Gregor Gysi at Start Week 2025: ‘Apply pressure!’

The Libeskind Auditorium is filled to capacity. No one wants to miss the opportunity to hear Gregor Gysi speak. When the Vice-President of the College, Prof. Dr. Jelena Bäumler, opens the discussion, numerous hands immediately raise. Many first-year students take the opportunity to talk to Gregor Gysi.

One student asks: ‘How can we prevent people from voting for the AfD?’ Among other things, lawyer and politician Gregor Gysi advocates for greater social and spatial integration of people with and without foreign roots and calls for the abolition of the employment ban. ‘We must give people work as quickly as possible. Then integration will be easier,’ he argues.

This statement is not the only one to be met with applause. Gysi is one of the most famous speakers in Germany and takes a lot of time to answer questions from the audience. A student raises the issue of the continuing inequality between East and West. Gysi replies: "The problem with reunification was that the federal government couldn't stop celebrating its victory. They reduced the GDR to wall deaths, state security and the SED – that needs to be addressed. But no one was interested in life in the GDR. Many things that worked well were not recognised: equality, childcare or a society that kept things instead of throwing them away. They adopted the traffic light man, the sandman and the green turn arrow. In doing so, they told the East Germans: “That's all you've achieved.” The AfD, on the other hand, is not purely an East German phenomenon: ‘In absolute terms, there are more voters in the West.’

Things also get personal this afternoon, which marks the end of the kick-off week. A political science student wants to know: ‘How do you not lose hope, Mr Gysi?’ He replies: ‘I am a functional optimist. It is important to remain optimistic. If you have no hope, you give up.’ In conclusion, Gysi makes an urgent appeal to the young audience: ‘Put pressure on the old guard in the Bundestag to finally focus on the future.’

The topic of ‘cooperation’ that Gysi addressed was the focus of the entire opening week. In around 90 working groups, the first-year students had grappled with socio-political issues. ‘We wanted to raise big questions during the opening week. I am very curious to see if you have found answers to some of these questions,’ said full-time Vice-President Christian Brei, leading into the presentation of short videos made by students – creatively implemented with theatre scenes, stop-motion animations or interviews on topics such as citizen participation, ecology or reusable systems.

Student Johanna Schoele created a special moment. She is one of around 100 tutors who accompanied the new students through the opening week week. The student stands alone on stage, wearing jeans and a Leuphana hoodie; in her hand she holds a sheet of paper with thoughts that she presents on behalf of all tutors. The last lines of the poetry slam read:

„It’s still Friday, altogether in the auditorium, at the end of the opening week.
But we are also at a beginning.
And there is so much more good sh… to come.“