following this required structure: topic, field, total duration, funding period, aims (max 15 lines), state of the art and justification, your preparatory work, work programme and timeline (about half of the document, ideally with a bar chart), and artistic supervision
6. Portfolio: up to 15 images of your work (each max A4, PDF only) or a PDF portfolio, with explanations
7. Proposed supervisor and reviewer form (Vorschlag für Betreuung und Gutachten)
8. Faculty approval and supervision agreement (Betreuungszusage / Betreuungsvereinbarung)
9. Family allowance request and employment disclosure, if applicable

A common mistake by international applicants: the call asks for two paper copies plus one electronic copy. Email alone is not enough. Updates are not accepted after the deadline.

🧭 Step-by-Step Application Process

1. Talk to a professor in Wismar’s Faculty of Design about supervising your project. For questions about the process, contact Prof. Stephan Schulz (stephan.schulz@hs-wismar.de, +49 3841 753-7183).
2. Download the German forms from the official scholarship page: the call, guide, checklist, application form and supervision forms.
3. Write your 5-page project description using the required structure, and spend half of it on the work programme.
4. Build your PDF portfolio of up to 15 images with short explanations.
5. Get the faculty approval and supervision agreement signed.
6. Post two paper copies to: Hochschule Wismar, Fakultät Gestaltung, Christina Berger, Philipp-Müller-Str. 14, 23966 Wismar. Email an electronic copy to christina.berger@hs-wismar.de by 28 February 2027.
7. Don’t contact the reviewers. The call explicitly asks applicants not to.
8. Wait for the decision. The faculty ranks applicants internally, then a central committee decides and informs applicants in writing.

Practical tip: half of your score depends on the work programme. Break your year into monthly milestones, such as research, prototyping, production and exhibition, and show them as a simple bar chart. Reviewers want evidence that the project can realistically be finished in 12 months.

🌟 Why Apply

Very few funding schemes pay a recent design graduate to spend a whole year on their own creative project. If you qualify, the competition is small, limited to your own faculty’s graduates, and the scholarship lets you stay in Germany, build a professional portfolio and start an independent practice.

For artists outside Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, other routes into Germany are a better fit. Start with our Study in Germany guide and the DAAD Helmut Schmidt Scholarship for master’s study. You can also browse all Scholarships, creative internships in Jobs & Internships, portfolio and application guides in Guidelines & Resources, and art and design competitions in Events & Conferences.

🔗 Official Source

• Hochschule Wismar: Caspar David Friedrich Scholarship
• Official call (Ausschreibung, German PDF)
• Application guide (Leitfaden, German PDF)

Advice: Prof. Stephan Schulz · stephan.schulz@hs-wismar.de · +49 3841 753-7183
Applications: Christina Berger · christina.berger@hs-wismar.de · +49 3841 753-7191