Benjamin Wolba | The European Defense Tech Hub

In Episode 20 of The European Republic, Nikodem Skrobisz speaks with Dr. Benjamin Wolba, co-founder of the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH), one of Europe’s largest and fastest-growing defence innovation networks.Benjamin says he came to defence almost by accident. A theoretical physicist who founded a publishing house and later worked in venture capital, he belonged to a generation in Germany raised to believe that history had ended and that war was a thing of the past. In 2024, he and his co-founder Jonathan organised a defence-tech hackathon in Munich as a one-off. Two years later, EDTH has grown into an international network running dozens of hackathons and expanding also outside Europe to allied democracies like Australia, Taiwan, Canada and Japan.Tune in to hear what Benjamin has learned from building EDTH across Europe and Ukraine, what makes defence innovation actually work in the real world, and why he believes Europe has an enormous opportunity to build a faster, more ambitious and globally competitive defence ecosystem. We also explore how the funnel from hackathons to startups to deployed tech works; and about the new generation of founders reshaping European defense. Also: How the battlefield of the future might look like, where the most exciting innovations are emerging, and how anyone with the right ideas and skills can help shape it.Ben’s website: https://benjaminwolba.com/Sign up to the EDTH Festival in Berlin August 2026: https://eurodefense.tech/festival/The upcoming Hackathons by the EDTH: https://events.eurodefense.tech/ Get full access to Nikodem at nikodemskrobisz.substack.com/subscribe