30 percent of students and 45 percent of those receiving student loans live in poverty.

These are hard numbers that the Paritätischer Wohlfartsverband recently published.

And these apply to 2020!

Now, in mid-2022 and with inflation at its highest level in 30 years, the situation has drastically worsened again: a kebab in downtown Jena now costs six euros and a cocktail in the idyllic garden bar eight.

These are prizes that make you look at each other, smile and move on.

In addition, the explosion in gas prices: After the letters from the landlords arrived in April and May with the recommendation to increase the ancillary rental costs by a factor of 1.5, the value of your own four walls increased in every respect - because life outside is also not cheaper.

Even with me, a spoiled with Franconian quality beer, it is enjoying increasing popularity.

Savings have to be made somewhere if 60 percent of the Bafög money is spent on rent.

The planned increase in the rate does not help either.

The basic requirement is to increase by 5.75 percent to 452 euros for the coming winter semester.

That's just compensation for inflation.

And the rent surcharge is to increase to 360 euros - completely unrealistic, especially for those who live in private apartments.

And especially for those who do not get a maximum rate, or the 89 percent (2021) of students who do not receive any student loans at all and are on their parents' pockets or have to work part-time in addition to studying full-time.

The plan to enable more students to receive Bafög

But where is the political outcry, where is the organization of the student body in view of these depressing conditions - "Necessity is the mother of invention" as the saying goes.

Apparently, this refers primarily to creativity when saving.

And otherwise it saves on creativity.

The compulsion makes you angry

At the beginning of the semester the atmosphere was still relaxed and cheerful.

Suddenly, after the seminars, which were finally present again, people met in cafés;

in the evening, at night, or in the morning, people tapped to techno again.

Suddenly there were events like interactive theater or poetry slams in the local subculture or events like watching a famous trash TV show together in the smoking bar next door.

The concerts of favorite bands took place again and with summer the festival season begins.

Unfortunately, all of this costs money and more and more of it.

But how can a night at the pub not be an exception when he eats a twenty every time?

How should the evening generally serve to relax together when every ticket hurts?

Especially during the exam period, when the library is visited from eight to eight, it takes such short moments to calm down.

It needs them to detach from stress and recover.

Of course, students in the university town of Lviv, 1,000 kilometers away, cannot be outraged at this high level.

It's hard to imagine the reality that fellow Ukrainian students are experiencing at the moment.

It is important not to repress it and to keep it in mind, but our problems here in Germany are not getting any smaller, they continue to concern us, everything is connected.

"It was really nice: at the festival I felt really liberated from all the everyday stuff," said my roommate when I met her in the kitchen earlier in the week.

And things like that really make studying worth living.

It just seems to come down to the fact that you have to do without the rap cypher and the study trip for the festival in the summer.

Or you have to use the upcoming lecture-free period to earn money.

But then there is no time for self-study, and the compulsion to do so is infuriating.

Isn't it in itself a wonderful idea to give the tenner to your own scene without hesitation, even with joy?

But at the moment you are standing in front of the entrance and want to withdraw the red ticket before the hungry hand of the cultural center finally takes hold of the piece of paper.

Of course, people don't give in to this intuition, we uphold solidarity, and you don't want to be pushed out of public life so easily.

"Yes, not so easy." - That's right, not so easy.

Money is tight and so is time.

Both are related.

From morning to afternoon people cram and work in the evenings, they save all day and work the whole week.

Somehow it's not surprising that my fellow students' dark circles are getting bigger and darker.

"Are you there tonight?" - "No, I have to work." "And you?" - "I'm behind with university." It's a shame that there is so little space, money or time to develop.

As a result, crises of meaning are pre-programmed and, if you ask more closely, already a reality.

Everything seems like a vicious circle: no money, saving and being forced to work, no time, no development, a crisis of meaning, no motivation, no political commitment, no money...

Sinan Kücükvardar (21) has been studying philosophy and sociology in Jena for four semesters.

He loves both, but in moderation.

He has heard the question of what to do with it so often that he is happy to contribute to this column.