Naked demonstrators, clashes with security staff and burning barricades marked the start of the German university summer holidays as students protested at the introduction of tuition fees.
Only four of the 16 Lander (states) are not planning to introduce fees, while three have finalised legislation to introduce undergraduate fees of €500 (£340) a semester as early as this autumn. The fees will apply to newly enrolled students only.
The student union at the University of Darmstadt in Hessen said: "Introducing tuition fees is a breach of the constitution that guarantees free education for all, including further education."
In some cases, the protests have cost universities hundreds of thousands of euros.
At the University of Bielefeld in North Rhine Westphalia - which is introducing fees from next semester - students stole a key that opens the doors to about 10,000 rooms across the campus during a clash with security staff.
The university said the theft of the key could cost up to E1 million, as thousands of locks would have to be replaced and extra security staff hired to patrol the campus.
In Wiesbaden, Hessen, 1,000 students set fire to public rubbish bins and attempted to torch a construction vehicle after a peaceful demonstration of more than 8,000 participants. They set up a blockade across the motorway, which resulted in the arrest of 21 demonstrators for malicious damage.
But both the demonstrations and a subsequent lawsuit filed by a group of Wiesbaden University students failed to stop the Hessen Government from preparing legislation to authorise fees from 2007-08.
Since the end of the 1990s, more measures have been introduced to help shore up university finances. Fees for students who take too long to complete courses were implemented in 1997, and some universities are introducing fees for students from other states or cities.
Experts in Hessen believe the new measures could bring an extra E130 million for the state.
In January 2005, the Constitutional Court ruled that the federal Government, which does not have centralised control over educational policies, could not prevent the states from setting fees.
Not all politicians support fees. Peter Gillo, education adviser to the opposition Social Democrats in Saarland, which is set to introduce fees from 2007, said the move was another step towards creating a society of inequality.
But Jurgen Schreier, Saarland's Education Minister, rejected the argument:
"There will be a system of loans and scholarships to support them."