Enlarge image
Student Linn: "Suddenly the affiliation was gone"
Photo: Vera Drebusch / DER SPIEGEL
The weather plays along, even in Hamburg.
The sun shines on the faces of the people who sit on the benches in front of the university.
It is October 11, 2021, the first day of lectures of the semester.
Linn walks up to us with a smile on her face.
"There have already been a lot of people on the bus and I thought: They must also go to university," says the 24-year-old, looking a little excited.
Today Linn is a freshman again, but it is also a special day for many other students.
Because for the first time since the pandemic, there will be face-to-face teaching again this semester.
The first day in attendance
Many universities have decided to run a university with a 3G regulation in the winter semester 2021/22.
Also the University of Hamburg.
At the beginning of September 2021, the Vice President announced a return to events on her premises.
How does it feel to be back on campus?
What is the first day after three semesters in front of the laptop like?
Linn starts her second bachelor's degree on this day.
At the beginning of September she only submitted her bachelor thesis in digital media at the University of Lüneburg and this winter semester starts with American and English studies.
"I wanted to do something again with the English language and literature," she says.
While she is telling this, a large building made of glass and steel towers up behind her in the City Nord, her new university.
Since the 2017/2018 winter semester, the Faculty of Humanities is no longer on the main campus of the University of Hamburg, but on the premises at Überseering 35, also known as Ü35.
“I'm most looking forward to going back on campus and meeting people,” says Linn.
She hope that "a little more lightness" will come back.
The past three semesters have not been easy for her.
When online teaching started in April 2020, she was in the fifth semester of her first bachelor's degree.
“Somehow one has become estranged from one another.
I even had a lecturer who didn't even turn on his camera, ”says Linn, shaking his head.
Fortunately, she lived in a 3-person shared apartment at the time and was able to meet one of her roommates to study at the kitchen table.
"I don't know what else I would have done," she says.
Nevertheless, these semesters did not feel really like studying.
“Suddenly the affiliation was gone.
I always enjoyed being on campus and identified myself as a student. "
Mask and passport compulsory
Now Linn is walking towards the entrance of her new university.
Two men are standing in front of the door of the Ü 35 and are talking to each other.
One of them has pushed his mask under his chin so that it can be put back on his mouth and nose right away.
Because wearing a mask is compulsory in all rooms of the University of Hamburg.
The notices on the signs at the entrance cannot be overlooked.
Anyone who walks through the revolving door wearing a mask ends up in a large foyer with many elevators and smooth gray walls.
The students share the building with companies, an IT service provider and the police recruitment office are also located here. Perhaps that is why the atmosphere is more reminiscent of an office complex than a university campus.
In the foyer, people sit in leather armchairs, look at their smartphones and don't say a word.
The only sentences are spoken by a man behind a glass wall at reception.
He steers those entering from the revolving door to the left around the corner.
There you can get the Campus Pass.
The Campus Pass.
It is the solution of the University of Hamburg to make campus operations pandemic-proof.
If you want to take part in face-to-face events, you can pick it up at the university by appointment using a QR code and thus prove that you have been vaccinated, recovered or tested.
The person has to refresh the latter every 24 hours; those who have been vaccinated or recovered only need to register once.
How the universities implement the 3G principle is up to them. The University of Hamburg is not the only one that uses its own evidence for this. At the University of Mannheim, for example, there is a lecture hall pass. The Fulda University of Applied Sciences checks the evidence directly in the Corona app. The University of Hanover uses ribbons in different colors for each status and even got a little shit storm on Twitter for it.
Linn is vaccinated and has an appointment for her passport at 11.30am.
A man behind a plexiglass wall waves her over.
When she slides her smartphone with the QR code through the slot, he lifts it up in front of a camera lens on his laptop.
It takes a moment, then she is checked in and holds her Campus Pass in her hand on the device.
"But I don't understand why this pass exists," she says.
During the orientation week, proof of vaccination via app was sufficient.
The passports of men in vests are checked with signal colors.
They are patrolling the campus this winter semester.
The university has hired external staff for this purpose.
New semester, old problems
Linn could now sit in a lecture hall with her passport. But there is another problem:
She did not get
into her desired lecture,
Introduction to British Literature and Culture
. Because even if a lot is new in this winter semester, little has changed in the old structures. Courses and lectures are chosen online, the lot then decides who gets which courses - or the technology. "The site kept crashing," Linn says. “I received a lot fewer courses than I wanted.” Although the university has planned to have as much presence as possible, a number of events are still offered digitally. "I would say the distribution in my degree program is 50:50," says Linn.
But even without a lecture: She still wants to take a look at the campus to find the space for her first event.
"Then I already know where to go," she says.
more on the subject
Universities in the Corona Shutdown: Research and Emptiness By Kristin Haug, Armin Himmelrath and Marie-Charlotte Maas
Advantages of the online semester: Heavenly peace by Helene Flachsenberg
Their way leads them through empty corridors and finally in front of a locked door.
Linn looks a little disappointed.
"It doesn't really feel like presence yet," she says.
That's correct.
The ground floor of the building looks abandoned.
Does anyone even go to an event here?
The cafeteria offers normality
One floor below it looks different.
The faculty's lecture halls are in the basement, where more people are walking down the corridors.
Torn pieces of paper with information for the coming semester hang on a board.
Here and there there is a flyer for an event that says "Culture opens" on one, it advertises concerts on the main campus.
All of this, of course, in addition to the advice to keep a distance of 1.5 meters.
A group of women are seated at a table in front of the entrance to the cafeteria.
One of them is holding an iPad.
While she is talking to her friends through the mask, the video call is running for a lecture.
Maybe this is a look into the future?
Will students soon be meeting on campus after the pandemic to watch a digital lecture on the side?
Enlarge image
In the campus café: Almost like in the past
Photo: Vera Drebusch / DER SPIEGEL
However, time has stood still in the cafeteria and café at Überseering 35.
"In any case, they haven't changed," says Linn, pointing to a ciabatta roll topped with tomato and mozzarella.
Such rolls were also available at her old university.
"I feel at home there."
The coffee also looks as if he had spent three semesters in the machine.
It bubbles black and hot from the machine and tastes far too bitter.
"At least you can rely on the bad coffee," says Linn and laughs.
But for 1.20 euros a cup, nobody can complain.
And maybe it is because of such familiar details that it now looks like it did before the pandemic.
With their cups in hand, students stand outside in the backyard of the café, pulling on their cigarettes and drinking bad coffee.
Nobody has a mask on.
People stretch their faces in the last rays of the sun in October.
When Linn makes her way home again, she has a good feeling.
She is looking forward to the semester.
And forges plans: “Maybe I'll be involved in the specialist group.
Just to get to know a few people more directly. ”Because that doesn't work so well on a day like today on campus.