Peter Gaehtgens (born 1 September 1937 in Dresden) is a German professor of physiology. In 1999, he became president of Free University of Berlin after winning the associated elections against Gesine Schwan. He stayed in this position until 2003, ^[1] when he was elected president of the German "Rector's Conference" (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz). Gaethgens was a leading proponent of the country-wide introduction of tuition fees at German universities. For this reason, he was heavily criticized in public.^{[ citation needed]}

On 2 November 2005, during the last year of his tenure, ^[2] this criticism culminated in an attack by four protesting students who smashed two cakes in his face amid a plenary session at the University of Tübingen. ^[3]