30 years Franz Werfel Scholarship: 150 scholarship holders from 27 countries

Scholarship for the promotion of research and teaching of Austrian literature

The Franz Werfel Scholarship is the Austrian Ministry of Science’s “longest-serving” scholarship programme and at the same time one of the most successful scholarship programmes in international mobility. The scholarship is aimed at university lecturers from all over the world who focus on Austrian literature. The OeAD, Austria's Agency for Education and Internationalisation, manages the scholarship programme and to date has supported some 150 people from 27 countries around the world. Originally aimed at applicants from Central and Eastern Europe, the scholarship has been open for application worldwide for the last 20 years. The majority of the applicants come from Hungary, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic. However, there are also Werfel scholarship holders from India, USA, Tunisia, Brazil and Cameroon.
Through specialist meetings during their scholarship in Austria and the annual Werfel conference for graduates an international network of 70 committed German scholars has been created. Numerous jointly organised conferences and publications testify to the close scientific and personal exchange of the Werfel community. After their scholarship these “Werfelians” are kept informed about the current state of Austrian literature and thus supported in their teaching activities at their home universities (focus on “Austrian literature”). Since the Werfel community also includes Werfelians from Ukraine and Russia the current events in Ukraine have triggered a lively discourse among the Werfelians, which will not be fall silent during this year’s conference.
Regarding the great recognition of the programme the minister of science Martin Polaschek says: “The Franz Werfel Scholarship has a very good reputation among the funding programmes of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). A scholarship programme with a focus on a niche in the field of German studies is of great importance for Austrian literature of the past, present and future. Austria has a rich tradition of literary works and it is important to explore it, discuss it and disseminate it to the world.”
The OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice emphasises: “This programme of excellence contributes to the formation of a worldwide academic network of scholars of German and to academic cooperation. Many Werfel graduates successfully teach and conduct research at German studies chairs in their countries of origin, which in turn reflects the original intention of the programme.”
Erhard Busek as Werfel co-initiator
Since 1992 the Ministry of Science has set up scholarship programmes to promote international mobility in specific disciplines and qualifications in addition to country-specific activities as part of the numerous activities for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the priority area defined at that time. These include the Franz Werfel Scholarship Programme for young German scholars who teach at foreign universities and focus on Austrian literature. In 1994 the programme was given its current name by the then Minister of Science Erhard Busek. In this way Erhard Busek, who recently passed away unexpectedly, is also closely linked to the Werfel programme.
“Other Realities. Pararealities in Austrian literature.”: Annual conference on 8 and 9 April 2022 in Vienna
The annual conferences provide an opportunity for networking, exchange and professional discussion of aspects of Austrian literature on a specific conference topic. The annual conference, to which all Franz Werfel scholarship holders are invited, will take place this year – in a hybrid format – for the 18th time in Vienna. For thirteen years the “Wendelin-Schmidt-Dengler Reading” in honour of the former scientific programme director Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, who shaped the scholarship and accompanied the Werfelians until his early death, has been a fixed component of the conference. The Büchner Prize winner Clemens J. Setz will read on 8 April at 7 p.m. in the Literaturhaus Vienna and Werfel scholarship holders will translate text passages of his works into their national languages.
This year’s conference topic includes presentations with intriguing titles such as “Para- and other realities: The narrative worlds of Michael Köhlmeier”, “Parallel actions. The concept of political parareality in Robert Musil’s Man Without Qualities” and “Remembered Reality. Travelling differently in space and time in Improbable Journeys by Ilse Aichinger".
In 2017 a publication about the Franz Werfel scholarship was published:
https://oead.at/fileadmin/Dokumente/oead.at/KIM/Downloadcenter/Publikationen/Fachpublikationen/25_Jahre_Werfel_Stipendium_2017.pdf
www.oead.at/werfel