Dear students!
As the General Student Council (AStA), the political, cultural, and social representative body for all HAW students, we invite you to kick off the 2026/27 winter semester with a critical start to the semester! Whether you’re upperclassmen or freshmen, we look forward to seeing you!
Below you’ll find the various events.
Your AStA
City Tour “Between the Elbe and the Epidemic”
Monday, 28 September 2026, meeting at 2:30 p.m., U/S Landungsbrücken, on the pedestrian bridge
Health is political. How can we help shape it?
These are some of the questions we will explore on this interactive walking tour through central Hamburg. At historically significant places, such as the meeting place of the White Rose resistance group in Hamburg, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, and Hamburg City Hall, we want to discover the history of public health together and discuss what we can learn from history for the present day – everyone is welcome!
The tour is organised by activists from the student council of the Faculty of Health Sciences at HAW Hamburg. Please register or deregister by email at leonie.corinth@haw-hamburg.de so that we can keep track of the number of participants and send out further information – but you are also welcome to join spontaneously!
Film Screening: “No Country for No One”
Tuesday, 29 September 2026, from 6:00 p.m., Room 1.10, Berliner Tor 5
No Country for No One – The Isolation of an Immigration Country sets out to explore the causes of this political turning point and takes viewers on a disturbing journey. The documentary begins at Europe’s external borders, where an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe meets state indifference, but also civic engagement. It follows a rescue mission in the Mediterranean, documents the catastrophic situation from the air, and tells the stories of survivors who made their way to Germany despite violence and deadly risks.
Afterwards, we want to discuss what we as students can do to help realise the consequences that were drawn from fascism and the two world wars – such as the full implementation of the fundamental right to asylum.
The 1933 Book Burnings: Where HAW Stands Today
As the Antifa Working Group, we are campaigning for a memorial!
Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 3:00 p.m., Meeting point: in front of Berliner Tor 5
In May 1933, fascist student organisations across Germany burned the works of humanist, pacifist and communist authors. The writings of Thomas Mann, Carl von Ossietzky, Rosa Luxemburg, Anna Seghers, Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Maria Remarque, Karl Marx and many others went up in flames. The fascists feared their enlightening ideas because they offered a vision of a more just and solidarity-based world. And because – then as now – they were uncomfortable and challenging.
On 30 May 1933, such a book burning took place on what was then known as the Lübecker Torfeld. Today, our HAW campus at Berliner Tor stands there! That is why, together with other groups and organisations in the city of Hamburg, we are campaigning for a memorial at this site.
We invite you to visit this historic location with us and discuss the importance of education and science in effectively opposing the political right. The election results in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin are a wake-up call for all of us.
With information about the history of the site and readings from literature that was burned!
Stop the Cuts! Banner Painting Against Underfunding #hawehrtsich
Wednesday, 30 September 2026, 1:00–4:00 p.m., Room 0.15 (Kontrabar), Alexanderstraße 1
HAW Hamburg has been severely underfunded for years, and further cuts have been announced. The negative consequences are already serious, not only on an individual level but also for society as a whole. Education, in the true sense of the word, does not mean collecting credit points by reproducing knowledge. Rather, it means actively shaping the conditions of all our lives – through science and through working together to develop solutions for peaceful, socially just and democratic development!
We demand funding for education instead of arms. Investment in social services instead of militarisation. Funding for culture instead of feeding Rheinmetall’s war industry. Together with other universities in Hamburg, we organised a wide range of protests last semester, including a demonstration attended by more than 7,000 people.
We want to build on this. Come along and get to know us while painting banners, listening to music and having some drinks!
Anti-Fascist Historical Campus Tour
Thursday, 1 October 2026, 2:00 p.m.
Meeting point: in front of Berliner Tor 5
With the enforced conformity and ideological coordination of universities and higher education institutions under fascism, the task of science – to “make the hardships of human existence easier” (Bertolt Brecht) – was turned on its head and transformed into the justification and facilitation of destruction and war.
One example is aircraft engineering, which was introduced as a degree programme at the predecessor institution of HAW Hamburg in 1935. There was resistance to this development – at the University of Hamburg, for example, the humanists of the Hamburg White Rose were active.
In order to stand up for anti-fascist science today, we need to become aware of our historical responsibility.
- What is the history of our degree programmes?
- What role did automotive engineering or social work play under fascism?
Together, we will follow in the footsteps of the predecessor institutions of HAW and learn from the past in order to shape a society based on solidarity today.
AStA Pub Quiz!
Thursday, 1 October 2026, 5:00 p.m. – BT 21, Room 503
How old is the university, anyway? What does AStA stand for? Puzzles and teamwork are a big part of student life – and, of course, of a pub quiz too!
Look forward to a fun evening with your fellow students and lots of questions about the university, Hamburg and more. Just drop by – no prior knowledge required!