Promotion of Education

Commerzbank's social commitment

Open book with a light bulb in the foreground

Improving opportunities

Education is a key to social participation. But educational opportunities are still unequally distributed. With our commitment, we want to create long-term social and ecological benefits. We support this with our expertise, in-kind contributions and the voluntary efforts of our employees.

Our commitment

Business@School

The Boston Consulting Group's "business@school" educational initiative is all about whetting students' appetites for business topics.

Commerzbank has been supporting the education initiative since 2010: currently, more than 30 employees are active as volunteer school counsellors throughout Germany. Their role is not that of a teacher, but that of an expert and coach. They support the students with their specialist knowledge and help them with practical tips from their everyday work.

Our commitment

Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany e.V.

The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Donors' Association for German Science) - of which Commerzbank is a founding member - is a joint initiative of companies and foundations that provides holistic advice, networking and support in the areas of education, science and innovation. Around 3,000 members have joined forces here - from Dax corporations, SMEs and business associations to founders and private individuals.

With its funding programs, the Stifterverband is an important initiator of innovations in education, science and research. Around 140 million euros recently flowed into charitable projects each year. This makes the Stifterverband one of the largest private sponsors in Germany in these fields.

In addition, the association's foundation centre looks after and advises 670 foundations that support numerous social, cultural or community projects.

Commerzbank's endowment fund in the Stifterverband was established in 2011. The purpose of the endowment fund is to promote research and teaching as well as education.

Open-air semester in German protected areas

Environmental internship

Protecting the climate, nature and biodiversity - and thus the foundations of human life - is one of the most important tasks of our time. Against this backdrop, the Commerzbank Environmental Internship was created as early as 1990 as a joint project with German national parks and biosphere reserves. The fact that the issues have lost none of their topicality since then is demonstrated by the German Award for Sustainability Projects 2023 (German only).

The Commerzbank environmental internship offers students the unique opportunity to experience nature intensively and at the same time acquire important skills for their future career choice. During the internship, students learn practical skills in the areas of environmental education and public relations. Their places of activity are in protected areas throughout Germany, from the Watzmann to the Wadden Sea. Commerzbank finances and organises the environmental internship together with the umbrella organisation of National Natural Landscapes. The protected areas provide professional support, and the interns actively contribute to environmental protection and nature conservation. Students from all disciplines in Germany and the EU can apply between the beginning of November and mid-January.

Since the idea was born a good 30 years ago, the project has enabled around 2,000 interns to spend an open-air semester. For many participants, the environmental internship has paved the way for a career in nature conservation.

Environmental interns are primarily employed in environmental education and public relations work in order to inspire young people in particular for nature conservation and the importance of biodiversity in the protected areas.