The Executive Board of Freie Universität Berlin recognizes the necessity for establishing a building society for universities (Hochschulbaugesellschaft, BHG) as well as the possibility to finance construction projects through loans. However, in following the ongoing discussion with regard to specific details of the plans, we have some serious concerns about the effects on employees of Freie Universität Berlin. In particular, this applies to how the backlog of renovation projects should be financed, the planned reduction in space, and a governance structure that does not adequately integrate the universities.

In our assessment, a new draft that is now the focus of the coalition partners’ negotiations either does not address those points at all or does not address them adequately. The Executive Board once again urges politicians to take the above-mentioned demands into account in further discussions and to appropriately take into account the needs of the universities.

The Executive Board, the Academic Senate, the Board of Trustees, and a majority of the employees worked together to include the following demands in the draft approved by the Senate’s committee on science on April 21, 2026:

• As a rule, building and property management should remain completely in the hands of the universities. For universities that cannot provide the corresponding services on their own, it should be possible to use such services from the BHG in accordance with their structures and needs.
• The universities must have voting rights in the BHG committees, not just an advisory role. That is the only way to ensure that the society is oriented toward the actual needs of the universities.
• Rental costs for university buildings must be guaranteed in the state budget. Shifting these costs into the university budgets would come at the expense of research and teaching, and is thus not sustainable.
• Goals to reduce space must not be set as a blanket reduction target, but must be based on the real needs of the universities.

The Executive Board wishes to thank all the employees of the university for their commitment so far and asks for their continued support in working constructively with the university management to implement these demands.

For more information about the building society for universities, see:

https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/haushaltskuerzungen-berliner-senat/hochschulbaugesellschaft/ 

In its meeting on June 17, 2026, the Academic Senate unanimously adopted the following statement: “The Academic Senate of Freie Universität Berlin supports the demands of the Executive Board [in its statement of June 17] and actively calls for protests against the Berlin Senate’s current plans with regard to a building society for universities.”