Tens of thousands of German students marched on Bonn yesterday to protest against cuts in higher education in the biggest student demonstration in the city for 20 years. Students at 50 of Germany's 300 universities and third-level colleges are boycotting lectures and student leaders are planning to extend the protests.
Large banners draped over Bonn university's main building ridiculed the government's reforms, demanding that Mr Kohl and the education minister, Mr Juergen Ruettgers, be fined as they had spent eight and nine years at university, respectively.
In a free university system where less than one in 10 students receives state grants, the protesters demanded binding pledges that tuition fees would not be introduced. The situation at the moment is growing desperate, with 1.9 million studying in a university network designed to accommodate half that number.
"The politicians are just trying to exploit our protest, supporting us verbally, but doing nothing," said Mr Tom Weiler (25), a chemistry student from Koblenz, who said the state of dilapidation in his faculty is so advanced it rains through the roof of his laboratory.
There were smaller, satellite protests in other German cities yesterday, with students marching behind banners declaring "Education will be finished by the end of the millennium" and "Knowledge is dying".
Politicians of all parties expressed support for the students, who complain that spending cuts have led to inadequate libraries, antiquated laboratories, overcrowded lecture halls and over-stretched lecturers.
Senior politicians from the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens joined the march. The SPD chairman, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, blamed Chancellor Helmut Kohl's centre-right government for the problems in higher education.
But government ministers also took the side of the students, pointing out that education is the responsibility of Germany's federal states, most of which are governed by the Social Democrats.
The students are demanding more funding for the universities and colleges and a thorough overhaul of the system of state-funded student maintenance. Grants are currently calculated according to the income of a student's parents but the demonstrators insist all students should receive state support.
The protests have awakened memories of the great student protests of 1968 which shaped the generation of Germans who now occupy many influential positions.
Today's students are less politically aware than their predecessors, however, and their protests are focused exclusively on their own concerns. The 1968 protests were a revolt against the smug, prosperous society that emerged in Germany after the second World War, as well as being part of a worldwide youth rebellion.
Yesterday's student demonstrators in Bonn were thoroughly good-humoured, dancing to samba drums and singing witty pastiches of popular songs.
There was no violence or vandalism and, when the demonstration ended, police praised the disciplined behaviour of the protesters. That would not have happened in 1968.
