KfW and the promotion of entrepreneurship training in Germany

Abstract

The author, a spokesperson for Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), a major German investment bank, describes the efforts that this institution has made to stimulate the development of Entrepreneurship studies in German universities. These efforts got underway in 1998, when KfW financed the setting up of a professorial chair in new company formation at the European Business School in Oestrich‐Winkel. Other chairs in other German universities followed. The author outlines the challenges to such university programmes in Germany and lists a number of recommendations to make instruction in the subject successful. KfW is promoting the generalization of entrepreneurial culture, without which Germany will be excluded from major economic developments.