State election in Saxony-Anhalt | Battle of the hysterical university

Anti-fascist protest on September 5th in Magdeburg. The presence of the unions shows that this is always about neoliberal austerity politics. Photo: IMAGO/Markus Matzel At some point in this beautiful year of 2026, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider from the “Alternative for Germany” in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt formulated an interesting university policy mission statement: The “German university” must bring “a strong identity” into the “exchange between nations” – only then will this exchange have “any meaning”.

As we all know, it is a German national program that the AfD wants to implement at universities. And this German nationalism distinguishes the AfD from the established parties. But ultimately, as important as the difference is, it has more in common with the other parliamentary parties than is generally said - and perhaps even more than what separates them. For higher education policy this means: a shared focus on the imperative of competition and performance; strategic control; Profile creation and key figures; economic usability and labor market orientation; Third-party financing, corporate cooperation and needs-oriented study programs. This is the "managerial university" that was created in the course of the neoliberal restructuring of the Federal Republic's institutions after the "reunification."

The East German universities became the laboratory for a new higher education policy after the victory over system competition.

In this restructuring, the universities of Saxony-Anhalt, along with those of the other "new federal states", have an almost avant-garde role to play: as former GDR universities, they were reformed by the victorious Federal Republic in the early 1990s. The purge of socialists from the teaching staff and the suppression of socialism from teaching and research coincided with the implementation of the neoliberal project. The East German universities became the laboratory for a new higher education policy after the victory over system competition.

Against this brutality, which is rightly understood by the East German population as economic clear-cutting, the AfD is now mobilizing the ideological image of the classic, authoritarian-patriarchal university of the 1950s - in the words of the AfD, "the good old full university", as it was attacked and actually changed by the 1968 student movement. The party also says this openly: "The destruction of the German university and its good traditions began with the destruction of the '68." This was completed by the Bologna Process, so they want to "unwind" it. Diploma and master’s degree courses should be offered again “immediately”. However, far from wanting to reverse the really decisive changes since Bologna - keywords competition, efficiency and so on - the AfD wants to manage them in a much more authoritarian way. But what does that mean exactly?

In fact, the federal states have comparatively large scope for action in higher education policy. The AfD could change the Saxony-Anhalt higher education law, which is certain to happen if it takes over government. However, it would be impossible to change the Science Temporary Contract Act (WissZverG) and specific bans on subjects and research areas, i.e. a violation of the scope of protection of academic freedom from Article 5, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law.

The AfD wants “more basic funding” for universities. In fact, the only lever for this is the “reshuffling” of expenditure, i.e. the cancellation of subsidies, postponement of investments, and reduction of administrative expenditure. The neoliberal university restructuring since the “reunification” has laid the foundation for this. The university pacts of the CDU, SPD and others are doing this in a way that the (critical) humanities are also falling victim to, only through the cold hand of the market, so to speak, instead of with the right-wing radical crowbar.

The AfD wants “more permanent contracts,” but not to de-precarize individuals, but rather as a competitive advantage for the university itself: “Apart from some academic idealists, it is mainly the more mediocre people who find no prospects in business who are striving for an academic career,” Tillschneider complains in the SA state parliament. From the post doc onwards, the salary is less the problem than the WissZverG and the competition for the few professorships.

The right-wing “pacifism” that the AfD is displaying regarding the war in Ukraine is not reflected in university policy. It does not call for the introduction of a civil clause for Saxony-Anhalt and does not formulate any reservations about military research, as is promoted by the CDU, SPD and the Greens. On the contrary: the commitment to “freedom of research and teaching” is countered by a clear program to strengthen the Bundeswehr and the German defense technology industry.

With regard to the student body, it is particularly important to the AfD that they do not interfere: This year, the state parliamentary group introduced a bill - which was still rejected - to abolish the student bodies. Specifically, Section 65 of the Higher Education Act should be deleted, professor sovereignty instead of student participation. That would have serious, including financial, effects on left-wing structures in Germany, among other things. At the same time, it must be emphasized that the democratization that was fought for in the course of "'68" was never related to material things: students can participate in senates, faculty councils, influence study and examination regulations, have student self-administration, and make statements. But when it comes to central issues - especially finances, personnel, strategic university development and appointments - the decisive competencies always lie with the university management, the professors and the university council.

In other words: The contrast does not exist between a fascist university and the existing neoliberal university, but rather (ignoring the possibility of a completely different educational system in a liberated society) it exists between the "group university" of the Federal Republic of Germany in the 60s, 70s and 80s that students fought for and the socialist universities in the GDR on the one hand and the "managerial" university of today on the other.

The AfD represents a reactionary version of this university policy in the deepest sense. It is about preserving power structures and a certain form of capitalist socialization, which have actually been attacked at certain points and in some cases dismantled over the past decades. Equality should be replaced by “equal rights” and all promotion of women should be abolished. “Population Studies” and “Critical Islamic Studies” should replace gender studies and postcolonial studies, and a “Climate Policy Impact Institute” should replace climate research.

It's not just about naming individual subjects differently, but about pushing back all sciences that critically focus on social power relations, gender, racism, colonialism or the ecological foundations of capitalism. By the way, in the eyes of the AfD, no one is surprised that all of these unpleasant sciences are "hysterical", i.e. female: "There is political correctness, there is wokeness, which should not be translated as wakefulness, but rather as hysteria."

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