The General Student Committee (AStA) at the University of Hamburg failed in its attempt to legally force the university to provide rooms for a conference. The Hamburg Administrative Court rejected the AStA’s urgent application against the university on Thursday, the court told the German Press Agency. Originally, the AStA and its partners wanted to hold the conference “We want our world back” over the Easter weekend with around 1,300 guests in the Audimax. After indications by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution that it was close to the banned PKK Workers’ Party, the university withdrew the permit that had already been granted on Monday at short notice.
The urgent application was rejected because the revocation notice was in all likelihood lawful, the court said. The university rightly assumed that there was an impending violation of public safety because the event was expected to contain advertising content for the PKK. The AStA can lodge a complaint with the Hamburg Higher Administrative Court against the decision.
A spokesman said that the university had revoked the approval after receiving more information about the background to the event, the cooperation partner and individual content. Among other things, the lawyer of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, Ebru Günay, should appear. The spokesman also pointed out that events with a party political orientation are not permitted at the university.
According to information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the event network consists of several groups close to the PKK, such as the international initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan – Peace in Kurdistan”, the Association of Students from Kurdistan YXK or the Kurdish Center for Public Relations Civaka Azad.
The conference, which is expected to include Irish-Mexican political scientist John Holloway and the first indigenous presidential candidate for the 2018 presidential election in Mexico, María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, is part of the series “Challenging Capitalist Modernity”. The AStA announced that the event would definitely take place, if not at the university then at the community center in Wilhelmsburg.
