Internationale Martin Luther Stiftung

The daily Luther

19th March

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Interpretation of Martin Luther ...

History of the JugendUnternimmt competition

The JugendUnternimmt school competition was held four times between 2005 and 2012. Pupils from all types of schools aged between 14 and 21 were able to creatively take on an entrepreneurial challenge in teams of two to four people.

In the preliminary round, they were able to apply with a sketch of a business idea they had developed themselves. The best teams in the preliminary round, supported by mentors, were allowed to put their idea into practice in the main round on a trading day in a shopping centre. They received start-up capital of up to €300 for this.

The idea for JugendUnternimmt was born in 2005 by Thuringian scholarship holders from the German Business Foundation. With the support of the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation, the competition was organised for the first time in the 2005/2006 school year with 300 pupils in Thuringia as part of the "Entrepreneurship Challenge" project.

Due to the positive response, the non-profit organisation JugendUnternimmt e.V. was founded to promote entrepreneurial action in a socially responsible manner. Thanks to the support of the main sponsor, the International Martin Luther Foundation, the school competition was successfully organised three times in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia by the JugendUnternimmt e.V. association. During this time, over 1,000 pupils have developed business ideas, of which over 100 pupils were able to put their business idea into practice in the Anger 1 shopping centre in Erfurt.

Since 2013, the new format of the JugendUnternimmt summer school, developed jointly with the Thuringia Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research (STIFT), has been building on this success, teaching fundamental entrepreneurial values and giving participants ideas for further personal development.

In 2024, the JugendUnternimmt summer school will take place for the eleventh time.

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