A CDU woman had to be escorted out of Göttingen University by police officers because she dared to speak about the controversial self-determination law. Now even the Bundestag is dealing with the incident. For me, it is anything but surprising.
Suddenly there is a huge outcry – after CDU member of the Bundestag Mareike Wulf was cancelled during a lecture in Göttingen, the members of the German Bundestag are dealing with the issue of freedom of expression at German universities. The Union faction has called for a current affairs session entitled “Protect freedom of expression – prevent boycotts of scientific and democratic events at German universities”.
A few days before Mareike Wulf, I was a guest at the University of Göttingen. I spoke about the limited freedom of expression on campus. The “black box university” is not only a habitat for left-wing ideologies, but an environment in which social positions and political views that go against the mainstream are not permitted.
The consequences are often exclusion from debate, social isolation, verbal and even physical threats. Through structures such as student self-government or instruments such as safe spaces and trigger warnings, left-wing identity politicians on campus repeatedly manage to silence people with different opinions. Most remain silent out of fear. I have compiled countless of these cases in my book.
Black Box Uni: Biotope of left-wing ideologies
And so two things in Göttingen did not surprise me at all.
Firstly, during my lecture, a group of students tried to accuse me of dealing with the “woke” community in an undifferentiated manner. Afterward, one student seriously asked me whether I would not agree with him that, within the framework of student self-government, other opinions should be excluded from a working group because they would only cause unrest.
“But that is exactly what is undemocratic,” I replied. “Category-widely excluding other positions under the guise of ‘working quickly’ has absolutely nothing to do with diversity and discussion!”
The student who asked me disagreed. These things happen every day in universities: the structural exclusion of dissidents for the sake of establishing and maintaining left-wing harmony!
Franca Bauernfeind (born 1998) is currently studying for a Master’s degree in political science at the University of Erfurt. The enthusiastic competitive swimmer, violinist and choir singer is a scholarship holder of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, is involved in various university committees and is a journalist. Franca Bauernfeind became known nationwide as the federal chairwoman of the Association of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) and a member of the federal executive board of the CDU.
Secondly, a counter-revolt was already announced that day for Mareike Wulf’s lecture a few days later. The aim: to give the Bundestag member and her opinion no space at the university. Wulf wanted to speak on the topic of “Identity under scrutiny: self-determination without borders?” She had been invited by the Association of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) in Göttingen.
However, a large number of people who were not interested in a discussion also came. According to the police, around 260 people prevented the lecture from taking place. According to the police, suspected students gathered in and outside the lecture hall, blew whistles, shouted loudly, knocked on windows and drummed on tables. They accused Wulf of being “queer-phobic” and made such disruptive noise that the lecture had to be stopped. According to the police, Wulf left the lecture hall accompanied by police officers.
In my opinion, the reaction of the AStA Göttingen seems unbearable and yet not at all surprising. On its homepage it says: “The content of the event is aimed in particular at presenting the Self-Determination Act as a problem and not as part of a solution.” Well-known narratives such as the role of trans people in sport, dangers for children and young people and quota regulations are being used to discredit the law and the motives behind it. This is fuelling transphobic resentment, it says.
The tip of the iceberg is the AStA’s claim that the organizers had framed the lecture as a discussion event; they had no intention of causing disruption at all.
Nonsense! Those who did not want to discuss things were the many troublemakers. The fact is: it was an event that called for debate. It was about dealing with a law that opposition politicians can have a different opinion about – that is the nature of our parliamentary democracy.
You can also see a law as a problem and not as part of a solution, or you can criticize its implementation and individual paragraphs. This does not automatically mean homophobia. The legislature (which makes the laws) and its members – i.e. the MPs – are in a position to have different opinions by virtue of their mandate. At the end of a long process, the governing parties reach a compromise. The opposition usually has something to criticize about this.
Anyone who has a little knowledge of politics knows this. If Mareike Wulf had been allowed to speak, all of this would have become clear. Instead: Cancel Culture par excellence!
What remains?
On Wednesday there will be a current affairs session in the Bundestag, and even CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann joined in and criticized the disruptive action as undemocratic and intolerant. Will there finally be a social discourse that takes a closer look at universities? Or will this incident at a German university once again be downgraded to an isolated case and the problems on campus not taken seriously?
