Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung

What Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung does

Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG) is a private non-profit university founded in 2015 and headquartered in the historic Dreikönigenhaus in Koblenz's old town, Germany. It is positioned as Germany's first university specifically dedicated to Gesellschaftsgestaltung (societal design/shaping), with a pedagogical framework branded as Transformatives Lernen that integrates reflection, feeling, action, and responsibility. The institution offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs (BA and MA in Social Design / Next Economy, an MBA Weiterbildung continuing education program) and certificate credentials (CAS Diversity Management), delivered through a hybrid model combining in-person block seminars at the Koblenz campus with digital/online components routed through the Digitaler TransformationsCampus platform. Supporting offerings include the 4FutureLabs futures-education program (targeting K-12 schools, teachers, and societal actors), the Studies4Future public blog, and a Working Paper Series with 75+ publications.

HfGG is legally operated under the trustee organization Cusanus Treuhand gGmbH, which provides governance and infrastructure, and is financed cooperatively through three streams: tuition fees (Studienbeiträge) with a scholarship program for financially constrained students, voluntary contributions from Förderpartner:innen (funding partners), and public donations routed through the Bildungsmillion crowdfunding platform. The cooperative model is explicitly designed to maintain scientific independence from ideological, political, competitive, and private interests. The customer base is primarily individual students seeking purpose-driven, transformative education as an alternative to conventional economics and business programs, with one documented applied-engagement project (a Master's student team supporting FC St. Pauli's sustainability strategy in 2023). Marketing and recruitment rely on a multi-channel digital presence (YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, Bluesky), a faculty-driven podcast and earned-media footprint (Jung & Naiv, Palastrevolution, ZEIT Online), and on-campus recruitment events (Studien-Info-Abend, Campustag, Spring School, Schnupperseminare). Leadership is anchored by founder and president Prof. Dr. Silja Graupe (Ökonomie und Philosophie) and will transition in July 2026 to a new Chancellor, Heiko Miedlich, succeeding Frank Kupfer on an eight-year term.

Name

Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung

Legal name

Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung

Website

https://hfgg.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Short description

HfGG is a private non-profit university in Koblenz, Germany, offering BA, MA, MBA, and certificate programs in social design, transformative economics, and sustainability for students seeking purpose-driven alternatives to conventional higher education, financed through tuition, donations, and cooperative funding.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Koblenz

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Tuition/Study Contributions: The university charges tuition fees (Studienbeiträge) for its degree programs. There is a scholarship program for students with financial need.
2. Donations and Fundraising: Cooperative financing through voluntary contributions from funding partners (Förderpartner:innen) who share the university's vision. This enables scientific independence from ideological, political, competitive, and private interests.
3. Bildungsmillion Crowdfunding Initiative: Crowdfunding platform 'Die Bildungsmillion' serves as a workshop for university financing, enabling public donations to support the institution's mission.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG) is a private, non-profit university in Koblenz, Germany offering degree programs (BA Social Design: Next Economy, MA Social Design, MBA Weiterbildung), certificate programs (CAS Diversity Management), and educational initiatives (4FutureLabs, Digitaler TransformationsCampus) rooted in a transformative learning approach to societal design, sustainability, and economics.

Product overview

HfGG offers a portfolio of transformative educational programs centered on social design and societal transformation. The core offering consists of degree programs (BA and MA in Social Design, MBA Weiterbildung) and certificate programs (CAS Diversity Management). The 4FutureLabs provides innovative futures education reaching schools and broader audiences. The Digitaler TransformationsCampus serves as an educational platform for digital transformation topics. Supporting offerings include the Studies4Future Blog and Working Paper Series for knowledge dissemination. All offerings follow the institution's transformative learning approach emphasizing reflection, diversity, imagination, practice, societal impact, cooperation, dialog, and personal development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Bachelor of Arts: Social Design: Next Economy

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• FC St. PauliminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Master students from the ÖVI program collaborated with FC St. Pauli and Prof. Lars Hochmann to support the club's sustainability strategy renewal as facilitators in Summer Semester 2023.
• Cusanus Treuhand gGmbHcoreOthersThe Cusanus Treuhand gGmbH serves as the trustee company (Trägergesellschaft) managing the university's operations and governance. The managing director is Heiko Miedlich (Chancellor from July 1, 2026).
• BildungsmillioncoreGTM or Marketing PartnerThe 'Bildungsmillion' is an external crowdfunding platform and initiative serving as a workshop for university financing. It enables public donations to support the university's mission of sustainable education.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Schumacher College: UK-based small, alternative institution focused on ecological and transformative education. Directly comparable to HfGG in mission (societal/ecological transformation), pedagogical approach (experiential, reflective), and small-cohort delivery model.
• Universität Witten/Herdecke: Germany's first private university, founded on a reform-oriented, person-centered educational philosophy. Highly comparable to HfGG as a privately financed German university offering an alternative-academic model outside the state-university mainstream.
• Alanus Hochschule: Private German university with arts, social sciences, and sustainability-focused programs. Comparable to HfGG in its privately financed structure, small scale, and emphasis on transformative, holistic, and values-driven learning rather than conventional disciplinary curricula.
• Presidio Graduate School: Small US graduate school offering sustainability- and purpose-driven MBA-equivalent programs with an experiential, values-led pedagogy. Highly comparable to HfGG in size, mission framing around societal transformation, and emphasis on practice-based transformative learning.

Emerging players

• Naropa University: US private university with a contemplative, transformative-education mission integrating inner development with societal engagement. Comparable to HfGG in its alternative-pedagogy positioning and values-led identity, though operating in a different regulatory and geographic context.
• Gaia University: Globally distributed regenerative-design education provider using a hybrid online/project-based model. Comparable to HfGG in mission (transformative education for societal/ecological design) and pedagogic emphasis on action learning, though fully online and smaller.

Broad incumbents

• SRH Hochschulen: Group of private German universities offering professionally oriented degree and continuing-education programs. Comparable to HfGG as a privately financed German higher-education operator, but operates at materially larger scale and with a more vocational, employer-aligned positioning.
• Leuphana Universität Lüneburg: Public German university widely recognized for its sustainability focus and interdisciplinary, reform-oriented pedagogy (Leuphana Semester, College model). Overlaps HfGG thematically on sustainability and transformative education but operates at much larger scale within the public system.

Regional players

• Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde (HNEE): Public German university specializing in sustainable development, forestry, and landscape management. Thematically adjacent to HfGG's sustainability and societal-design focus, though publicly funded and more applied-science oriented.
• Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Umwelt (HfWU) Nürtingen-Geislingen: Public German university focused on economics and environmental topics with a sustainability mandate. Overlaps HfGG on the economics-plus-sustainability intersection, though delivered as a public institution with conventional structure.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@hfgg_hochschule
• Facebookfacebook.com/hfgghochschule
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/hfgg-hochschule
• Instagraminstagram.com/hfgg_hochschule
• TikToktiktok.com/@hfgg_hochschule

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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