About Fulbright Germany
The German-American Fulbright Commission (Fulbright Germany) facilitates academic exchange between the United States and Germany. Fulbright Germany awards up to 700 scholarships yearly for study, research, teaching, and continuing education in the US and Germany, thus actively promoting transatlantic dialogue.
Our Mission
The German-American Fulbright Commission facilitates connections, mutual learning and dialogue among students, scholars, educators, artists and professionals in the United States and Germany.
We champion the power of the Fulbright experience to nurture and enable human potential. Through their Fulbright experience, our grantees and alumni gain empathy, resilience, and courage, as they discover and embark on new paths to advance knowledge and effect positive change in our societies and the world.
Our Vision
Our goal is to develop new and mutually compatible models of inclusive excellence and sustainable international mobility, working closely with our governing Board and funders, the German and global Fulbright community, and partners who share our goals and values.
Our Values
We believe steadfastly in the irreplaceable value of face-to-face cultural encounters and affirm the enduring importance of mutual understanding, learning and cooperation between the United States and Germany.
We are committed to ensuring that participants in our programs reflect the diversity of educational, scholarly, and professional excellence in our changing societies. To that end, we endeavor to address barriers to participation that hinder access to the transformative benefits of the Fulbright experience and Fulbright Community.
At the same time, we are committed to the protection of our environment and embrace our responsibility to combat climate change and advance sustainability goals in our staffing and operations, and programs and partnerships.
Fulbright Germany: Diversity and Inclusion
Fulbright Germany strives to embed Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) in all aspects of its work. Applications are open to all individuals regardless of their race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, socio-economic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity. Fulbright Germany seeks and encourages the involvement of people from traditionally underrepresented communities in its grant programs, activities and partnerships, and staffing and operations.
One Fulbright Community
Alumni of Fulbright Germany’s programs appreciate cultural differences while embracing our common humanity and shared challenges. The alumni of our programs—the "Fulbrighters”—carry the spirit of cross-cultural understanding to their communities and professional networks, expanding the scope of German-American dialogue and sustaining transatlantic cooperation in our evolving societies and a changing world. Together, Fulbright alumni work with the Commission, the Fulbright Alumni e.V. and the Association of Fulbright’s Friends and Sponsors (VFF), and other partners to actively advance solutions to societal and global challenges.
About the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program was initiated by US Senator James William Fulbright (*1905, †1995) to promote mutual understanding between the United States and partner countries around the world through academic and cultural exchange, according to the motto: "We turn nations into people".
A few key figures
Today, more than 160 partner countries participate in the worldwide Fulbright exchange, including Germany which joined in 1952. In nearly 50 partner countries permanent Fulbright Commissions, along with the German-American Fulbright Commission (Fulbright Germany) in Berlin, organize the exchange with the United States. To date, Fulbright Germany has supported more than 40,000 Germans and Americans. With up to 700 scholarships annually for study, research, teaching, and continuing education in the US and Germany, Fulbright Germany actively advances the dialogue between the two countries. Each year, around 8,000 US and international scholars participate in the global Fulbright exchange program. Since its inception in 1946, more than 400,000 scholars have been sponsored, 62 of whom later received the Nobel Prize and 95 the Pulitzer Prize.
Our commitment
Reflecting global and societal changes since its establishment in 1952, Fulbright Germany is committed to ensuring that participants in our programs reflect the diversity of educational, scholarly, and professional excellence in our changing societies. In promoting diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility, Fulbright Germany recognizes that the man after whom the program is named failed to promote racial equality when he voted against civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. Fulbright Germany is committed to honest dialogue and exchange about Senator Fulbright’s legacy, as it strives to advance mutual understanding between and without our societies.
