Participants from 16 countries to be expected at Viadrinicum 2026
From 16 to 30 August, around 30 international students, researchers, activists and artists will take part in the Viadrinicum Summer School at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), exploring cooperative approaches to urban development. Under the title “Practicing Urban Junctures. Cooperative City and Its Social Bearings”, they will examine issues including solidarity-based forms of housing, infrastructures of urban care and urban commons, while developing projects in the fields of documentary film, urbanism and urban planning.
In addition, temporary architectural structures, developed in cooperation with various local initiatives, will create an open space for people to meet on the Viadrina campus on Logenstraße. Here, residents can exchange ideas with Viadrinicum participants, experiment with visions for the future, build urban furniture, watch films and cook together.
Nearly 200 people from 33 countries applied for this year’s Viadrinicum Summer School, which has been held at the European University Viadrina since 2015. Selected participants come from countries including Brazil, Canada, Georgia, India, Morocco, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, the USA and Germany.
The Summer School will open on Monday, 17 August, at 6 pm with a lecture by Dr Lisa Vollmer of the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space in Erkner. She will speak about the housing crisis in Berlin and the role of social movements in developing alternative visions of fair and democratic housing. Members of the public are invited to attend the English-language lecture entitled “The Neoliberal Housing Regime and Its Challengers. Housing Crisis and Social Movements in Berlin” in the Logensaal at Viadrina, Logenstraße 11.
On Thursday, 20 August, members of the public are invited to an open-air film screening followed by a discussion. Starting at 8 pm, the film “Im Osten was Neues – Eine ungewöhnliche Fußballmannschaft” (2025, German original with English subtitles) by Loraine Blumenthal will be shown on campus. Cinematographer Anke Riester will be available to discuss the film with the audience. Guests are also welcome to join a communal cooking session from 6 pm onwards.
On Saturday, 22 August, from 6 to 10 pm, a music evening with communal cooking will take place on the Viadrina campus. On Thursday, 27 August, the film “Cisza nocna / Night Silence” (2024, Polish original with English subtitles) by Bartosz M. Kowalski will be screened from 8 pm.
To mark the conclusion of the Summer School, participants will publicly present the results of projects developed by the various working groups on the Viadrina campus on Saturday, 29 August, from 4 to 9 pm.
In addition, the Viadrinicum Summer School is offering the following workshops on campus Logenstraße:
- Open workshop on building wooden furniture (no registration required), from Thursday, 20 August, to Saturday, 22 August, as well as on Thursday, 27 August, and Friday, 28 August, from 3 to 6 pm each day
- Open cyanotype/blueprint workshop on Friday, 21 August, and Saturday, 22 August, from 3 to 5 pm each day (please register by 20 August by emailing viadrinicum@europa-uni.de)
Journalists are warmly invited to report on the Viadrinicum Summer School 2026 and to meet its participants and organisers. If you are interested, please contact us by email at viadrinicum@europa-uni.de or presse@europa-uni.de.
Translated by DeepL and edited
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