The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the Foundation Affiliated with The Left

The Foundation Aims to Organise Political Education and Diffuse Knowledge About Social Relations in the World

April 08th, 2016

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is one of the largest political education institutions in Germany and complies with the intellectual current of democratic socialism. The foundation evolved from a small political group, “Social Analysis and Political Education Association“, founded in 1990 in Berlin into a nationwide political education organisation, a discussion forum for critical thought and political alternatives as well a research facility for progressive social analysis.

In 1996 the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was officially recognised as a nationwide affiliated trust of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), presently known as “Die Linke “(The Left), with which it shares its desire to have a democratic socialism, where everybody “can live a self-determined life in peace dignity and social security” (Extracts from the Preamble of the Party Programme).

The foundation aims to organise political education and diffuse knowledge about social relations in the world, acting as a hub for discussion regards a modern democratic socialism and operating as a social think-thank for political alternatives. Furthermore, the Foundation is a forum in Germany and abroad, utilised to support dialogue between left – socialistic powers, socialistic movements and organizations, left-minded intellectuals and non-governmental organisations.

One of the activities of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is to grant funding to young scholars via undergraduate and postgraduate scholarship. In 1999 the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s (RLF) “Studienwerk” began providing scholarships to German and foreign students who study in Germany. The foundation through these scholarships aims to contribute to the democratization, creating a political will in the students, strengthening social justice and solidarity.

The scholarship programme is opened to all the students who show scholarly excellence and who are active in social, political or community services. To be considered the students have to be enrolled at a Germany university and it is requested a very good knowledge of the German language. Furthermore, students and doctorate students in natural sciences, technical and engineering disciplines are explicitly encouraged to apply.

The RLF’s “Studienwerk” includes also various seminars about technical and methodical aspects of working in research, graduate seminars about technical and methodical aspects of working in research, graduate seminars, conferences, retreats, workshops and educational excursions.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has an Institute too, the Institute for Critical Social Analysis’s (ISA) that organise several researchers and projects. The main goal of the Institute is to strategize left politics and democratic – socialist transformation of the current capitalist society.

For more information, please visit the website.