TU Berlin - quo vadis ?

Shortly after moving back to Germany in autumn 2022, I remember walking through a Berlin park and feeling amazed at seeing a public demonstration. After spending seven years in China, I was not quite used to that sight anymore. Since then, I have seen many such demonstrations for various reasons in the German capital and even joined the one against runaway rental prices and lawmakers' inability to effectively curb them.

In December 2024, the city of Berlin, as usual citing empty coffers, announced its intention to implement sweeping budget cuts in education and culture. Berlin's universities should get by with €100 million less in 2025—a striking number with grave implications for university staff as well as students, possibly leading to hiring freezes and a reduction in student intake in the coming years. A demonstration quickly followed on December 5th.

The latest twist struck closer to home. It targets TU Berlin's Faculty 1, home to the Department for Audiocommunications, where I study in a Master's program between acoustic engineering and communication sciences. The department is headed by Stefan Weinzierl, an acoustician working across engineering, music and the humanities — including consultancy on Munich’s new philharmonic. That mix is not an ornament on a technical university. It is the point of Faculty 1.

This was clearly lost on Berlin’s Science Senator Czyborra. In a newspaper interview she proposed eliminating Faculty 1, arguing that its humanities and educational sciences do not align with the mission of a technical university.

The backlash was immediate. On Saturday, February 22nd, thousands joined a demonstration, moving from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburger Tor. Walking with them did not fix the budget. It did make clear that Faculty 1 is not an administrative detail to be cut quietly.