One place that brings students, faculty, staff, alumni, and our entrepreneurial ecosystem together? One place that creates room for exchange and allows new connections to emerge? One place that gives changemakers a home?
In the heart of Düsseldorf, an opportunity awaits us: the opportunity to create a new campus over the coming years from the ground up. A campus that prepares us to meet the demands of the future.
Together, we can imagine and explore what the campus will look and feel like—from its learning environment and campus life to its architecture.
This is WHU One—the process of picturing our future. WHU One starts now, and you are part of it.
Last year, we refined what WHU strives to be: the ecosystem that empowers changemakers. People who think and act like entrepreneurs, take responsibility for their actions and inactions, and thus champion a sustainable economy and democratic values.
This mission also shapes what we need from the place we work, we learn, we collaborate in.
An ecosystem cannot be simply devised on a drawing board. It grows where the right people meet across disciplines and institutions, often entirely by chance.
WHU is made by its people: students, faculty and professional staff, as well as alumni and partners from business, science, politics, and society.
At the same time, WHU is part of a larger community. We create impact in the region, the economy, and society at large. We bear responsibility for the world around us.
How we interact and create impact together at this new campus will be developed by all of us, for our entire ecosystem.
We have the opportunity to bring our two current locations together. In one shared place. One place with endless possibilities: business, culture, politics, and media within walking distance; international connections close by; and all of it on the waterfront.
We can only take such a groundbreaking step into the future because we can build on a successful past; a past shaped by the town and community of Vallendar for which we are forever grateful.
Rooted in a shared past, we can move forward as one … and this is where WHU One starts. It does not start with a building. It starts with picturing the campus of our future.
Over the next year, we will develop a shared picture of our future campus: How do we want to teach, learn, research, and work? What should campus life feel like? What spaces does our ecosystem for changemakers need to thrive?
Not a plan handed down, but a picture built together. That’s where you come in. Whether you teach, study, work, or have graduated here, the picture we are creating needs your perspective.
There will be many opportunities and formats along the way to get involved and contribute. WHU One is our shared journey: The process of picturing our future.
WHU One is our shared journey towards a new campus in Düsseldorf. Through WHU One, we are working with our community to develop a shared vision for an open place that brings together students, academics, businesses, and other stakeholders from across society.
It is about far more than bringing our two current campuses together in one location. WHU One is part of WHU’s long-term strategic development and is intended to bring our vision of responsible leadership in the digital age to life. WHU One is therefore neither the future name of our business school nor the name of the location where its activities will ultimately be brought together; rather, it describes the journey towards that goal.
WHU One enables us to put our vision of responsible leadership in the digital age into practice more consistently and effectively than before. Universities need to evolve from primarily imparting knowledge to developing capabilities. That is why we want to create an open place where students, academics, businesses, and public institutions come together.
Here, people will be able to develop the judgment, agility, and joined-up thinking they need to devise and implement viable solutions to the economic, technological, and societal challenges of our time.
Düsseldorf’s Medienhafen is synonymous with innovation, entrepreneurship, transformation, and modern working environments. This setting gives us the opportunity to connect WHU even more closely with regional, national, and international networks and to develop a campus that more closely integrates learning, research, exchange, and collaboration, enabling WHU to realize its full potential.
Digital formats, AI, and flexible working models will continue to transform teaching and work. That is precisely why a physical campus remains important. In-person encounters, spontaneous conversations, collaborative learning, and direct interaction among students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners cannot be fully replicated digitally.
The new shared campus should facilitate these encounters while supporting modern, flexible ways of learning and working. It is therefore not a question of choosing between the digital and the physical, but of combining the two in a way that meets today’s needs. Through WHU One, we want to determine what the right balance looks like for us.
The shown concepts and illustrations offer a first glimpse of what the new campus could look like. They will serve as a starting point for the discussions and negotiations with the city. They are by no means final. But they give a sense of the scale and ambition of WHU One. With this concepts we are entering the negotiations with the city.
Vallendar remains a central part of WHU’s history and identity. Our current locations in Vallendar and Düsseldorf will remain in operation for the foreseeable future and continue to be vibrant centers of WHU life.
Our goal is to bring WHU’s activities together at a shared campus in Düsseldorf by 2034. The individual steps of this transition will become more concrete as the planning process progresses.
As a next step, the WHU Foundation and the City of Düsseldorf intend to enter into exclusive negotiations regarding a site in the Medienhafen. At the same time, the requirements for the new campus and the next stages of planning will be defined in greater detail through WHU One. Our goal is to complete the new campus by 2034, when WHU celebrates its 50th anniversary. The sequence and timeline of the necessary steps will become clearer over the coming months.
We want to incorporate the ideas and perspectives of our community into the development of the campus. We will provide regular updates on key milestones, the next steps on the path towards the new campus, and specific opportunities to participate in WHU One.
A compact campus layout, modern learning and social spaces, and places for people to meet will create more opportunities for exchange, collaboration, and shared learning. Bringing the programs together will also create more opportunities for interaction between students from different degree programs.
At the same time, the campus will support the shift from imparting knowledge to developing capabilities and create space for new teaching and learning formats. Proximity to academia, businesses, start-ups, alumni, and public institutions will provide greater access to practical experience, networks, and opportunities for personal development.
Proximity to businesses, start-ups, investors, and institutions from other disciplines strengthens a core element of what WHU stands for: the combination of academic excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and practical relevance. Students can engage with real business challenges earlier and more directly. Researchers gain additional opportunities for collaboration and knowledge transfer. Founders benefit from an environment in which ideas, experience, capital, and talent come together more closely. The new campus should make these connections easier, more visible, and a more natural part of everyday life.
In addition, WHU One will explore how Düsseldorf can be further strengthened as a European hub for future technologies, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Through new partnerships, knowledge transfer, and joint projects, the campus can generate additional momentum for business, academia, and society in Düsseldorf and the wider region.
As part of WHU One, we will actively involve our community in developing a shared vision for the new campus. We are currently developing a structured participation process to ensure that the ideas, experiences, and perspectives of our stakeholders are incorporated in a focused way. We will share details of specific opportunities to participate, along with updates on key milestones and next steps, as the project progresses.
If you have any questions about WHU One, please feel free to get in touch with us. We’re still in the very early stages of this venture, and many specifics will only become clear in the coming months. In any case, we’ll take your inquiry into consideration and provide you the information available to us.
Kerstin Leitel
Director Public Relations
