Education in Germany
Public universities in Germany are funded by the federal states and do not charge tuition fees. However, all enrolled students do have to pay a semester fee ("Semesterbeitrag"). This fee consists of an administrative fee for the university (only in some of the states), a fee for "Studentenwerk", which is a statutory student affairs organization, a fee for the university's AStA ("Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss", students' government) and "Studentenschaft" (students' union), at many universities a fee for public transportation, and possibly more fees as decided by the university's students' parliament (e.g., for a cooperation with a local theater granting free entry for students). Summed up, the semester fee usually ranges between €150 and €350.
Public Health Postgraduates Germany
The University of Kassel was chosen because of its geographical location in the heart of Germany, but also because of personal contacts to the faculty. Since 1987, the University of Kassel was very active researching the philosophical consequences of the Holocaust within Germany itself. The stood in the tradition of the in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1974, historian Fred Rosenbaum founded Lehrhaus Judaica in Berkeley, California, USA. In spite of the Holocaust, committed by Germans, he still took the German word "Lehrhaus" as its name (meaning “house of learning”) and inspiration from this school for Jewish studies founded by philosopher Franz Rosenzweig in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1920. Furthermore, the Free Speech Movement (FSM) from 1964 to 1965 at the University of California, Berkeley was a historical precursor of the German student movement in 1968. While founding Public Health Postgraduates Germany between 1996–1997, founders had personal contact to in Kassel, Fred Rosenbaum in Berkeley and , son of Franz Rosenzweig, in Switzerland.