A doctoral student who is actually researching fish gets caught between the fronts of the gender debate. What follows is a discursive tragedy in which even the Federal Minister of Education does not look good.
Marie-Luise Vollbrecht, doctoral student at the Institute for Biology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, talks to visitors before the start of her lecture.
The biologist Marie-Luise Vollbrecht is a heroine, at least for the women in the second row of the lecture hall at Berlin’s Humboldt University. One of them wears a t-shirt that evening with the inscription: “Woman / noun / Adult Human Female”. In this context, the commitment to being a woman is a kind of political statement. The biologist entered the stage to loud applause. She looks very young with her dotted blouse and curly hair. Two make-up artists did Vollbrecht’s make-up, out of solidarity they did not ask for a fee.
At the beginning of July, the Humboldt University canceled a planned lecture by the doctoral student on gender biology at short notice – there are different statements as to whether it was canceled or just postponed. According to the acting president of the university, Peter Frensch, there were definitely security concerns. The “Working Group of Critical Lawyers” had registered a protest: If Vollbrecht stated that biologically there were only two sexes, then that was transphobic. The university should not simply give such “alleged facts” a stage.
Participants in a demonstration against the lecture by the biologist Vollbrecht as part of the “Long Night of Science” stand in front of the main building of the Humboldt University.
The activists of the “working group of critical lawyers” distribute leaflets before the panel discussion.
With their protest, however, the law students catapulted their fellow students onto an even bigger stage. And Berlin’s Humboldt University, which has a title of excellence associated with a lot of funding, found it difficult to explain. There was talk of academic “cancel culture” and threatened academic freedom, and even the Federal Minister of Education intervened. It should not be in the hands of activists which positions should be heard and which not, said FDP politician Bettina Stark-Watzinger in a warning.
On the very day her lecture was called off at the university, Vollbrecht presented it via live stream on YouTube. Since then, the video has been viewed more than 100,000 times; maybe 100 people would have listened to the analogue lecture. The young scientist, whom no one knew until recently, is suddenly at the center of a socio-political debate in which there is no mercy. She is “transphobic” to her opponents, but a heroine of common sense to her followers.
Biology class with police protection
Vollbrecht tweeted that she was overwhelmed by the many letters she received from scientists. They thanked her “for making her discomfort visible and for showing how such activists act”. In the end, Vollbrecht’s university was also impressed, and the biologist was allowed to give her lecture, to the displeasure of the critical lawyers.
A single police car stands in front of the entrance to the university during the event. The officials lean against their car, unperturbed. There is no sign of the feared protest, either inside or outside. Most of the audience is made up of journalists.
“I’m glad I’m not fainting with excitement,” says Vollbrecht before she gives her presentation. It’s about sea anemones, kiwis and germ cells. “The kiwi has no gender identity, it has a sex,” says the biologist, placing a foil with the blossoms of the kiwi fruit on top.
The media interest in Marie-Luise Vollbrecht’s lecture is great.
The young woman does not want to answer any questions either in front of or on stage, instead she offers to comment later on Twitter, provided that it is about biology.
Later in the conversation you only meet supporters. They think Vollbrecht is courageous, say some older women who are rolling cigarettes outside after the kiwi and germ cell presentation. The violence always comes from one side, says one of them – from the trans activists. The lady describes herself as a “radical feminist”. She thinks it’s sad that the university first gave in to the loud minority, says a student wearing Prada glasses.
Despite being invited, Vollbrecht did not want to take part in the panel discussion, which was taking place two kilometers away on the other campus of the Humboldt University. The podium was composed unbalanced.
The panel discussion takes place without Vollbrecht. The doctoral student justified her rejection by saying that the panel was too unbalanced.
The protest takes place between the two events in Berlin-Mitte and is very manageable. You can see about a dozen people, a few rainbow flags, and a pink placard that reads, “No place for transphobia.”
At the same time as Marie-Luise Vollbrecht’s lecture, several people demonstrated against “transphobia”.
The minister is happy
It looks completely different in the Audimax II on the north campus. The lecture hall, which can accommodate around 400 people, is full and the event is fully booked. “Opinion, freedom, science – how to deal with social controversies at universities” is the motto. The Federal Minister of Education, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, has the video added during the holidays. The gain in knowledge is of course limited.
She is happy about the discussion, says the FDP politician. Science must be free, but not free in the sense of defamation. However, that does not stop the activists present from accusing the biologist Vollbrecht of “queer” and “misanthropy”.
When asked whether it was right to initially cancel the lecture, the minister gave a tortuous answer. That was a decision that the university had to make for safety reasons, “probably even in a short period of time”. It is good that the general conditions have now been clarified. Not allowing an event that is on the program to take place “of course requires an explanation”.
Stark-Watzinger missed the opportunity to speak out clearly for freedom of speech and to oppose «cancel culture» in science.
In the Fritz-Reuter-Saal of the Humboldt University, Marie-Luise Vollbrecht gives her lecture entitled “Gender is not (gender) gender: sex, gender and why there are two genders in biology”.
For the audience at the lecture, Marie-Luise Vollbrecht is a star. For others it is a problem. One accusation is that she deliberately chose a topic outside of her doctoral thesis in order to present her political agenda at the “Long Night of Science”. In doing so, she abused the freedom of the university.
Rüdiger Krahe, Vollbrecht’s doctoral advisor and biology professor, and gender researcher Kerstin Palm are sitting across from each other on stage. “It was a basic course in biology,” says Krahe. “This basic course will not be in the textbooks in 2022,” counters Palm. According to the professor, the development of research in relation to biological sex is rapid.
What is Shaggy Tintling doing?
The audience reacts promptly with applause or boos. When Palm Vollbrecht accuses him of misusing biology, applause breaks out. Two girls in headscarves clap when Krahe emphasizes that there are only two genders.
The antipodes of Vollbrecht and Krahe represent the idea of polysexuality. In Kerstin Palm’s words: “There are mushrooms that have hundreds of genders, the shaggy Tintling has a thousand genders.” Someone in the audience shouts: “People are not mushrooms!”
Although Stark-Watzinger warns against defamation, this also takes place on stage: “It’s not the case that Marie-Luise Vollbrecht is an innocent scientist,” says Heiner Schulze. It ties in with “old, right-wing, right-wing extremist narratives”. The moderator asks back: “Who spoke, activist or scientist?” Both, Schulze replies. He is a social scientist and a member of the board of the Schwules Museum.
How do listeners, activists and the Minister of Education see the cancellation of the lecture?
The question remains as to what consequences the university now wants to draw from the Vollbrecht case. According to Peter Frensch, one would like to “screen better” posts in the future and optimize the selection of posts. If you take the president of the university at his word, then lectures like those by Marie-Luise Vollbrecht could be sorted out beforehand in the future.