At many German universities the basic unit is the Lehrstuhl, the chair. A professor holds it, and its staff work in dependence on that professor. In 2018 the sociologist Peter Ullrich described the system in the Tagesspiegel as Feudalverhältnisse, feudal relations, in which resources are divided between konkurrierenden Fürstentümern, competing principalities. On 28 January 2026 the Bundestag’s research committee held a hearing on department structures. One expert said that in Germany the chair model often applies. Another said that his institute had already left it behind. A third warned that department structures must not be imposed from above.