Perpetrator-victim reversal at the TU
A university president is glued to her chair
A commentary by Volker Warkentin
12.06.2024, 10:30 a.m.
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Despite blatant misconduct, the President of the Technical University of Berlin refuses to resign. In doing so, Geraldine Rauch adds another ongoing mistake to her leadership failure.
The effectiveness of superglue is nothing compared to the binding power that keeps Geraldine Rauch glued to her chair as President of the Technical University of Berlin. How politically blinded must a German mathematics professor be to allow herself to be carried away by anti-Semitic statements almost 80 years after the end of the Holocaust and then not draw the consequences for her misconduct. But the TU’s committees have not covered themselves in glory in the affair either.
Rauch is under fire for liking anti-Semitic posts on the platform X. This included a photo showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with swastikas. The TU president later apologized and promised to deal with the issue. She refused to resign. Instead, Rauch requested disciplinary proceedings against herself.
But resignation would be the only and appropriate consequence of the university head’s leadership failure. By liking anti-Semitic posts, i.e. approving of them, she reversed the roles of perpetrator and victim. There are now good reasons to condemn the Israelis’ harsh actions in the Gaza Strip. But without the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, there would have been no war. And you can call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a corrupt criminal – he is not a genocide. Attacks on Palestinian civilians in Israel are uncovered by a free press and punished by a (still) independent judiciary. Not to forget: Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.
Rauch should have been aware of all this in order not to join forces with the pro-Palestinian activists who have been keeping universities in Germany on tenterhooks for weeks. It is not just Jewish students who no longer feel safe in Germany. The TU board of trustees also certified that Rauch had committed “blatant misconduct” that had caused great damage to the university. Nevertheless, the board is sticking with the president. A mistake: a leader who has behaved blatantly incorrectly must go. There is no other way to repair the damage that has been done.