https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/08/21/18879159.php
Science in lockstep
Anyone aspiring to a professorship in economics should not question certain basic capitalist assumptions.
“Art and science, research and teaching are free,” states Article 5 of the German Basic Law. But as is so often the case, the reality is that something may be enshrined in law, but social reality often looks very different. There are no official statutes stating that, for example, only market-based arguments may be used in economics, but anyone who questions the basic assumptions of financial capitalism quickly comes up against invisible walls. The result is a certain homogeneity of opinion in the faculties, which runs counter to true academic freedom. The state university system in its current form leads to a lack of freedom—and this at a historic moment when freedom of intellectual life would be enormously important for the improvement of our community at all levels.
by Christian Kreiß
[This article posted on 6/7/2025 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.manova.news/artikel/wissenschaft-im-gleichschritt.]
In view of increasing attacks by the new US administration on academic freedom at American universities (1) and efforts to abolish civil clauses at German universities or to conduct research for military purposes under political pressure (2), we can ask the question: How free are German colleges and universities really?
From the “intellectual regime of the House of Hohenzollern” to the “integrity checks” and “liquidation” of GDR scientists in 1990
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In 2009, the well-known historian Heinrich August Winkler described the history of independence at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he himself taught from 1991 to 2007, as follows:
“The university reached the height of its worldwide reputation around 1900—just at the time when, according to the infamous words of the rector at the time in 1870, it was supposed to be the ‘spiritual bodyguard of the House of Hohenzollern.’ During World War I, this statement came close to reality. Even in the Weimar Republic, the university certainly could not have been described as liberal. After 1933, it did not find it particularly difficult to submit to the dictates of National Socialism, including the expulsion of all Jewish and left-wing professors and students. After the Second World War, this was soon followed by the expulsion of all those who rebelled against the Marxist-Leninist understanding of science.” (3)
In 1990, a massive purge began again at the universities of the GDR, known as the “liquidation” (4). Unpopular professors were expelled from the university system en masse.
Shortly after reunification, so-called “integrity checks” began, i.e., ideological and political evaluations of academics (5).
Shortly thereafter, virtually all university teaching positions were re-advertised. Under the headline “Purging,” the “Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik” wrote in 1991 that between January and August 1990 alone, a total of 1,504 university teachers were dismissed in the GDR, only 506 of whom were from the field of Marxism-Leninism.
“Essentially, the social sciences, economics, law, and humanities departments and institutes were eliminated—before any evaluation took place” (6).
According to this, 600 academics were dismissed from Humboldt University in 1990 alone.
What is the state of academic freedom today?
Let’s take a look at our academic system today. The Faculty of Economics will be used to illustrate how the selection processes work. However, the processes are very similar in most other faculties.
How do you get a professorship in economics in Germany today? For universities, you usually need a habilitation, while a doctorate plus five years of professional experience is sufficient for a position at a university of applied sciences.
How do you become a doctor?
How do you become a doctor in economics? To do this, you normally need a primary and secondary supervisor, two habilitated university professors who write two references. In addition, the doctoral committee or the faculty must approve. Once the dissertation is complete, it is defended or discussed in front of members of the faculty. In short: at least two people, but usually considerably more, must agree with the content of the doctoral thesis or must not vote against it in the committees.
What are the requirements in terms of content? Officially, the content is of course completely up to the doctoral candidate and their supervisor. Unofficially, however, there are considerable constraints on the choice of topic. This is because virtually all models, analyses, and explanatory approaches used in today’s Western economy are based on a relatively small number of ideological axioms:
The glorious seven economic axioms
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– Compound interest is good, right, and important.
– Property rights are important and right (property rights theory).
– Companies must maximize their profits.
– Competition and rivalry are important and good.
– Insatiability.
– Consumers follow the model of homo economicus, are rational, and maximize their utility (utilitarianism).
– The invisible hand of the market ensures that the selfish behavior of individual market participants (households and companies) is transformed into the common good.
Science or worldview?
These seven basic assumptions, on which practically all of our economic theory is based today and on which all of our textbooks and scientific essays are built, are not science, but worldview.
One could, for example, take completely different basic assumptions as a starting point. Instead of greed and insatiability, one could, for example, write Gandhi’s famous quote as a guiding principle in economics textbooks:
“The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed.” (7)
Or statements by Lao Tzu:
“There is no greater sin than to have many desires; there is no greater evil than to be never satisfied; there is no greater mistake than to want to have.” (8)
Our economic models would then produce completely different results.
Instead of competition, we could emphasize cooperation, as Christian Felber does so convincingly (9).
Instead of unlimited accumulation of property, we could introduce an upper limit on property. Christian Felber proposes 10 million euros (10).
Instead of maximizing profits for private shareholders, cooperative models and public welfare-oriented foundations could be proposed as business models for companies (11). Or simply, as was still common in the early 1980s when I studied economics: that the purpose of companies is simply to provide good products and services and not to maximize profits.
Instead of compound interest, we could teach Silvio Gesell’s idea that money should not generate interest income but should systematically decrease in value, i.e., free money or demurrage money instead of our current fiat money (12).
Instead of maximizing utility and utilitarianism, as propagated above all by Nobel Prize winner in economics Gary Becker, consideration, compassion, and humanity could be promoted.
In short, one could basically assume the exact opposite of all the above axioms. For this is not a matter of science, but of worldview, of religious or irreligious fundamental beliefs.
No academic career if you violate the seven axioms
Anyone who violates these fundamental ideological assumptions will not receive a doctorate. I personally know two very intelligent people who criticized profit maximization and compound interest in their doctoral theses. The result: both dissertations were rejected by their university supervisors. That was the end of their academic careers.
In Germany—and, in my opinion, in most other Western industrialized countries—you don’t normally become a professor of economics if you violate even one of the basic axioms, let alone if you question several of them. This means that our economics departments are populated almost exclusively by people who adhere to the seven axioms above. Anyone who thinks differently will not be awarded a doctorate, let alone a postdoctoral qualification.
But the ideological divide cuts off thoughts in the mind much earlier. Even a master’s thesis or bachelor’s thesis that questions the above seven axioms is virtually impossible in our economics faculties today.
The “integrity test” of 1990 continues
De facto, our current economics education system still conducts an “integrity test” similar to the one administered to academics in the GDR in 1990. Anyone who violates the seven axioms is considered lacking in integrity, is denied a bachelor’s or master’s degree, a doctorate, or a postdoctoral qualification, and cannot become a university professor.
De facto, there is no pluralistic economy in Germany—and presumably in most other Western countries—nor is there academic freedom in the sense that one is free to choose one’s field of research. Instead, research areas are subject to strict ideological preselection.
State coercion instead of academic freedom
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What are the reasons for this? The state coercion of our higher education landscape.
1. The establishment of a university is subject to very strict government regulations. It must be recognized by the relevant state authority for science and higher education. Numerous conditions must be met. Among other things, new universities must be accredited. These strict requirements make it almost impossible to establish a new university in Germany.
2. Existing degree programs must be accredited on a regular basis. This accreditation task is carried out on behalf of the state, which is not in a position to assess the content, by professors from other, related degree programs at other universities or by external professional accreditation agencies. Both the fellow professors and the agencies are guided by the seven basic axioms. Anyone who violates one or more of the seven basic assumptions is not accredited and can therefore no longer teach.
Interim conclusion
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The result shows that it would be a big mistake to believe that our academic system today is free and tolerant. Our current higher education system, which is subject to state supervision and coercion, ultimately leads to the same thorough elimination of dissenters as in the days of the GDR. Only the approach and methods are much more subtle and intelligent.
Unpopular, dissenting, controversial, or non-mainstream scientists have no chance of climbing the academic ladder in economics departments today.
How many chairs of Marxism, Gesell, three-part division, and common good are there at our universities and colleges? If you take an insider’s look behind the scenes of our universities, it becomes clear that our state university system is anything but free and tolerant.
What can be done?
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It would be incredibly easy and certainly much cheaper than the current bureaucratic and inefficient state university system to set up a free and tolerant education system. For example, through education vouchers for all students:
Every young person who is qualified to study would receive a monthly education voucher, for example in the amount of the current actual monthly costs of studying, and could use it to apply to the university or college of their choice. If they are accepted, the university would receive payment through the voucher.
The establishment of universities will be de-bureaucratized and simplified. The institutions responsible for universities must be based on the principles of the Basic Law and may not operate for profit, but rather as non-profit limited liability companies or in another non-profit legal form. We no longer need ministries of science. This saves costs and, above all, a huge amount of bureaucracy.
The establishment of new universities under the voucher system would ensure that the educational and scientific competition between universities would ensure that the best ones prevail. These are likely to be the ones with the best university teachers and the most and best applicants. Within a few years, it will become clear to companies and the civil service which universities produce the most suitable graduates.
All types of state-mandated accreditation—which are usually bureaucratic, lengthy, inefficient, and restrictive—will become superfluous. Good, free universities will produce good, free graduates who will also prove themselves in business and public service.
Let us give our young people back the chance to receive a free, pluralistic, comprehensive, and tolerant education! Let us educate our young people to become strong, independent thinkers! Let us introduce an independent, free, and tolerant higher education system!
Sources and notes:
(1) https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/trumps-angriffe-auf-die-universitaeten-100.html
(2) https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=133122; https://www.zeit.de/news/2024-03/11/hochschulen-sollen-sich-militaerischer-forschung-oeffnen?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(3) https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/geist-des-neuanfangs-4513684.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(6) https://www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/1991/februar/von-der-evaluation-zur-liquidation?utm_source=chatgpt.com Emphasis added by CK
(8) https://schuledesrades.org/public/taoteking/sdr-q-5-4-46
(9) Compare Felber, Christian, Economy for the Common Good: The Alternative Economic Model for Sustainability, 2010, Deuticke, Vienna
(10) Ibid
(11) Compare Siebenbrock, Heinz/Kreiß, Christian, Blenden Wuchern Lamentieren — Wie die Betriebswirtschaftslehre zur Verrohung der Gesellschaft beiträgt (Blinding, Proliferating, Lamenting — How Business Administration Contributes to the Brutalization of Society), Munich and Berlin 2019
(12) Gesell, Silvio, The Natural Economic Order Through Free Land and Free Money, first published in 1916, or Helmut Creutz, The Money Syndrome — Paths to a Crisis-Free Market Economy, first published in 1993
(13) https://www.plurale-oekonomik.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Impulspapier2020.pdf
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Christian Kreiß, born in 1962, studied and earned his doctorate in economics and economic history at LMU Munich. He worked as a banker for nine years, including seven years as an investment banker. Since 2002, he has been a professor of business administration with a focus on investment, finance, and economics. He is the author of seven books. His most recent publication is “Gekaufte Wissenschaft” (Bought Science). He has been invited to the German Bundestag three times as an independent expert (Green Party, Left Party, SPD) and has given numerous television, radio, and magazine interviews, lectures, and published articles. Kreiß is a member of ver.di and Christians for a Just Economic Order. Further information is available at menschengerechtewirtschaft.de.