"Ticketstudenten"

It's an unusual term which comes up.  If you mentioned Ticketstudenten to mostly working-class Germans in a pub....there might two or three who will grin and give the simple definition of the word.

So, here in Germany....we have various tariffs arranged for railway/bus riders.  There's the old-guy/retiree status.  There's the under-age-6 group (typically always free).  Then you come to the student class or tariff.

Students are special....they get a highly discounted railway ticket.  Germans will argue over the term 'dirt-cheap' but it probably applies in this case.

In the last year, they've even gone to a terrific rate....one Euro per day.  For 365 Euro a year, as a student....you can travel in your region via buses and railway.

So naturally, you'd eventually get around and discuss the idea of 'pretending' to be a student and get the discount rate.  Well.....yeah....that's not legal or ethical, depending on how you work this out.

Most railway organizations want to see a student admission form.  So you could walk in and register for classes....but never attend a single class.  Then you'd get the highly discounted railway tickets for your ride in and back each day.  In essence, a fake student but getting a terrific discount on railway travel.

This comes up because there is a AfD member, who has risen high up in the organization....who refers to himself as a graduate of such-and-such school.  The issue is that the School hasn't ever issued any certificate or diploma.  The accusation by some political folks is that he's a Ticketstudenten and very unethical.  Odds of an investigation?  Hard to say.  In most political parties, there would be a meeting, and a couple of folks assigned the job to review the facts, then they'd toss the guy out.  With the AfD?  It's hard to say.

If you think about this long enough....the problem is a socialist-like gift which isn't really monitored or able to be verified in any real fashion.  But no one really wants to resolve or fix this either.