Students Protest at Two Berlin Universities Over Education Cuts and Gaza

On Thursday, 5 November, students demonstrated at two Berlin universities. At the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin), protesters have been holding teach-ins — peaceful discussion and teaching sessions — inside a lecture hall since the morning. A university spokesperson confirmed the events to the Tagesspiegel, describing them as protests against militarisation and cuts to education and science funding, and stating that no occupation had been observed. Affected classes were moved to other rooms or held online where possible. Police were not on site, as the university was tolerating the protest; officers expected the action to continue until early evening.

The protest appears linked to a blockade of FU Berlin's Otto-Suhr-Institut organised by the group "Gen Z regelt FU Berlin" a week earlier, which had already signalled plans to build large-scale university protests. A video posted to Instagram showed the group's spokesperson, Emma Heymann, speaking from the lecture hall. She described the action as a step toward a major strike planned for 20 November, intended to bring together pupils, students and staff to put pressure on the government. Heymann also criticised FU Berlin's cooperation with Israeli universities, arguing this made the institution "directly involved" in what she described as Germany's complicity in Gaza.

Separately, around 30 people gathered peacefully outside the Evangelical University of Applied Sciences in Zehlendorf on Thursday morning. Police reported that university operations there continued without restriction.