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Salzburg Global Seminar

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Salzburg Global Seminar
Company typeNon-Profit Organization
FoundedSalzburg, Austria (1947)
HeadquartersSalzburg, Austria; Washington, DC; Vienna, Austria,
Key people
President and CEO Stephen Salyer; Chair of the Board Walter E. Massey; Senior Vice President and CPO Edward Mortimer
Websitehttp://www.salzburgglobal.org


A Brief History

The Salzburg Global Seminar is an American non-profit organization that holds seminars on economics, politics, and other issues for future political, economic, and business leaders from around the world.[1] Its purpose is to "challenge current and future leaders to develop creative ideas for solving global problems." These seminars are held at the Schloss Leopoldskron, a rococo palace in Salzburg, Austria.

The organization was founded in 1947 by three men at Harvard University--Clemens Heller, a graduate student originally from Austria,[2] a college senior named Richard Campbell and a young English instructor named Scott Elledge. "We hope to create at least one small center in which young Europeans from all countries, and of all political convictions, could meet for a month in concrete work under favorable living conditions," Campbell said of their intentions in January of 1947, "and to lay the foundation for a possible permanent center of intellectual discussion in Europe."[3] The Salzburg Seminar, as it came to be called, was created to be a venue to encourage intellectual exchange among Europeans and Americans and to ameliorate rifts created by World War II.[4]

Schloss Leopoldskron

Housed in the rococo splendor of Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria, with its own lake and an unforgettable view across to the towering Untersberg, the Seminar provides a magnificent yet informal setting for study and debate, equipped with state-of-the-art technology. Besides the programs of the Seminar itself, Schloss Leopoldskron is available for outside conferences and events.

History of Schloss Leopoldskron

Schloss Leopoldskron was built in the 1740s by Salzburg’s Prince-Archbishop Leopold Anton Eleutherius Freiherr von Firmian as his family estate, and was subsequently given to his nephew Laktanz, who became an important patron of the Mozart family. In 1918, after a long period of neglect, Schloss Leopoldskron was bought by Max Reinhardt, the founder of the Salzburg Festival. Reinhardt restored the Schloss and its park, fitting the Schloss with 18th century paneling, bookcases, chandeliers and statues, and building his famous Garden Theatre in the park. The Schloss was both Reinhardt's home and a meeting place for artistic and cultural elite of Europe and America between the world wars. In 1938, shortly before the Anschluss, Max Reinhardt fled Austria, traveling to the United States. Schloss Leopoldskron was confiscated as Jewish Property by the National Socialists, and remained in their hands throughout the war years. After World War II, ownership of the Schloss reverted to Reinhardt’s widow, Helene Thimig, who allowed the founders of the Salzburg Seminar to use the Schloss for its first session, held in the summer of 1947.[5]

Presidents of the Salzburg Global Seminar

The Mission of the Seminar

The Salzburg Global Seminar is a non-profit, independent institution. Over six decades it has evolved into a global institution that brings together young and not-so-young leaders from all over the world. It aims to open their minds, enlarge their horizons, and lay the groundwork for future cooperation. Without adopting any political agenda of its own, it essays to provide a setting within which common ground can be discovered and principles agreed upon for the management of specific global issues – from climate change to the legacy of conflict, and from trade barriers to the obstacles which impede the circulation of cultural objects.

The mission of the Salzburg Global Seminar is to challenge present and future leaders to solve issues of global concern. Whether the constituency gathered is composed of senior policy-makers wrestling with specific problems in the present, scholars from conflict areas working together on contentious events in a shared past, mid-career professionals joining our regular Seminar sessions on topical issues, participants in our annual academy on media and global change, or faculty or students from American community colleges attending our courses on global citizenship, all are encouraged to think creatively across cultural and professional boundaries, and to develop new networks of professional contacts. The express intent of the sessions conducted by the Salzburg Global Seminar is to better equip participants to deal with the complex challenges of the 21st century.

Areas of Work

The Seminar’s programs are organized under five thematic headings: • Arts and Culture • Innovation and Sustainability • Media and Citizenship • Peace, Justice, and Security • World Stability and Development

The Programs

The Seminar’s interdisciplinary programs, focused on issues of global concern, provide an environment in which intense, candid dialogue can occur among people from widely different cultural and professional backgrounds, both within age-groups and across generational divides. Participants are encouraged to think creatively and to develop new contacts. Within the program, the Seminar’s regular sessions and its initiatives are oriented toward problem-solving and the exchange of ideas among scholars and practitioners. Alongside these, the education programs comprise teaching activities, which have recently focused on global citizenship but are now expanding to include more specialized courses on independent media, green sustainability, and other global phenomena. Each contributes to form interlocking networks of fellows and alumni, who continue to contribute and to keep in touch with each other through the Seminar’s website and the Seminar's blog.



SEMINARS are issue-oriented international conferences focusing on the exchange of ideas between emerging leaders from government, academia, business, and nongovernmental organizations. The Seminar's annual offerings are diverse and numerous, and will include the following in 2009:

Traduttore Traditore? Recognizing and Promoting the Critical Role of Translation in a Global Culture Session 461 February 21–26, 2009

The Search for Stability: Financial Crisis, Major Currencies, and a New Monetary Order Session 462 April 18–22, 2009

2009 Freeman Foundation Symposium: Strengthening Cooperation Between the US and East Asia By Invitation Only, June 6-9, 2009

Greening the Minds: Universities, Climate Leadership, and Sustainable Futures Session 463 July 11–16, 2009

Confronting Protectionism: How Business and Governments Can Build Support for Open Markets Session 464 September 29–October 4, 2009

Capitalizing on Diversity: Women, Power and New Leadership Session 465 October 18–23, 2009

Connecting to the World's Collections: Making the Case for the Conservation and Preservation of Our Cultural Heritage Session 466 October 28–November 1, 2009

Third Global Innovation Forum: Fostering Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies Session 467 November 7–11, 2009

Asia’s Emerging Powers: Rivalry and Global Responsibility Session 468 December 8–13, 2009



INITIATIVES are long-term projects aimed at finding practical solutions to clearly identified global challenges. The Seminar currently produces or is affiliated with five principle initiatives:

Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (official website)
Based in the Hague, IHJR works with educational and public policy institutions to organize and sponsor research and discourse in pursuit of acknowledgement and the resolution of historical disputes.

Strengthening Independent Media
SIM supports a future-directed examination of the strategic investments needed to foster independent media development internationally in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Optimizing Institutional Philanthropy
OIP stimulates creativity and better practice in the field of philanthropy by identifying and catalyzing new approaches and more effective mechanisms to increase impact and support change, as well as addressing the needs of the global "social marketplace" and considering what future needs may define the field.

African Agriculture
The initiative behind African Agriculture aims to definine a holistic development framework within which new investments in African agriculture can be positioned and to ensure that other new initiatives in Africa can contribute to a decisive reduction in poverty and a sustainable increase in economic growth and opportunity.

European Muslims Professional Action Network This branch establishes a dynamic new platform for entrepreneurial young European Muslim professionals to launch creative initiatives, generate new opportunities to promote change, support professional aspirations and achievement, and foster role models for the next generation, helping to broaden their range of choices as they make decisions about their futures.



EDUCATION programs focus on building innovative curricula on global citizenship and media literacy and supporting the development of higher education institutions across the globe. The Seminar hosts several chief education programs throughout the year for both faculty and students:


International Study Program(ISP) These week-long programs are designed and offered in order for two different audiences—-students and faculty members—-to explore the factors that may either support or restrain a comprehensive approach to global education within universities and colleges and to jointly develop strategies for teaching and learning within those systems.


2009 ISP Global Citizenship Programs
For students: March 5–12, April 9–16, May 21–29, May 29–June 5
For faculty and administrators: January 6–13, January 14–21, July 1–8, July 17–24


The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change This Academy is convened in partnership with the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The three-week program is designed to bring together top under-graduate and graduate students from around the world to study media’s effect on global issues and to build a global media literacy curriculum. In 2009, the Academy will be held July 26–August 15.



NETWORKS build on the interlocking relationships of Fellows and Alumni through the Seminar’s website, regional meetings, and special projects. For more than six decades the Salzburg Global Seminar has been a leading forum for international education and global dialogue, hosting over 27,000 participants from 150 countries, among them some of the world’s leaders in government, business and education. By taking part in one of the Seminar’s programs, alumni join an extensive professional network which extends around the globe. These groups are designed to engage Seminar alumni and international opinion-makers, and to encourage and facilitate the continued intellectual interest and commitment of alumni in the work begun during their Salzburg experience. The networks currently sponsored by the Seminar include:

Salzburg Congress on Urban Planning and Development [1] May 14–17, 2009.

Salzburg Seminar American Studies Alumni Association (SASAA)

International Society for Contemporary Literature and Theatre (ISCLT)

Legal Alumni Web of the Salzburg Seminar (LAWSS)"

Globalization and American Popular Culture September 25–28, 2009



SALZBURG FESTIVALS Festivals give alumni the opportunity to bring friends and family back with them to Schloss Leopoldskron and to meet new friends with a shared interest in current global affairs.

SUMMER FESTIVAL August 21–27, 2009

WINTER FESTIVAL December 27, 2009–January 3, 2010

  1. ^ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e48db70-3457-11de-9eea-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
  2. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/06/world/clemens-heller-85-founder-of-postwar-salzburg-seminar.html
  3. ^ http://www.salzburgseminar.org/2009/history.cfm
  4. ^ http://www.cas.umn.edu/pdf/asnwin97.pdf
  5. ^ http://www.salzburg.info/en/service/infos/detail.htm?id=87001184
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