Top bureaucrat sacked over Gaza academic freedom controversy

A high-ranking official in the German Education Ministry has been fired amid an ongoing controversy concerning academic freedom, after reportedly exploring legal and financial sanctions against academics who criticised university responses to pro-Palestinian student protesters.

Sabine Döring, state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), was dismissed on 16 June. Days earlier, the German broadcaster NDR had published emails revealing a request from within the ministry for a review into whether the BMBF could “impose legal consequences”, including the “withdrawal of funding”, on the signatories of a critical open letter.

The May letter, signed by more than a thousand scholars, criticised the Free University of Berlin for calling in the police to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment, stating: “Regardless of whether we agree with the specific demands of the protest camp, we stand up for our students and defend their right to peaceful protest, which also includes the occupation of university grounds.”

The letter continued: “We call on the Berlin university administrations to refrain from police operations against their own students as well as from further criminal prosecution.”

In an interview with Bild, the education minister, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, called the open letter “shocking”, saying: “Instead of clearly standing up against hatred of Israel and Jews, university occupiers are being made into victims, and violence is being trivialised.”

Academics, she added, must “stand on the basis of the Basic Law”, or the German constitution.

News of the ministry’s subsequent inquiry into the open letter prompted an outcry within the academic community, with a second letter condemning an “unprecedented attack” on scientists’ “fundamental rights” attracting almost 3,000 signatures. “The withdrawal of funding ad personam on the basis of political statements made by researchers is contrary to the Basic Law: teaching and research are free,” it read.

The letter called on Ms Stark-Watzinger to resign, stating, “The minister’s actions risk permanently damaging the hard-won right to academic freedom against political and state interference.”

Walter Rosenthal, president of the German Rectors’ Conference, also criticised the “strange move in the BMBF”. He said: “I myself criticised the open letter in question at the time and do not agree with its contents. However, linking an expression of opinion that is not punishable by law with the question of whether scientific work is worthy of further funding would constitute a violation of academic freedom.”

On Friday, Der Spiegel reported that Professor Döring had taken responsibility for the request for a legal review, stating in an email to BMBF employees that she had “obviously expressed herself in a misleading way”.

In a statement, Ms Stark-Watzinger said: “To this day, I am still astonished by how one-sidedly the [open] letter ignored Hamas’ terror. And how it made a blanket demand that crimes at universities should not be prosecuted, while at the same time antisemitic incitement and violent attacks against Jewish citizens are being observed.

“At the same time, there is no question in my mind that academic freedom is a very valuable asset and is rightly protected by the constitution,” she continued. “Science is funded according to scientific criteria, not political worldviews.”

Because of the request for a legal review, the education minister said, “the impression was created” that the BMBF “was considering examining the consequences of funding law on the basis of an open letter covered by freedom of expression. This contradicts the principles of academic freedom.

“The impression created is likely to permanently damage the trust of scientists in the BMBF,” Ms Stark-Watzinger said. Concluding that “a new start in terms of personnel is necessary”, she confirmed she had asked the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to dismiss Professor Döring.

The education minister has resisted calls to resign herself. Thomas Jarzombek, research and education spokesperson for the opposition CDU, posted on X: “Federal minister [Stark-Watzinger] is right: A new start in terms of personnel in [the BMBF] is necessary. She must now take this step herself.

“It was her announcement that the lecturers’ letter was not in line with the constitution. In doing so, she set the direction for the [BMBF] that was implemented by the officials.”

Karin Prien, state minister of education for Schleswig-Holstein, posted on X: “With this nightly farce, in which [Professor Döring] is now being made a pawn, politics is showing its ugly side.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com