Student Strike in Cologne 2006
Boss of the University Senate Faction Die Linke
The beginning of the strike was kind of surreal. I had
heard that something had been approved but I had not
foreseen the chaos that was to ensue when all the
students turned up for class only to find the Die Linke
faction of the University senate present handing out
leaflets, giving their messages out to their generals from
their command bunker in in the centre of the
philosophical faculty, and barricading off the classrooms
with a row of steel and plastic seating. “No, you’re not
going to classes today are you? Cross my picket line at
your peril”, she said with an icy stare. So, even though I
found it rather inconvenient at first and wanted them to
solve the overcrowding issues and lack of sufficient IT
resources at the university, I had no choice as to
whether 500 euros student tuition fees per semester
was viable for me or presented value for money.
However, I do believe that a yes to tuition fees as it was
at the University of Essex is a slippery slope to paying
11,000 euros a year. This was to be the second phase of
the introduction of fees. The first stage to charge for
people staying on and doing a second BA where they
could have previously enjoyed total academic freedom
for nothing proved very unpopular and the
management had won that process. So, the students
had fallen back behind the lines of protecting their
rights to a first degree for free.
Many of the staff were complicit.
Being the NRW a traditionally socialist area of the
country many people were for the status quo of zero
fees and Professor Reuvekamp-Felber who taught us
medieval German upstairs where the classrooms were
open was even inclined to say, “The official line is that
you are to go to class and stay here, but I’m not going to
complain if you want to disappear downstairs and
defend your interests!” or words to that effect. They
were lovely the staff of Cologne University it would
never happen at any university in England now.
The Protest on Albertus Magnus Platz
There must have been a good 5000 students there on
Albertus Magnus Platz that day when I came into Uni I
just joined them in their standing protest. Outside the
main building Axel Freimuth the Rector of the University
had come out of his office to address the crowd. He
made the argument for investment for the future and
thinking about the research rating of the university as a
priority. One student argued passionately for a free
university education. She was poor and she wanted to
preserve the right to a free university education for her
children in the future and preserve it for future
generations. Then another male student, suited and
booted, and much less of a hippie, argued for better
facilities and for the students to go back to their
classrooms. Axel thought him a bit of a traitor to his
own kind and took the Mickey out of him saying that he
could come into his rectorate to view his personal art
collection which has a sexual implication in German. It
wrapped up with no progress being made on that hot
sunny day so the students escalated their efforts up a
gear.
The Senate Meeting
The battle for zero tuition fees for the 1st degree
reconvened several weeks later in the main building
outside the hall the Aula. People gathered with their
bongos and other drums clapping and stamping their
feet and chanting the following line
Es ist aus! Einfach raus! Freimuth macht die Bildung aus!
It’s finished! Just go! Freimuth is is cutting out our education!
The Verdi Boys
Someone then got the boys from the Verdi union in
from the pay dispute down the road at the hospital.
They had been camped out there in a marquee for
weeks. They had a very attacking style with Claxon
horns and 5ft flags they were raising and waving inside
the main building. They laid siege to Freimuth
conducting a senate meeting in which the decision for
tuition fees of 500 euros a semester was being made.
Baton Rounds
The police beat back the protesters with batons to stop
them entering the senate room and crashing the door
down. They then bundled Freimuth away in the back of
a police car under armed guard for his own protection.
Never again was the senate meeting with student
representation to take place on campus. There were
posters up everywhere saying Freimuth is playing
Scotland Yard with us we’ll find out where the meeting
is going to be before it is too late, but we never did and
the decision was made to bring in tuition fees of 500
pounds a semester with staff members of the senate
alone which was illegal. This is probably why they
eventually offered to reverse the decision to keep free
university places for all and the students won. The
management are still trying to introduce tuition fees
and the student strikes have become almost a yearly
occurrence in Cologne now.
Freimuth Gets the Boot
As a final stunt by the students that year as an ultimate
expression of distaste against Freimuth’s invitation of
the male student to see his art collection. They all gate
crashed the party and held a sit in protest 24/7 in the
rectorate for 2 weeks ejecting Axel Freimuth from his
place of work and living in there. They placed his big
black leather chair outside and handed out their leaflets
from it. Being a German thing when the protest was
broken up the students were legally obliged to clean up
the office most likely so when girlfriend Marina
collected her degree I distinctly remember walking past
and hearing their hoovers going and people climbing out
of the windows on ladders with full dusters