Neoliberalising the Fordist University: A Tale of Two Campuses in Frankfurt a. M., Germany Bernd Belina, Tino Petzold, J¨ urgen Schardt and Sebastian Schipper Institut f¨ ur Humangeographie, Goethe-Universit¨ at Frankfurt a. M., Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland; belina@uni-frankfurt.de Abstract: In 2009, the central building of the new IG Farben Campus of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (JWGU), Frankfurt, Germany was occupied by students protesting against the neoliberalisation of higher education. While similar occupations at the old Bockenheim Campus were usually tolerated, if not welcomed, by the university management, this time 176 students and members of staff were forcefully evicted after only 3 days, when the university’s presidential board called in the police. To better understand this way of ending such protest, a level of oppression almost unheard of at a German university in the last 20 years, we reconstruct the way in which JWGU, as part of the state apparatus university, has produced the two campuses as particular places that are bound up in and expressions of the national and local condensations of forces of Fordism and neoliberalism respectively. Keywords: neoliberalism, Fordism, state apparatus university, production of place Introduction Germany witnessed numerous student protests during the autumn of 2009 against structural reforms of the education system. These protests were generally received favourably by both media and politicians (cf Kultusministerkonferenz 2009). Temporary occupations of university buildings—a common and largely tolerated form of protest—took place alongside other actions in numerous cities. In Frankfurt am Main, a central building, the “Casino” 1 on the new IG Farben Campus of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (JWGU) was occupied. A series of alternative events took place in the occupied space, co-organised by numerous faculty and staff. Earlier occupations of the “Tower”, home of the social sciences located at the old Bockenheim Campus, while not welcomed by the university management, were tolerated. In contrast, the situation at the Casino escalated on the third day of the occupation in a manner that is probably unprecedented for a dispute at a German university in the last 20 years. A total of 176 students and members of staff were forcefully evicted by the police; the presidential board of JWGU, the highest authority of the university, filed a complaint to press charges and threatened with expulsion; the dean’s offices and faculties were put under pressure to distance themselves from the protesters; an aggressive media campaign (FASZ 13 December 2009; JWGU 2009) challenged the legitimacy of the elected and legally constituted Antipode Vol. 45 No. 3 2013 ISSN 0066-4812, pp 738–759 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01054.x C  2012 The Author. Antipode C  2012 Antipode Foundation Ltd.