These founders win the Körber Foundation's Encore Award

A concept for local care centers, laundry for people with limited mobility and an educational program for schoolchildren: the award winners are committed to society with their start-ups.

The Körber Foundation has announced this year's winners of the Encore Prize: Heinz Frey, Gisela-Elisabeth Winkler and Ernst-Andreas Ziegler will each receive the award, which is endowed with 60,000 euros. The Encore Prize is aimed at founders over the age of 60.

67-year-old Heinz Frey from Jülich has developed a concept for supplying structurally weak regions: Food, social and medical services and culture are offered in local centers. They are intended to be meeting places and create jobs. In 2005, the former teacher opened the first village center in Jülich-Barmen. He has since scaled up the concept and, with his company Dorv, advises places on how to implement it. There are now more than 40 such local supply centers.

Gisela-Elisabeth Winkler is 82 years old and receives the Encore Award for her work in her company "Ladig und Winkler". At the age of 70, the Berliner invented "Saba Wäsche" with her sister Sigrid Ladig. Winkler's husband was seriously ill and could only move to a limited extent. So that he could continue to dress himself, the two women designed underwear that could be opened at the front and wrapped around the body. Winkler, a former mathematician, now sells the underwear in Germany and other European countries and has applied for approval as a care aid.

At 83, Ernst-Andreas Ziegler is the oldest of the prizewinners. In 2008, the former journalist founded the Junior Uni in Wuppertal. There, children and young people can learn and experiment in mathematics and science outside of school. The annual costs of 1.7 million euros are borne by partners of the Junior Uni. Ziegler has also helped to set up Junior Universities in three other cities.