Overview
- On November 12, Humboldt University and Freie Universität denied rooms for Studis gegen Rechts meetings intended to mobilize against the AfD’s planned youth founding in Gießen.
- Freie Universität said the event was registered under a different focus and later proved to target a single party, which the university argued breaches its neutrality rules.
- Technische Universität Berlin allowed the gathering after a legal review and accompanied it with an awareness/de‑escalation team while reiterating neutrality requirements.
- Organizers allege AfD legal pressure led to the cancellations, a claim disputed or unconfirmed by the universities, which point to neutrality as the basis for their decisions.
- Student networks are scaling up travel to Gießen with reports of dozens of buses from Berlin and large meetings in cities such as Göttingen, as the city estimates up to 60,000 protesters around the AfD’s November 29–30 launch of “Generation Deutschland,” following the intelligence‑service classification of the former Junge Alternative as right‑wing extremist.