German Student Movement - Reforming The Universities

Reforming The Universities

To support its new economic policies the government wanted to change the universities, producing graduates faster by introducing a time limit on courses and limiting the number of students. The students, however, did not want to adjust to the needs of the economy and the government. In fact, they wanted to adjust the universities to their own wishes. They wanted more rights in the running of universities, better-equipped workplaces and the expulsion of the professors who had been active during the Nazi period. The university boards did not react to the students' protest and introduced the time limit for studying.

When this time limit was introduced at the Free University of Berlin during the summer holidays of 1966 the students were not there, and so were unable to protest against it; instead, the first big sit-in of the German student movement happened when they returned after the holidays, with about 4,000 participants. The events at the Free University of Berlin are representative of the events at all universities in Germany, as the same events were quickly repeated elsewhere.