The administration of the University of Hamburg has announced the withdrawal of the rooms for the conference "We want our World back", which is set to take place on campus from April 7 to 9, at such short notice and for political reasons. “Dr. Hauke Heekeren only took office last year - does he really want to use his tenure to serve political censorship?,” ask representatives of over 40,000 students.

In a statement expressing their rejection of the decision, AStA Universität Hamburg and Network for an Alternative Quest said the following:

“The conference, which more than 1300 people and world-famous scientists like John Holloway and speakers like María de Jesús Patricio Martínez will attend, is part of the series "Challenging Capitalist Modernity". It has been hosted at the University of Hamburg three times already, most recently in 2017, and is organized by the AStA of the University of Hamburg in cooperation with the Network for an Alternative Quest. Participants from academia, social movements, and the Hamburg student body will discuss pressing issues of our time such as the climate crisis, alternatives to capitalism, and patriarchal violence together in workshops and panel events. To enable international participation, the conference will be simultaneously translated into English, Kurdish, German, Turkish, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. This convergence space for science and civil society, as well as the truly international character of the conference are unique. However, the university president, Hauke Heekeren, does not seem to appreciate this pluralism. 

On March 28, the university administration prohibited the use of the rooms that had been granted well in advance. The reason provided was a warning from the intelligence service which accuses the AQ network of having relations with criminalized organizations, and on this basis incriminates the entire conference.

While there is still no committee of inquiry in Hamburg investigating the involvement of the intelligence service and the far-right terrorist group NSU, the same intelligence agency assumes the authority to narrow the spaces for critical discussions. It is an unparalleled scandal that the university administration does not defend the sovereignty of the university, but lets the intelligence service decide who is allowed to engage in academic debate. We are appalled by this attack on student self-governance, the autonomy of academia, and freedom of speech. The university president is mistaken in thinking that he can restrict scientific discourse on campus without consequences.

In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns, "The time bomb is ticking." The goal of limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees set in the Paris Agreement is likely to be missed in a few years from now. The IPCC identifies fossil capitalism as the main driver of the climate crisis. The University of Hamburg is now preventing one of the largest international conferences on this existential crisis - while boasting about its Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change, and Society". It is particularly unfortunate that Kurdish speakers, who are suffering from immense repression in Turkey, are also participating in the conference. Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan has always been defaming political opponents as "terrorists". From the university president Hauke Heekeren, however, we had expected a commitment to freedom of expression. 

All attempts on our part to hold talks with the university chair have been rejected or ignored. The university's decision has far-reaching consequences: nothing less than the freedom of science is at stake. Will it be possible to host critical scientific events challenging the status quo at the University of Hamburg in the future? We will not accept that the intelligence agency can dictate the content of an international scientific conference. It is up to us to defend academic freedom.

We urge the university administration to uphold the original agreement. We cannot let this unprecedented attack on academic freedom go unanswered. 

We want our world back! And our university!”