Last autumn, he said he was “looking forward” to writing his thesis. “During my Bachelor’s [HBO Bachelor’s in European Studies in The Hague], I put it off as long as possible, but now I really want to get started.” Has that enthusiasm lasted now that he’s actually started working on it? “Maybe I was a little bit overconfident,” he says, grinning.
Right to protest
Wittenberg is researching the right to protest in Germany. “It has been hollowed out over the last few years,” he said last time. “There’s a whole list of things you aren’t allowed to do, such as drumming because that makes too much noise. Whereas the whole point of a protest is to draw attention.”
His proposal was approved last month. Wittenberg will compare farmers’ protests, pro-Palestinian protest, and the protest marches of right-wing organisation Pegida. “How did the police and the government react, and were those reactions different in any way?” He has been very lucky with his supervisor, he says. “Some of my fellow students have told me that their supervisors try to get them to change their topic, or are always on holiday.”
Typically Dutch
His friends have noticed that he now spends “more time at the library than in bars”, but there is still time to relax. “A few weeks ago was the first time I celebrated carnival – other than once in Breda, when I was sixteen. My international friends were asking me what was going on. As soon as something ‘typically Dutch’ happens, they always look at me, but this time I also had no idea.” So on Tuesday evening, the group ended up watching the lowering of the Mooswief, traditionally the final act of the Maastricht vastelaovend, expecting – erroneously – that it would be set on fire. “That was a bit disappointing,” he laughs, “for me too.”
Job hunt
He is also tentatively looking at jobs. “The whole class went to Brussels recently, and you could visit a number of different employers to take a look. I visited Politico [an American and European news website]. That was really cool. They gave us almost the opposite of a promotional talk – you always have to do too much in too little time, your social life is non-existent. And yet, I thought it sounded amazing, and a huge responsibility, too. They do offer junior positions, so who knows.”
Finally, there is also a sporting challenge in the works: running a half-marathon. “I’m not really looking forward to that, I was a bit cocky when I signed up. I do run, usually only 5 kilometres. I’ve already stretched that to 10, so I think I’ll be alright, although I did fall off the back of someone’s bike quite hard yesterday. Thankfully it’s not until May.”