Berlin: (hib/CHA) The Federal Government has issued a response (20/12377) to the 100 questions of a minor inquiry (29/12244) of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on the so-called funding affair. The trigger was the actions of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) following pro-Palestinian protests at the Free University of Berlin. In an open letter, university lecturers had criticized the clearing of the protest camp. As a result, the BMBF was to investigate, among other things, who had signed the letter and received funding from the ministry.
According to the Federal Government’s response, State Secretary Sabine Döring commissioned a “broad legal review” of the open letter by telephone on May 13, 2024. The responsible departments of the BMBF understood this to mean that “both a legal review and an examination of possible funding law consequences should be carried out.” As the response goes on to say, State Secretary Döring did not intend to examine possible funding law consequences. In addition, the examination of funding law consequences was not pursued on the day it was initiated, writes the Federal Government.
Nevertheless, State Secretary Döring was temporarily retired. In its response, the federal government wrote that, given the “background and the process of coming to terms with the situation,” Stark-Watzinger had come to the conclusion “that a new start in terms of personnel was necessary.” As the response further shows, State Secretary Döring asked to be released from her duty of confidentiality on July 1 of this year.
The federal government also points out that the BMBF has not received any complaints from affected scientists. “However, there are currently around 70 requests for information” under the data protection regulation, writes the federal government, and it is not known whether they are related to the open letter.
