A Bridge Builder Between Art, Business and Culture

Alanus student Nico Dahlhausen receives the 2025 DAAD Prize

Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter near Bonn is honoring the German-Belgian graduate Nico Dahlhausen with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Prize 2025. The 23-year-old completed his bachelor’s degree in the Business & Acting program this summer and is being recognized for his outstanding artistic achievements, exceptional social commitment, and dedication to intercultural dialogue. The prize, endowed with 1,000 euros, is funded by the Federal Foreign Office.

Having grown up in Lontzen in East Belgium, Nico Dahlhausen brings together two worlds: the analytical perspective of business and the creative power of the performing arts. Before beginning his studies, he completed training in dance education. Since then, he has worked with children and young people in Belgium and Germany, passionately opening up access to movement, expression, and creativity for them. During his studies at Alanus University from 2022 to 2025, he performed regularly on stage – including at the university’s Hoftheater, Theater im Ballsaal in Bonn, and the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. In his dance and theater projects, he combined artistic precision with social relevance and demonstrated how art can build bridges between people. He dedicated his bachelor’s thesis to the question of how German federal states can use cultural development plans to strengthen the cultural participation of young people in rural areas. This made clear how strongly he is driven by the conviction that art can bring about social change.

Dahlhausen has also left a clear mark on university life. As a member of the student council and the senate, he advocated for co-determination and inclusion and helped organize numerous cultural events. Particularly formative was his initiative for an academic cycling excursion to East Belgium, which brought together students and lecturers from business and the arts with innovative companies and cultural practitioners from his home region. In this way, a vibrant platform emerged for exchange, learning, and joint projects across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Prof. Dominik Schiefner, Vice Dean of the Department of Performing Arts and head of the degree program, describes him as an “exceptionally talented and creative actor who shapes every role with great expressiveness and authenticity.” At the same time, Schiefner continues, Dahlhausen combines “artistic ability with social responsibility and thus makes a decisive contribution to an open, respectful exchange at the university.”

For Nico Dahlhausen himself, human encounter is at the heart of his work: “For me, art is always also encounter. The DAAD Prize encourages me to continue creating spaces in which people can connect with one another beyond language and origin.” He would like to use the prize money to further expand his artistic and cultural projects in the border region between Germany and East Belgium. Planned are workshops, collaborations, and an exchange project between Alanus University and the East Belgian cultural organizer Eastbelgica, which is intended to bring art and business into a cross-border dialogue.

With this award, Alanus University honors not only the artistic and academic excellence of the prizewinner, but also his role as a shaper of a vibrant European togetherness in which art, education, and responsibility are interwoven in an inspiring way.

Photos:
01: Portrait of Nico Dahlhausen (© Tina Goller)
02: Nico Dahlhausen and Malin Schädlich in “Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern” (© Benjamin Westhoff)
03: Nico Dahlhausen and Malin Schädlich in “Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern” (© Benjamin Westhoff)
04: Nico Dahlhausen in “Die ganzen Wahrheiten” (© Jana Rodenbusch)

Contact for press inquiries:
+49 (0)2222 9321-1944
presse@alanus.edu

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