European Forum Alpbach
Encyclopedia
The European Forum Alpbach is an annual event that takes place in August in the Tyrolean village of Alpbach
, Austria. Similar to the World Economic Forum
in Davos
, politicians, academics, students, and decision makers from all areas come together to discuss and brainstorm new ideas and solutions to world problems. The forum was founded in 1945 by Otto Molden
. More than 3,000 people from over 50 countries accept the invitation to participate in the European Forum Alpbach each year. Participation is open to all interested parties. The events are held in German and in English.
These two-to three-day conferences deal with the themes of architecture, technology, politics, economy and health. In addition, special workshops are for banking, film and EU networking. There is also a "Tyrol Day" that celebrates work at universities and technical schools.
Accompanying the program of the European Forum Alpbach throughout is a comprehensive schedule of arts and culture. In exhibitions, concerts and lectures, young artists in particular are offered the opportunity to present their work to the public. There are also the spontaneously organized "fireside chats" in which sensitive issues can be openly discussed with well-known personalities.
) in order to work together for the constant advancement of the forum. These groups and clubs promote the 'spirit of Alpbach' in their home countries and universities and organise interdisciplinary events and lectures. They are considered to be sister organisations of the forum and most of them are giving out annual scholarships for students to attend the European Forum Alpbach.
Currently, there are initiative groups in Albania (Tirana
), Austria (Graz
, Linz
and Vienna
), Belgium (Brussels
), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Sarajevo
), Bulgaria (Sofia
), France (Paris), Germany (Berlin and Cologne
), Hungary (Budapest
), Kosovo (Pristina
), Macedonia (Skopje
), Moldova (Chişinău
), Montenegro (Podgorica
), Poland (Warsaw
), Serbia (Belgrade
), Romania (Brașov
), Ukraine (Kiev
) and Austria/Italy/Slovenia (Senza Confini). Clubs exist in Austria (Alpbachtal
, Burgenland
, Lower Austria
, Styria, Tyrol
and Vorarlberg
), Croatia (Zagreb
), Italy (South Tyrol
), Russia (Moscow), Switzerland (Geneva
) and Turkey (Istanbul
). There is also a specific Club Alpbach Medica for students of medicine.
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Alpbach
Alpbach is a village in Western Austria in the state of Tyrol. Its geographical location is , at 975 m above sea level. Alpbach had a population of 2,549 in 2003....
, Austria. Similar to the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
in Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, politicians, academics, students, and decision makers from all areas come together to discuss and brainstorm new ideas and solutions to world problems. The forum was founded in 1945 by Otto Molden
Otto Molden
Prof. Otto Molden was an Austrian publicist, federalist and author of various books about European identity and history. He founded the European Forum Alpbach in 1945.-Early life:...
. More than 3,000 people from over 50 countries accept the invitation to participate in the European Forum Alpbach each year. Participation is open to all interested parties. The events are held in German and in English.
Seminar Week
Up to 14 seminars are devoted to various scientific disciplines. Scientists gather for six half-day meetings. The seminar week provides an interdisciplinary conversation and offers the possibility of intensive discussions among experts. Plenary sessions on scientific, political and economic issues round out the program.Alpbach talks
Alpbach Summer School Courses
Summer school courses dedicated to the topics of "European Law and European Integration" are provided for advanced students and recent graduates.Accompanying the program of the European Forum Alpbach throughout is a comprehensive schedule of arts and culture. In exhibitions, concerts and lectures, young artists in particular are offered the opportunity to present their work to the public. There are also the spontaneously organized "fireside chats" in which sensitive issues can be openly discussed with well-known personalities.
Alpbach Initiative Groups and Clubs
Former participants of the European Forum Alpbach founded initiative groups and clubs in more than 20 European countries (mostly in CEECentral and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a term describing former communist states in Europe, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept...
) in order to work together for the constant advancement of the forum. These groups and clubs promote the 'spirit of Alpbach' in their home countries and universities and organise interdisciplinary events and lectures. They are considered to be sister organisations of the forum and most of them are giving out annual scholarships for students to attend the European Forum Alpbach.
Currently, there are initiative groups in Albania (Tirana
Tirana
Tirana is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of over...
), Austria (Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
), Belgium (Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
), Bulgaria (Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
), France (Paris), Germany (Berlin and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
), Hungary (Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
), Kosovo (Pristina
Pristina
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina and Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district....
), Macedonia (Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
), Moldova (Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
), Montenegro (Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
), Poland (Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
), Serbia (Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
), Romania (Brașov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
), Ukraine (Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
) and Austria/Italy/Slovenia (Senza Confini). Clubs exist in Austria (Alpbachtal
Alpbachtal
The Alpbachtal is a valley in Tyrol, Austria. It is a side valley of the Inn valley.The Alpbachtal takes its name from the Alpbach stream, which flows through the entire valley. The entrance to the valley is the municipality of Brixlegg. A road from Brixlegg runs through the valley to the parish of...
, Burgenland
Burgenland
Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
, Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
, Styria, Tyrol
Tyrol (state)
Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...
and Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal-state of Austria. Although it is the second smallest in terms of area and population , it borders three countries: Germany , Switzerland and Liechtenstein...
), Croatia (Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
), Italy (South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
), Russia (Moscow), Switzerland (Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
) and Turkey (Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
). There is also a specific Club Alpbach Medica for students of medicine.
Past Attendees
| width="25%" align="" valign="" style="border:0"|- Theodor W. AdornoTheodor W. AdornoTheodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
- Martti AhtisaariMartti AhtisaariMartti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari is a Finnish politician, the tenth President of Finland , Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work....
- Hans AlbertHans AlbertHans Albert is a German philosopher. Born in Cologne, he lives in Heidelberg.His fields of research are Social Sciences and General Studies of Methods. He is a critical rationalist, giving special attention to rational heuristics...
- Ernst BlochErnst BlochErnst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher.Bloch was influenced by both Hegel and Marx and, as he always confessed, by novelist Karl May. He was also interested in music and art . He established friendships with Georg Lukács, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Theodor W. Adorno...
- James M. BuchananJames M. BuchananJames McGill Buchanan, Jr. is an American economist known for his work on public choice theory, for which he received the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy...
- Ernst B. Chain
- Ralf DahrendorfRalf DahrendorfRalf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE, FBA was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician....
- Jacques DelorsJacques DelorsJacques Lucien Jean Delors is a French economist and politician, the eighth President of the European Commission and the first person to serve three terms in that office .-French Politics:...
- Renato DulbeccoRenato DulbeccoRenato Dulbecco is an Italian virologist who won a 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on reverse transcriptase. In 1973 he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Theodore Puck and Harry Eagle. Dulbecco was the recipient of the Selman A...
- Friedrich DürrenmattFriedrich DürrenmattFriedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire...
- John Carew EcclesJohn Carew EcclesJohn Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin....
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- Manfred EigenManfred EigenManfred Eigen is a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on measuring fast chemical reactions.-Career:...
- Gottfried von EinemGottfried von EinemGottfried von Einem was an Austrian composer. He is known chiefly for his operas influenced by the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as by jazz. He also composed pieces for piano, violin and organ.-Biography:...
- Amitai EtzioniAmitai EtzioniAmitai Etzioni is a German-Israeli-American sociologist.-Biography:In 1933, Amitai Etzioni was only four years old when the Nazis rose to power in Germany. He was separated from his family but reunited with them by the year 1947...
- Paul FeyerabendPaul FeyerabendPaul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades . He lived a peripatetic life, living at various times in England, the United States, New Zealand,...
- Indira GandhiIndira GandhiIndira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
- Theodor GeigerTheodor GeigerTheodor Julius Geiger was a German socialist lawyer and sociologist. He was Denmark's first professor of sociology, at the University of Åarhus.- Life :...
- Neil GershenfeldNeil GershenfeldNeil Gershenfeld is a professor at MIT and the head of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, a sister lab spun out of the popular MIT Media Lab. His research interests are mainly in interdisciplinary studies involving physics and computer science, in such fields as quantum computing, nanotechnology,...
- Alexander HalavaisAlexander HalavaisAlexander Halavais is an associate professor of communications at Quinnipiac University, a social informatics researcher and President of the Association of Internet Researchers...
- Friedrich von Hayek
- Werner HeisenbergWerner HeisenbergWerner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
- Max HorkheimerMax HorkheimerMax Horkheimer was a German-Jewish philosopher-sociologist, famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the 'Frankfurt School' of social research. His most important works include The Eclipse of Reason and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment...
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- Hans Kelsen
- Ban Ki-MoonBan Ki-moonBan Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
- Václav KlausVáclav KlausVáclav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...
- Helmut KohlHelmut KohlHelmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
- Franz KönigFranz KönigFranz König was an Austrian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1956 to 1985, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958...
- Imre LakatosImre LakatosImre Lakatos was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its 'methodology of proofs and refutations' in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also for introducing the concept of the 'research programme' in his...
- Konrad LorenzKonrad LorenzKonrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch...
- Fritz MachlupFritz MachlupFritz Machlup was an Austrian-American economist. He was notable for being one of the first economists to examine knowledge as an economic resource....
- Herbert MarcuseHerbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
- Thomas MetzingerThomas MetzingerThomas Metzinger is a German philosopher. he holds the position of director of the theoretical philosophy group at the department of philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and on the advisory board of the...
- Viktor OrbánViktor OrbánViktor Orbán is a Hungarian populist and conservative politician and current Prime Minister of Hungary...
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- Karl PopperKarl PopperSir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
- Yitzhak RabinYitzhak Rabin' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
- Iveta RadičováIveta RadicováIveta Radičová is the Prime Minister of Slovakia and a member of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party. She was sworn into office on 8 July 2010 as the head of a four-party center-right coalition government following the 2010 Slovak parliamentary election, until the fall of...
- Martin Rees
- Myron ScholesMyron ScholesMyron Samuel Scholes is a Canadian-born American financial economist who is best known as one of the authors of the Black–Scholes equation. In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for a method to determine the value of derivatives...
- Erwin SchrödingerErwin SchrödingerErwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
- Shi Yongxin
- Peter SloterdijkPeter SloterdijkPeter Sloterdijk is a German philosopher, television host, cultural scientist and essayist. He is a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe. He currently co-hosts the German show Im Glashaus: Das Philosophische Quartett.-Biography:Sloterdijk's father...
- Roger Y. TsienRoger Y. TsienRoger Yonchien Tsien is a Chinese American biochemist and a professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego...
- Vaira Vike-FreibergaVaira Vike-FreibergaVaira Vīķe-Freiberga was the sixth President of Latvia, the first female President of Latvia and the first female leader in eastern Europe. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.Dr...
- Ernst Florian WinterErnst Florian WinterErnst Florian Winter is an Austrian-American historian and political scientist, first director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna after World War II and chairman of the International Council of the Austrian Service Abroad....
- Fritz WotrubaFritz WotrubaFritz Wotruba was an Austrian sculptor of Czecho-Hungarian descent. He was considered one of the most notable Austrian 20th century sculptors...
External links
- European Forum Alpbach Homepage
- EFA Network Network of the Initiative Groups and Clubs