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Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU): Hopefully she will come to a more realistic self-assessment at some point.
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance / dpa
One of the most terrible expressions in the German language is undoubtedly "Apprenticeship years are not master years". One can recite this phrase from hell so beautifully, mockingly precociously. It is a homicide claim to nip any objection to precarious apprenticeships in the bud. From it speaks an "only the tough come into the garden" attitude, which interprets career as a competition in which you not only have to qualify but also have to fight for your own position. Competitors have to be defeated who fall by the wayside with less breath.
For people who not only say such sentences, but believe in them, the systematic exploitation of young professionals seems to be part of a normal life cycle. Basically it is still the same logic as in the case of antediluvian cabin boy servant contracts: You first have to pay in advance (and also in advance payment) in order to get the vague prospect of adequate treatment and remuneration at some point later. At best, it will continue somewhere beyond the horizon.
In science and at German universities, too, this form of exploitation can be found in an institutionalized form, stipulated by the so-called "Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz" (WissZeitVG).
Above all, this ensures permanent insecure working conditions for young academics, for mid-level doctoral students and postdocs, as it allows academic employers to hold positions permanently for a limited period.
Using the hashtag #IchbinHanna, scientists who have just completed their doctorate and / or have been doing their doctorate have been talking about their working conditions, about their life in a limbo between consolation, promise and consumption, since mid-June.
»I'm Alina, 27. By 2050, antibiotic-resistant germs could become the leading cause of death worldwide. As part of my doctorate, I am researching antibiotic-producing bacteria -> for new antibiotics. Financing is available for 2 years, then ALG I? «
»I'm Barbara, a Germanist, postdoc, for 12 years in the same (half) position on a temporary basis. Run the theater at my university (actually full-time job), no time for my own research. Overworked & tired. Single mother. Current contract = probably the last. #I'm hanna"
I'm Marcel, 39, a political scientist, doing my doctorate, habilitation. I research the stability of democracies and the effects of populism. I have over 12 years of experience in university teaching. The BMBF is happy when I'm rid of me. #I'm hanna
This hashtag was initiated by Dr. Amrei Bahr (Research Associate at the Institute for Philosophy at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf), Dr. Kristin Eichhorn (Research Associate and Private Lecturer at the Institute for German Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Paderborn) and Dr. Sebastian Kubon (Research Associate at the History Department of the University of Hamburg), who initiated the # 95vsWissZeitVG campaign in 2020.
Hanna, on the other hand, is an animated character from a humorous, now deleted explanatory video from 2018 by the Federal Ministry for Research and Education, which explains the Science Term Contract Act.
Using the fictional biologist Hanna, it is explained how her fixed term ensures that "not one generation clogs all jobs".
Because, as we learn, this leads to more fluctuations and promotes innovative strength.
The video does not mention that these workers are also cheaper and the only way to keep the scientific business running.
One might think that this debate only affects a small professional group and that it is therefore an exaggeration to mention it in a column.
Nothing is as far from you as the complaints of others.
However, if you notice how the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the responsible minister Anja Karliczek react to them, you become aware of what a crude, exploitative understanding of science, education and generally of professional advancement is being sold here as justifiable.
The really tough ones always find a garden?
Because in a conversation published on Tuesday with the Physics Nobel Laureate Reinhard Genze as part of the series of talks by the Ministry of Education “Karliczek meets”, the minister explained - and you really have to look at it to believe it - that basically the problem of fixed-term employment contracts not the contracts, but the workers who do not realistically assess their abilities. In other words: The really tough will always find a garden.
In the sense of this admission, one could euphemistically claim: The criticism of underpayment stems solely from an overestimation of oneself - which in a next step would mean, however, that systematic underpayment and time limits are legitimate and only from the perspective of the self-inflation of individuals who do not do enough or should be underqualified, is perceived as inadequate.
Karliczek claims that after a realistic self-assessment you can think about the “follow-up use” together with the “doctoral supervisor” (a term that is just as obsolete as an antediluvian ship boy servant's contract).
In combination with the vocabulary, I am shocked at the disregard with which a minister of education can speak of people;
this notion of supposedly vain academics who should "not clog up places" and "be used elsewhere".
This speaks not only of a devaluation towards the researchers, but also towards the research itself.
And that from the Minister of Research.
Hopefully she will come to a more realistic self-assessment at some point.
