In cities across Germany, university and high school students are walking out of their classes to protest changes to the education system.

“We need independent, publicly funded education,” Mo Schmidt, a student leader from the University of Marburg, told Deutsche Welle. “Because that’s essential for democracy.”

Under the motto “money for education instead of for banks” students are planning mock bank robberies, and intend to stage sit-ins and protests at banks. They are protesting recent bank bailouts by the government, at a time when tuition fees, once unheard of in Germany, have become the norm. The government always said there wasn’t any money left for education, Schmidt explained, “now suddenly there are billions of euros coming from somewhere” to give to the banks.

Text. Photos by Reuters.