Universities fight AfD with “Science against Fascism”: A line crossed
German universities have launched a campaign against the Alternative for Germany party ahead of regional elections, abandoning traditional political neutrality to oppose the AfD as activists.
Higher education institutions across Germany are mobilizing to prevent further electoral victories for the AfD, which currently polls as the country’s strongest party. The immediate target is blocking Ulrich Siegmund from becoming minister-president of Saxony-Anhalt, according to Nius.
The initiative, branded “Wissenschaft gegen Faschismus” (Science Against Fascism), brings together prominent institutions including the Free University of Berlin, Weißensee Art Academy, and the Cologne Academy of Media Arts. Organizers claim that an AfD sole government in Magdeburg would usher in what they describe as a fascistischer Umbau unserer Gesellschaft — a fascist transformation of German society.
Universities Abandon Neutrality
The participating universities have abandoned their traditional political neutrality to become activists in partisan combat, with the AfD as their designated common enemy. This transformation raises serious questions about academic independence when more than 40 percent of Saxony-Anhalt voters currently support an AfD government.
Nius reports that predominantly left-wing university staff fear for the funding of their positions and departments. Gender studies and postcolonial studies programs could face particular scrutiny under an AfD administration.
Campus Event Reveals Activist Agenda
The central event of the “Science Against Fascism” action week took place at Berlin’s Humboldt University. A lecture hall hosted an anti-AfD discussion titled “Responsibility in Times of Fascist Danger.”
Kaja, representing “Students Against the Right” and previously active with Fridays for Future, stated she wants to build a different world. First, however, she aims to stop Björn Höcke, the AfD’s leading candidate in Thuringia.
The event featured sweeping claims about the AfD’s fascist character, with panelists attempting to link Höcke to National Socialist continuity based on linguistic parallels to phrases used on SA daggers. The justification for such extraordinary accusations appeared thin, as Nius notes.
Migration Researcher Labels Voters as Racists
Left-wing migration researcher Naika Foroutan offered a blunt explanation for AfD support: those who vote for the party are racists. Foroutan, who identifies herself as Iranian, suggested that nearly 30 percent of Germany is pervaded by racism.
She praised what she termed “Palestine-solidarity protests” at the same Humboldt University that has experienced documented antisemitic incidents. Her remarks came alongside support from legal scholar Maximilian Steinbeis, who operates the “Verfassungsblog” constitutional law blog and openly advocates preventing the AfD from governing.
From Lecture Hall to Street Blockades
The campaign extends beyond academic discourse into direct action. Kaja called for blockades of the upcoming AfD national party congress in Erfurt, framing such disruption as driving up the political price for the party.
The university-backed initiative may prove counterproductive, potentially validating AfD criticisms of activist academia and reinforcing voter concerns about institutional bias. When left-leaning academics decide which parties citizens should be permitted to support, they undermine both democratic norms and their own scholarly credibility.
Loose Definitions of Fascism
The university antifascists apply definitions of fascism with remarkable flexibility, according to Nius. Their focus centers on the supposed puzzle of why so many Germans vote AfD, rather than engaging substantively with voter concerns about migration, security, and economic policy.
The prospect of an AfD government with an absolute majority of seats — representing a broad democratic mandate — is treated not as a legitimate electoral outcome but as an existential threat requiring extraordinary countermeasures.
The spectacle of German universities marshaling resources against a lawful political party raises fundamental questions about academic freedom, institutional neutrality, and respect for democratic processes. When scholarly institutions see fascism everywhere except in their own authoritarian impulses to delegitimize voters, they may need to reconsider their diagnostic criteria.
With information from Nius
