When I started thinking about writing about the current student protests going on here in Germany, my first thought was to which category I should tag this article with. Some of you may say that it is obviously the “Delights” one, because of the understanding for the content and reasoning of the protests. But then again, I think you cannot leave out the “Absurdities” tag, because there is also so much stuff going very wrong this week during these protests.

For those who have not really been able to grasp the idea behind this student protest here a *short* explanation:
The Bologna-system (BA and MA) was introduced to German universities a few years back. Ever since then it seems that classes are getting fuller (300+ people), the level of education is sinking and the costs of university rising. Politicians have so far not seemed to be too far interested in educational matters, because of other problems.

Because of these reasons, this week in whole Germany, students of the universities offer special workshops and discussion sessions concerning the current problems in the educational system. In Frankfurt, a few hundreds of students barricaded themselves in one of the university buildings on Monday. Since then, they have been hanging out signs with what they expect from the educational system, sleeping there and talking about the protest with each other. Pretty peaceful. Until last night.

When I arrived at university this morning, I heard everyone talking about that the students had destroyed various objects in the building and spray painted on the walls over night. According to rumors, the damage is guessed on 60,000€. To get to class, I had to walk by the building and was literally shocked by what I read on one of the signs: “Who thinks like Germany, thinks like Auschwitz”. And this is where the “Absurdities” come in. This does not have anything, really, not anything to do with the student protests anymore. Not even remotely. It is upsetting, and you can also say embarrassing that a sign with that content is hung up at the university you study at.

At this moment, I am sitting in one of the cafeterias together with probably around 80 other students. From here you have a direct view to the building I have talked about. When you watch other people, you can see that every once in a while people look at the building and just shake their head. I feel like doing the same thing. Granted, the idea behind this protest is legitimate. But what is definitely not legitimate is the way this is developing into a radical movement. Surely, the students who take part in these radical developments are only a small fragment of the ones who want to peacefully protest and want their voice to be heard. Still, I believe that by not saying anything against those radical opinions and staying remote, they support exactly the same.