AStA
Never again fascism, never again war instead of “critical thinking” about killingStatement on the 20th Bundeswehr Education and Training Congress in Hamburg
31 August 2025
We, the AStA of the University of Hamburg, want teaching for social progress and the improvement of coexistence, not for the most efficient warfare! That is why we consider it essential that research is conducted without being influenced by military purposes or interests and independently of military funding. The AStA opposes the increasing militarization of society and academia. While the federal government is putting together billion-euro packages for arms companies and the Bundeswehr, subsidizing companies, and preparing society for a possible war, universities are left empty-handed. On the one hand, there is enough money for armament, but on the other hand, universities such as the UHH, as well as the Stwhh and the Stabi, have been dilapidated and underfunded for years. The enormous arms build-up shows that there is a lack of political will to invest money in us and our education.
Instead, pressure is mounting on universities to open up to corporations, especially arms companies, and the German Armed Forces. In this context, the civil clause, which in Hamburg only applies to the MIN faculty, is also under attack. We want to defend and expand it. We do not want to conduct research for military purposes, not even in dual-use mode!
Against the backdrop of current developments in security policy, we consider it necessary to take a clear position on increasing military expansion and the associated social shift. In this context, we see the 20th Bundeswehr Education and Training Congress from September 2 to 4 at Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Bundeswehr here in Hamburg as a contribution to the further social normalization of warlike projects.
One planned keynote speech at the event in particular demonstrates the extent to which military attacks are being stripped of their significance and destructive power and instead discussed as supposedly purely methodological challenges, thereby normalizing them. Dr. Ofra Gracier, co-instructor of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Generals' Course, which prepares senior officers for tasks in the general staff, is scheduled to speak on the topic “Extracting Order from Chaos. Lessons Learned from Military Design in an Eight-Front War.” The plan is to examine the IDF's military actions since October 7, 2023, in terms of their “shortcomings and triumphs” using the Military Design Thinking method. What can be praised as a “triumph” in a war that has claimed 75,200 Palestinian civilian lives in three months, and what can be dismissed as a “shortcoming,” remains an open question for us. The use of such terms in this context seems highly problematic to us and calls for public classification and critical reflection.
We question how the strategy of an army whose acts of war have been classified as contrary to international law or even genocide by various independent human rights organizations, UN committees, and international genocide research can be used as teaching material in academic contexts.
These and other events take current wars as their model, thereby trivializing the destruction of human life, ecology, and cultural, social, and infrastructural foundations of life that accompany them. Even in the context of academic debate, respect must be shown for the lives of people affected by violence and civilians who have already died. As a state institution, the University of the Federal Armed Forces is also required to ensure that its actions do not legitimize or otherwise enable violations of international law. This naturally also applies to the actions of its cooperation partners and invited guests. International law and human rights also apply at and for the Helmut Schmidt University!
Initial public criticism of the keynote speech was met with only an evasive response from the organizers of another event at which Gracier was scheduled to speak. There was no response from the management of Helmut Schmidt University as the host, nor was Gracier disinvited. The university stated that it wanted to “point out the methodological difficulties of military design thinking within military institutions.” They do not want to draw any consequences. Instead, Gracier's name and the particularly reprehensible and criticized statements were quietly removed from the program.
We condemn the suppression of critical voices to date and call for a transparent debate on the part of the university administration. We consider it necessary to cancel the keynote speech and issue a public statement. The complicated history of the situation in Palestine/Israel must be discussed publicly and on the basis of international law and human rights. Not behind closed doors in a military restricted zone, which is what Helmut Schmidt University is, excluding the public and preventing critical voices from being heard. But we remain vigilant and take a stand—because that is exactly why we value education!
Sources:
1. Independent and representative study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.19.25329797v4.full-text
2. Papers from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices