Social engagement

The Dr-Ing hc Bernhard Kapp Prize has been awarded by the Coburg Rotary Gemeindienst e.V. since 2001 and is supported by the KAPP NILES Group. It was donated by Dr.-Ing. E. h. Bernhard Kapp to awaken young people's interest in engineering practice. For over 20 years, the prize has been awarded annually to pupils in the eleventh class of the grammar schools in the Coburg area who have independently carried out projects with a link to engineering practice and a high level of application relevance. In total, over 271 prizewinners have been honoured for around 200 innovative projects. This helped to increase interest in the engineering profession in schools.

Pandemic-related restrictions in school operations and a decline in interest in participation, led to Rotary Gemeindienst e.V. ending the annual award ceremony. Since 2024, the remaining foundation funds have been distributed specifically to educational institutions in the region to continue to enable initiatives to promote the next generation of engineers.

This prize is awarded to apprentices or re-trainees from Upper Franconian companies that are members of "bayme", the Bavarian association of the metal and electro industry (Bayerischen Unternehmensverbandes Metall und Elektro e. V.) who support their fellow members of society in some special way with voluntary or social work. The prize is named after Dr-Ing Eh Bernhard Kapp, who is being honoured with this competition for his many years of work in Upper Franconian employers associations. Young people from the "byme" association member companies in Upper Franconia can apply to take part through their training supervisors. The application should include when the voluntary work started, how much time they invest in it and the corresponding target group. The training supervisor adds a short declaration about the professional performance of the applicant and sends everything to "bayme". "Professional commitment is important in the lives of young people. However, the commitment to society, whose welfare is the foundation of our state, is just as important. And it is exactly that voluntary commitment that we want the promote in our region", explains Martin Kapp, executive manager of the KAPP Group.