In 4 federal states (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia) student fees are already agreed on, in other states like Hamburg and Hessen fees will most likely decided on in the next weeks/months. If it goes by plan, 9 federal states will demand student fees per semester of at least 500 Euro (ca. $639), in Hamburg probably 735 Euro), at the beginning of the wintersemester 07/08. In some states universities can then decide if the really want to demand these fees, it's up to them, but as most universities face serious financial troubles many will happily agree on these fees.
The french protests some weeks ago inspired many here in germany. Over and over there are spontaneous demonstrations, i.e. in the towns of Muenster, Marburg, Giessen, Duisburg, Frankfurt and Kiel. Occupations of university-buildings in Cologne and Bochum increased the pressure, even if the police cleared the building in Cologne after 10 days. Strong messages to the government and the university-leadership were sent, as hundreds of students stormed or disrupted sessions of the academic senat in Cologne, Bonn and Bocum. In Cologne the president of the university could only "escape" by the help of the cops who beat many students on this day.
In Hamburg many participated in a "student block" on the mayday parade/demonstration behind the front-banner "Campus Guerilla" and showed their will for protest this year as well. A barricade-contest has been carried out and was later on tested in practical experience when the main university building was barricaded. The cooperation with pupils worked good: three streetblockades, several spontaneous demonstrations and a bigger demonstration together were a success. An ocupation of the supervisory school authority's building by ca. 100 pupils and students ended after 10 minutes as the cops arrested some of them and beat the rest and finally cleared the house, after an ID-check of every person.
In Frankfurt on the main, around 4.000 students marched through the city center, blocked several streets and built smaller barricades. An invasion of the main train station was only prevented by a massive police force. On the next day (May 12th) the students marched again and tried to storm a credit institute (one that soon will give credit to students). On the same day up to 100 people occupied the party headquarters of the FDP and in the towns of Siegen and Duisburg rectorates were stormed and occupied.
More to come in the next days and weeks...
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So..lets see, on may 11th the rectorate of the university in Duisburg was occupied by some hundreds students. Hours later the uni-chancelor called the police and so they came and began to brutally evict the building which lead to around 50 arrests. On the evening of the same day there was a solidarity concert outside the university building with the band "Boom Boom Kid" from argentina.