For TU President Geraldine Rauch, an event about Islamist violence is racist – now Jewish and Kurdish associations are demanding her resignation

Geraldine Rauch wants to be vigilant. Vigilant against anything she considers right-wing. In a speech to new employees, the president of TU Berlin once declared that her university positions itself "clearly against the right." Anyone who notices such tendencies should report them to the university administration.

However, the left-wing university president has repeatedly lost her way in her mission. She has tangentially described the "Network for Academic Freedom," which opposes ideologized research, as anti-democratic and close to the AfD. This, despite the fact that numerous renowned scientists and TU employees are involved there.

At the same time, with her supposed vigilance, Rauch fosters a climate in which anti-Semites and enemies of democracy feel at home. This is demonstrated by the recent scandal surrounding an event at the TU that addressed Islamist violence. At the invitation of the General Student Committee (AStA), the Jewish-Kurdish women's group Pek Koach presented a brochure entitled "Voices Against Islamism" on October 15. It addresses the "disenfranchisement of women as a core Islamist concern," the persecution of Assyrians, and the "long arm of Turkish right-wing extremism in Germany."

That the problems described are real should be clear to any enlightened person. Not so for Geraldine Rauch. In an email to the AStA, which was published by the newspaper "Die Welt ," the university president expressed her concern that the organizers were stirring up "anti-Muslim sentiment." She also called on the AStA to "closely monitor" the event and "intervene in the event of anti-Islamic statements." As a precautionary measure, she "clearly" distanced herself from the event.

The worldview the mathematician reveals in this letter is widespread at universities. Criticism of religious fanatics who harbor explicit genocidal intentions against Jews, Yazidis, and other minorities is considered right-wing and racist in this seemingly progressive worldview. This apparently even applies to criticism of Turkish right-wing extremists.

Also indicative of this attitude is the fact that groups like Not In Our Name are allowed to agitate at TU Berlin without interference from the university administration, even when they share calls celebrating the October 7 massacre as a "beacon of revolutionary hope." Not In Our Name also mobilized against the Islamism event organized by the group Pek Koach—and thus evidently found a listening ear with Geraldine Rauch.

Rauch herself has repeatedly attracted attention with expressions of sympathy for Islamist and anti-Israel propaganda. Among other things, she liked tweets that, as she later admitted in an apology, were "anti-Semitic in content or origin." Even then, there was criticism and calls for her resignation, including from the Academic Senate. Following her most recent intervention, the president is once again facing calls for her resignation from all sides.

The Kurdish Community in Germany accuses her of fueling "prejudices against threatened minorities" and legitimizing "fascist" Islamist ideologies. Kurt Kutzler, president of the TU Berlin from 2002 to 2010, also called on Rauch to resign, arguing that she has caused "serious damage" to the university. In the "Die Welt" newspaper, the president of the Jewish Student Union of Germany accuses her of endangering Jewish students and academic freedom. For the "FAZ" newspaper, the TU Berlin is a "bastion of the counter-enlightenment."

Whether these appeals will have an impact remains to be seen. Rauch plans to run for re-election at the end of November. When she took office in 2022, the university praised her for her hands-on, "unconventional" nature and her "lively laugh." She herself emphasized her commitment to diversity and social cohesion.

Viewed objectively, Rauch is a typical representative of a milieu that desperately wants to be on the right side of history this time. And yet again, it's on the wrong side.