Knowledge Shapes the Future—Take to the Streets on November 26!Demonstration calling for adequate funding for Hamburg's universities on Thursday, November 26, 2026, at 2:00 p.m.

19 September 2026

Hamburg’s universities have been underfunded by the Hamburg Senate for years. This conflict is currently coming to a head: library hours are being cut, hiring freezes are in place in the administration, only half of all state-funded doctoral positions are currently being filled, and entire degree programs are on the verge of being shut down. Yet we need more research and education! Over 7,000 people demonstrated for this cause last semester. The Senate has announced plans to make higher education more expensive by raising tuition fees to plug holes in the city’s budget, and to withdraw funding already promised for new initiatives. The elimination of scholarship programs for international students and a mandated reduction of hundreds of college spots threaten to restrict access to education and research.

This is a policy that runs counter to the clearly stated will of the universities and the interests of the city’s residents. We will not accept this! Together, we are getting involved in the ongoing budget negotiations! Because: Knowledge shapes the future!

Expand—not cut back on—education and science oriented toward the common good

Adequate basic funding is essential for democratic science. This concerns us all! Because what is at stake is:

• socially and internationally open universities for the education of democratic citizens
• Civil society development: Expanding peace studies and peace education as a shared guiding principle, including through peace research institutes and peace-building curricula
• Academic advocacy for meaningful government investment in education, research, social services, culture, and infrastructure
• Inclusion—throughout society, through education, and for the democratic participation of all
• A historically informed exploration and development of humanity’s cultural heritage in writing, sound, image, form, and representation—as a bridge between cultures
• Engineering and natural sciences in the service of humanity, for example, to collectively address and overcome the climate crisis
• Public health care and health education with a focus on people
• Democratic infrastructure and urban development for social, sustainable, and inclusive community planning, construction, and spatial design
• Committed legal scholarship for the realization of fundamental rights as well as human rights and international law

Those who chronically underfund science restrict universities’ ability to work toward a society in which everyone can live with dignity. Yet the money is there! Already, hundreds of millions in uncollected tax revenue are expiring in Hamburg—a good 263 million euros in 2025 alone. At the federal level, an increase in the wealth or inheritance tax and a reduction in massive military spending would immediately expand policy options. The debt brake prevents urgently needed investments in the future. And these investments are also economically worthwhile: Every euro invested in science yields two to three euros in economic growth and creates good jobs.

It’s worth fighting for!

History shows: Science in motion makes a difference! From the democratic expansion of universities in the 1970s, through the abolition of tuition fees and the major protests for adequate funding in 2011, to the present day: We demand an immediate revision of the draft budget in favor of education and science, as well as social services, health, culture, sustainability, and labor.

As students and employees of Hamburg’s universities, we call on everyone to take to the streets together to demand:

• an immediate increase in base budgets to offset the structural deficit,
• dynamic, inflation-adjusted base funding at least equal to the real-term cost increases resulting from wage hikes and operating expenses, as well as the real-term demands of our tasks,
• the provision of the necessary resources for the substantive development of a public-interest-oriented higher education system,
• the expansion of enrollment capacity to broaden access to higher education,
• good study and working conditions—setting an example for all sectors of public services

Together we are strong!