Incident on July 11, 2024
An incident occurred on July 11, 2024, within the context of a meeting that had been scheduled long in advance and that was to take place between the president of Freie Universität Berlin, members of the Executive Board, and student representatives from the AStA General Students’ Committee. The private meeting was held in the president’s office. The representatives from AStA had asked in advance if they could bring a person with them to the meeting who is facing criminal charges. The Executive Board agreed to this request. This person was not known to the president before the incident. At first, the person in question was contributing to the conversation with the AStA representatives, though they were pointedly more aggressive in their tone.
At one point during the meeting, the person suddenly stood up and, with their smartphone in hand, began filming as they proceeded to throw liquid at the president and yell at him. As this behavior is unacceptable, the person was immediately instructed to leave the building.
Having conferred with the AStA representatives who were present, Freie Universität Berlin determined that they too were surprised by this person’s actions and had no knowledge to suggest that they were planning to carry out this assault.
“Freie Universität Berlin must be a place where all students and employees – no matter where they come from and what they believe in – feel safe at all times. We will continue to engage in dialogue and seek to create a space that promotes dialogue. That is one of our core responsibilities as an institution. Dialogue is simply not possible with individuals who use violence or who endorse violence or aggression on campus or against members of our university, or who do not distance themselves from such actions. We call on members of our university to follow the well-established principles of respectful, open, and responsible dialogue.”