Student protests in Germany in 2009
In the course of 2009 there were student protests in Germany . The protests came in response to reforms in the German education system. In particular, they were directed against the implementation of the Bologna reform, against tuition fees and against the economization of education. As a result of the protests in November, lecture halls and other rooms were occupied at over 70 colleges and German universities . The majority of the protests took place as part of the nationwide education strike.
course
At the end of 2008 there were increasing protests by students and pupils against reforms in the education system. On November 12, 2008, a nationwide school strike took place. As a result, the idea of organizing a nationwide education strike came up in 2008. At several planning meetings in Erfurt , Kassel and Berlin , among others , the period, demands and actions for a nationwide education strike in the summer were worked out. But regional educational protests also took place parallel to these cross-border plans. In Bavaria on May 13, more than 17,000 young people demonstrated in 13 cities for the abolition of tuition fees.
Education strike in June
From 15th to 19th June the first nationwide education strike took place in 2009 . Students, schoolchildren and other groups took part in numerous actions and demonstrations for a better education system. The protests primarily criticized the introduction of tuition fees and the implementation of the Bologna reform. They called for more self-determined learning, better funding for universities and more participation. According to the organizer, more than 200,000 young people demonstrated on the nationwide demonstration day, a large number of them school children.
Education strike in winter
Shortly after the education strike ended, a meeting in Bonn decided to continue the protests in November 2009. In addition to a large, decentralized demonstration day on November 17th, an agreement was reached on central demonstrations against the Conference of Ministers of Education in Bonn and against the Conference of University Rectors in Leipzig. The choice for November 17th, on which more than 85,000 young people demonstrated, fell in particular to allow the protests to take place as part of the international Global Week of Action for Free Education. Before the decentralized demonstration day, there were spontaneous occupations in the lecture hall in Germany after occupations for a better education system had already started in Austria. As a result, the education strike and occupation were mostly treated synonymously in public, although not all occupations were explicitly understood as part of the education strike.
Occupations
Following the example of the student protests in Austria , lecture halls at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg were occupied by around 150 participating students on November 3, 2009. In the following weeks, lecture halls were occupied in more than 60 German cities. The occupations should create spaces in which grievances in the educational system can be discussed and made aware of.
The majority of the occupations were ended before Christmas 2009, some of them forcibly:
On the morning of November 6, 2009, the auditorium maximum of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster was cleared by the police at the request of the rector Ursula Nelles . The clearance operation was peaceful. The students involved were reported for trespassing. The blockade of the Audimax at the Philipps University of Marburg was also lifted. The students themselves ended the occupation in order to avoid negative consequences such as criminal charges or forced de-registration . After the police had evacuated the occupied casino at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main on December 2, 2009 , the university management found that damage of between 200,000 and 400,000 euros had occurred during the two-day occupation due to property damage. Even after the end of the occupation at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, the criminal police found that damage to property, including the historic university organ, had resulted in a "high five-digit euro amount". A police spokesman stated that of the 22 occupants who remained on the day of the eviction, only eight were students, 13 punks and one homeless person . However, the entrances to the university had already been closed a few days earlier and the supply of food to the occupied lecture hall had been cut off in order to "starve" the protest. The occupiers feared a "silent eviction". The situation was different at the University of Regensburg , for example , where the line-up that had been formed since November 18, 2009 only dissolved on March 1, 2010.
requirements
The demands of the protesting students concerned among other things the abolition of access restrictions to the university system in the form of tuition fees and numerus clausus . In addition, the Bologna process was heavily criticized, since the introduced Bachelor and Master system in its current form leads to high performance pressure and schooling at universities . In addition, the protesters believe that central goals of the process, such as increasing mobility among students and creating a high-quality degree, were not achieved.
They also spoke out against what they believed to be the increasing influence of private companies on university education and felt that this was a restriction on the independence of universities. In their opinion, this dependency is expressed, among other things, by the increasing dependence on third-party funding and the influence of business representatives in high university bodies. Therefore, in order to grant university independence, demand that the educational institutions be fully funded by the state. At the same time, structures and bodies in educational institutions that were perceived as hierarchical and undemocratic were criticized. Against this background, the discussion on a civil clause also took place in some cities ; in Tübingen this has since become legally binding and has been incorporated into the constitution of the University of Tübingen. The protesters also called for the termination of precarious employment in the education sector.
Reactions
Some alliances and organizations followed the call of the education strike to support the actions and have expressed their solidarity, including parties such as the SPD , Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen , Die Linke and the Pirate Party . The Bavarian SPD member of the state parliament, Susann Biedefeld, stayed at the Coburg University for one night and supported the goals of the Coburg occupiers. In Saarbrücken, the Saarland state chairman of the SPD visited the occupied music hall and expressed his solidarity.
The German Association of Philologists , on the other hand, criticized the fact that the demands give a “diffuse picture” and that the protests are also “ decisively shaped by left-wing extremist organizations that are incapable of politics ”. Overall, an opportunity to participate is being wasted. The Ring of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) also criticized the fact that the demands had too little substance and described the strikes as “pure actionism”.
There was also criticism from the student side. In a debate published by Spiegel Online , it was criticized that "20 people would block the lectures of over a thousand economists". At some universities, the squatters and the university management provided replacement rooms for events that were affected by the occupations. Especially from areas such as economics and other courses of study, or the LHG (Liberal University Group), there was often no protest and the students often clashed.
Effects
The protests and occupations in 2009 aroused great media interest and led to an increased public discourse on educational policy issues. Federal Education Minister Annette Schavan announced an increase in BAföG . At some universities, such as the University of Bamberg, tuition fees have been reduced. In Bavaria, a working group consisting of students, university and ministry representatives was set up to advise on the introduction of a composed student body . Furthermore, the study plans and examination regulations of the new bachelor's degree programs should be checked and changed if necessary.
While Jan-Martin Wiarda wrote in Die Zeit that the protests had "made the universities better", Wolfgang Fach said in the FAZ that what had been achieved merely meant "more leeway for standstill" and that necessary reforms had been withdrawn.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from April 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of December 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from April 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Occupation of the Audimax in Münster: Lecture hall cleared by the police . Ibbenbüren People's Newspaper. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
- ↑ FAZ.NET : Student protests: Police clear the casino at Frankfurt University . December 3, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2009.
- ↑ ddp : Kripo investigates university occupiers . Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 30, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
- ↑ Auditorium occupation: Bizarre showdown at dawn . Spiegel Online . December 28, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
- ↑ University squatters should be “starved”! . RP Online. Archived from the original on December 30, 2009. Retrieved on February 24, 2010.
- ↑ Silent evacuation of the university: Police end short demo in front of the LMU . TZ Online. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
- ↑ University of Regensburg occupied! . Regensburg digital. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ University occupation ended . Regensburg digital. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ Nationwide education strike 2009: Demands of the students ( Memento of the original of October 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Militarization Information Center: Civil Clause at the University of Tübingen (PDF; 534 kB)
- ↑ SPD party convention Dresden Decision overview No. 33, November 14, 2009 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ German Association of Philologists: Association of Philologists on the Student Protests . November 17, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2009.
- ^ RCDS: press releases . Accessed on November 18, 2009. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Felix Scheidl: Student protests: "Throw the hippies out of the Audimax" . Mirror online. November 29, 2009. Retrieved November 29, 2009.
- ↑ http://www2.hu-berlin.de/unauf/content/view/3441/114/ ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bamberg University reduces tuition fees . Mercury Online. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
- ↑ Working group should clarify questions of student participation . Mercury Online. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
- ↑ Jan-Martin Wiarda: strike balance sheet . The time . December 22, 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ↑ Wolfgang Fach: University reform: After the strike: Bottle and Spirit . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 7, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
