Germany's Universities Are Crumbling. They Need Money – But Above All, They Need Freedom

The main building of the Technische Universität Berlin has been closed for days. Following an inspection, it was shut down from one day to the next due to "significant structural defects." When it will reopen is unclear. Hundreds of events have been cancelled. A large portion of the roughly 33,000 students have been forced to switch to digital instruction – as in the days of the pandemic. Some lectures may soon be held in tents.

If one is looking for a perfect symbol of a country in an advanced state of decline, this is it. Outwardly, Germany continues to set high standards. Inwardly, decay has long since taken over. And nowhere is that more visible than where its future is supposed to be secured. The TU Berlin may continue to produce internationally respected research results. But when the foundation crumbles, the entire structure risks collapse.

The Berlin debacle must therefore serve as a wake-up call. It is not enough to proclaim oneself an educational hub if that only means funding a few selected lighthouse projects. Schools and universities are the most important infrastructure Germany has. This is not a new insight. It simply must finally have consequences.

The fact that out of the €500 billion special fund, only €4 billion is to flow to universities and daycare centres is nothing short of ridiculous. Especially since states and municipalities have already announced that they will put the majority of that sum into childcare. And of course, there is also the risk that the money will disappear into the thicket of earmarking and federalism. But anyone who saves on universities or treats them like afterthoughts endangers their own economic base. For a resource-poor country, education policy is always also economic policy.

The TU Berlin alone estimated its renovation needs at €2.4 billion back in 2022. That this is no exaggeration became evident two years ago when the university was forced to close a high-rise building belonging to it for an indefinite period following water damage. Even in Bavaria, rain is leaking into numerous lecture halls. The German Rectors' Conference estimates the nationwide investment gap at more than €100 billion.

Germany is setting its priorities in an almost paradoxical way. It discusses industrial policy, semiconductor factories, and future technologies with great seriousness – while simultaneously allowing the very places where that knowledge is created to decay. Improvement is difficult. Even the most important projects often get tangled in a dense web of application requirements, jurisdictional overlaps, and heritage protection.

This is all the more astonishing because a path out of the misery has already been successfully trodden. The TU Darmstadt in Hesse, about 20 years ago, became the first university in Germany to receive full autonomy through its own state law. Since then, it has managed its own construction activities and its own budget. The list of buildings newly constructed or renovated since then is impressively long.

Sceptics fear that universities might overextend themselves with this task and waste money. But anyone afraid of autonomy need only look at the status quo. The risk does not lie in the experiment. It lies in continuing as before.

So the TU Berlin is closed. Lectures may be held in tents. The investment gap is over €100 billion. The special fund allocates just €4 billion to universities and daycare centres – and most of that is going to childcare. The TU Darmstadt showed that autonomy works. The rest of Germany is watching. The students are digital. The roofs are leaking. The politicians are discussing industrial policy. The rectors' conference is counting the billions. And the buildings keep crumbling. Germany's future is being built on a foundation of decay. That is not a sustainable model. That is a disaster waiting to happen. The question is not whether the TU Berlin will reopen. The question is whether Germany will finally learn the lesson that autonomy is not a risk – it is the only solution. The status quo is failing. The experiment cannot be worse. The tents are waiting. The students are watching. The clock is ticking. And the rain, as always, keeps falling. In lecture halls, in corridors, and on the heads of those who keep pretending that everything is fine. It is not. And hasn't been for a long time.

Written by Christiane Hofreiter