The map below shows the
geographical course of my life. The bending and curving
arrows represent 32 years of learning, the bold straight
arrow 33 years of teaching. After 65 years of living and 65
semesters of being a professor at Freiburg University it
was time for savouring life. To represent this, many
arrows ought to point out from Freiburg. How many will it
be in the end?
I am, in a way, a
realization of the human instinct of survival: I was
conceived at the beginning of World War II and born on
May 20, 1940 in Dortmund, a center of heavy industry
which came under attack very early in the war. Luckily,
my father evaded the draft and was at home to protect
the young family. He managed to get the materials for
building the air-raid shelter behind our house; he and a
small number of other men rescued the burning buildings
when they were hit by bombs. This has saved many lives,
including my own. Even though I recall a happy
childhood, my oldest memories are those of terror: the
sound of the sirens, low-flying planes, flames
up to the sky, the
darkness and stench in the shelter. Fortunately we
did not suffer from famine, and in all this
turbulence I somehow grew up.
1942
1943
1944
1945
When
the war came to an end and everything around us
lay in ruins, I was five years old. It was my
father again who kept us going through the
post-war chaos and the extreme winter of 1946/47.
He knew how to find a side of pork and smuggle it
through the British controls; he was in a position
that enabled him to trade building materials for
coal and fruits. So, unlike many people we did not
starve or freeze, and although we had cardboard
instead of glass in our windows and slept on
straw, we felt prosperous. There was no money for
toys, but the environment was a fantastic
playground: the cellars of the ruins, the wrecks
of tanks and planes, the deserted industrial
areas, and the frozen bombhole pools in
wintertime.
Of
course the schools were also destroyed, and most of the
teachers had been killed in action. So when my mother
took me to start school in 1946, the authorities were
most happy to send me back home for a year, arguing that
I wasn't mature enough (see the 1946 photo). Today I
consider this one of the most fortunate circumstances in
my life: I got the chance to play for another year and
develop my childish curiosity into a genuine one. As a
result, I later was always ahead of my classmates, and
once as a third-grader I filled the place of a missing
teacher by practicing arithmetic with the
fourth-graders. The educational system was so unsteady
after the war that in the end I had been in nine
different schools.
1946
1948
1949
1950
When my four years of elementary school were
over, my parents reckoned that in the post-war
situation a practical education was more useful than
an academic one, and so they sent me to the German
middle school (Realschule). After three years there my
teachers considered this to be a mistake. It was my
class teacher Fritz Arnscheidt who convinced my
parents to transfer me to the German high school
(Gymnasium, preparatory for university) in 1954. He
also gave me private lessons every Sunday morning to
make up for the lost three years of Latin in just six
months. So it is him, along with my parents, to whom I
owe my academic career. Despite being fortunate, I was
unhappy most of 1954 and1955. First I had to change
schools, then my father lost his job in Dortmund and
we had to move to Essen. There I was put in the wrong
highschool and after a few months had to change
schools again. At 15 I was just reaching puberty, but
I had to learn to cope with all these challenges.
1951
1952
1954
1955
We
didn't stay in Essen for long, but it was there at the Alfried-Krupp-Gymnasium where my
teacher Franz Gries kindled my passion for chemistry, by
simply letting us experiment in the school's laboratory.
In 1957 we moved to Duisburg, where I went to the
Mercator-Gymnasium until my graduation (Abitur) in 1960.
In Duisburg I found friends, and I began to feel at home
again. There, while slowly and belatedly reaching
adulthood, my rebelliousness, my endurance (some call it
stubbornness), my ever-observing mind (some call
it merciless criticism) and my wit began to take shape.
1956
Franz Gries
1957
1959
My best friends
were Oswald Dilling who sat next to me in the classroom
and with whom I spent the holidayas then, Eberhard
Hintzsche with whom I walked to school and with whom I
have shared so much laughter, and Irmtraut Peterzelt whom
I had to court for so long before she became my first
girlfriend. During our professional lives we lost sight of
one another, but after our retirements Eberhard and
Irmtraut became close friends again.
with Oswald
with Eberhard
with Irmtraut
It was also in
the years 1956-1958 that I found those activities which I
have enjoyed ever since: photography, outdoor life,
physical exercise and travelling - all manifestations of
insatiable curiosity. Consistent with this, in highschool
I got my highest marks in chemistry, biology and sports.
While climbing
the mountains, while competing in rowing championships,
and after falling in love for the first time, I also got
to know the bitter taste of defeat and the hardship of
beginning anew. Today I am grateful for these early
experiences. Not only were they an indispensable
ingredient of success in science, but also have they made
me aware that it is more satisfying to do something than
to be rewarded for it. Yet, when I left home at age 20 I
was still quite uncertain about my prospects and
abilities.
It took me
exactly seven years to become a Doctor of Chemistry. For a
long time I thought that these were the happiest years of my
life. But later I learnt that life after retirement has more
to offer. Yet, I also know now that never again have I been so
full of energy, optimism, and imagination, and never again
have I gone through those emotional highs and lows.
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
My youth ended
on May 1, 1960, when I left home to become a chemistry
student. For the first five semesters, until the Vordiplom
degree, I attended the university of Bonn. In the summer of
1962 I moved on to the university of München, where in July
1964 I obtained the Diplom and in February 1967 the Dr.
degree. Until the end of 1965 I depended on the support by my
parents, which allowed me only a humble life, and being a keen
student I did not spend much time earning money during the
semester breaks. Thus I never was the classical student, going
out drinking and having fun with the girls. Instead my most
intense memories of this time are those of my cheap
accommodations and of constant learning.
my accommodation in
Beuel-Geislar
learning for the Vordiplom
learning for the Diplom
view from my room in
München
I
never regretted that I chose chemistry. There is no other
subject which depends as much on feeling and intuition as
on knowledge and experience, and where the ability to
observe and judge is the key to success. I remember with
happy feelings the "big lectures" of those inspiring
teachers like Otto Schmitz-Dumont and Rolf Huisgen, and
even though in those days the tasks in the laboratory,
which went on for four full years, were tough and
extremely selective, I would still like to go back and do
them again.
Bonn, 1960
Bonn, 1961
München, 1963
the "Doktorfeier", 1967
Saying that in
those seven years I spent most of my time in the laboratory
and over the textbooks doesn't mean that there were no other
pleasures. The pictures show a few. In those days a limited
budget still allowed one to get far. Hitchhiking was the means
of transportation, and sleeping in a tent or on the ground was
no problem. So together with my student friends I went out to
find my limits in the mountains or on the shores of southern
Europe.
1960
1966
1965
1963
Ibiza, 1961, with Franz Brock
Odenwald, 1964, with Dieter Sellmann
1965, with Diethard Wendt
Kaisergebirge, 1966, with Willi Regnet
Almost all my
lasting friendships have resulted from my years in München,
before and after my doctoral studies. Here I wish to honour
four people who had fates typical of their time and who were
part of the decisive turns of my life in the sixties. Tante
Finchen, a widow with a golden heart but rigid moral
standards, was my first landlady who made sure that my moral
standards also stayed high. Bernd Hamprecht, with whom I
shared a room for almost two years, by accident saved me from
missing the enrollment date at München university. Willy
Regnet, a member of the lost generation who was much older
than I but got his Dr. degree only years after me, not only
inspired my enthusiasm for the mountains but also lured me
into the research group of Heinz Nöth, which so happily
started my career. Jörg Lorberth, a student contemporary and
lifelong friend, was not only always good for
intellectual challenges and silly jokes but also essential in
the history of my marriage.
Tante Finchen and Fräulein Schmitz, 1961
Bernd Hamprecht, 1963
Willi Regnet, 1965
Jörg Lorberth, 1967
After my Diplom
degree it took me two and a half years to finish
my Dr. degree, most of which time I received
generous financial support from my supervisor,
Heinz Nöth. Getting a Dr. degree after 14
semesters was fast even in those days. I worked
hard to achieve that, but I never felt that I
was rushing. When I held the document in my
hands I felt a sense of regret rather than
pride. Maybe I should have wasted more time with
the student time pleasures. But that was past,
and now real life had to begin.
The year 1967 brought
many decisions at once: I received my Dr. degree, I bought my
first car, I followed my professor to Marburg, I got married,
I decided to start an academic career, I got an offer to go to
America as a postdoctoral fellow, and I began to realize that
I did not know much yet about either chemistry or the world or
life in general.
1968
1970
1972
in the Arboretum in Madison, 1969
Most of my scientific
development from here on is described in the section "My
Academic World". The first event in my private life one week
after getting the Dr. degree was the purchase of a used VW
beetle, which turned out to be a real disaster. Not only did I
have my first serious accident with it only a week later, but
also it was in such a miserable condition that I was glad to
get rid of it only five months later. Fortunately this was not
a bad omen, and everything else in 1967 went smoothly and
pleasantly.
When I received my Dr. degree in München, my supervisor, Heinz
Nöth, had already moved to a chair at Marburg University. He
offered me to stay with him, and I became an "Assistent" in
Marburg. That summer of 1967 felt like a holiday after the
stressful final stages of the doctorate. Jörg Lorberth and I
enjoyed the hospitality of widow Herling in a beautiful house
in Cappel. I had only a few duties, the work in the laboratory
yielded nice results every day, and - my girlfriend and future
wife being far away - I enjoyed the last months of my time as
a bachelor.
Like every chemist in those years I dreamt of going to America
as a postdoctoral fellow, and I had written some unsuccessful
applications already when, unexpectedly, my supervisor in June
1967 handed me an offer from Larry Dahl in Madison, Wisconsin.
Neither did I know who Larry Dahl was nor was I enthusiastic
about going "out into the prairie". I agreed unwillingly, not
knowing that this would be the happiest decision in my life.
From this moment on things got hectic, as I was expected to
start working in October. The first question to be answered
was getting married or not. The answer was: Yes.
My relation with Carla Dluzewski was a passionate love affair
from the beginning in January 1966. From the beginning, too,
it was not without ups and downs, and when we got married we
could not be sure whether the ups or the downs would prevail.
Our civil wedding took place on July 30, 1967, the church
wedding on September 16. The time in America was our
honeymoon, the first years after that were the test of
endurance. We had many happy days, but they did not last. We
succeeded in making our social environment believe that our
marriage was stable, but after 20 years all hope was gone. Yet
the marriage lasted 35 years. The divorce was finalized on
November 23, 2002. Since then I have lived alone.
Carla, 1966
my inlaws, Ilse and Karl Dluzewski
the wedding photo
Carla, 1978
1968
1976
1980
Three days
after our church wedding we set out for America, taking our
new VW beetle along. Those one and a half years in and around
Madison (October 1967 - April 1969) were the golden years of
my life, starting with the journey aboard the Queen Elizabeth
and ending with the tour across the country. Never again have
I been so lucky in everything I started, never again have I
met so many beautiful people in such a short time. The city of
Madison and the state of Wisconsin turned out to be the best
possible home in America, and I am proud to be an Alumnus of
the University of Wisconsin. My boss Larry and his secretary
Audrey who ran the group were the best ever, and the community
integrated us into the enviably magnanimous Amercan spirit.
aboard the Queen Elizabeth
full moon over Lake Mendota
arriving in our new home
My boss
expected me to do preparative chemistry, I was determined to
learn structure determination. What looked like a conflict
turned into a perfect symbiosis, thanks to my preparative
knowledge and the helpfulness of everybody around me. The
photos below which were taken on the very first days of my
visit show the most important people involved. I call them my
friends, and we have met again on many reunions and private
visits since.
in room 2228
Larry Dahl
Audrey Aylesworth
Chuck Strouse, Dick White, Joe Calabrese, Vern Uchtman, Alan
Foust
From Larry I learned
the quote "Work hard, play hard" which I have done and which I
cite frequently. My strongest affection for him, however, goes
back to his answer "Henry, you live only once", when I asked
for a free month without pay, and he gave me the free month
and the pay, allowing us to make our big trip to Mexico. It
was his generosity, too, which allowed us to travel around in
our VW and get our first impressions of the great American
West.
Monument Valley
Black Hills
Salt Lake
Looking back I
always remember people first. Gordy and LaVonne Muller were
our neighbours in the student village of Eagle Heights, and I
like to remember visiting them on Sunday evenings for having
beer and popcorn with their big family. My labmate, Vern
Uchtman, and I taught each other what we knew and have
continued doing that through our lives. In 1968 he and his
wife Sue had just had the first of their three children. I am
particularly happy that I could talk my parents into visiting
us in September 1968; this was a highlight in their lives as
well as in mine.
the Muller family
a Sunday with my parents
the Uchtman family
Meeting those
people has made me a friend of America for life. Getting to
know Larry Dahl and his attitude toward science have shaped my
views of Academia. The things which I learnt in Madison -
cluster chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and enthusiasm -
have been the basis of my success in science. Larry offered me
an opportunity to stay, and in those days it would have been
easy to find an academic position in an American university.
But my intuition told me to return home, which was the final
happy decision during my postdoctoral time. I was ready for an
academic career in Germany.
We returned to Germany by plane in May 1969. I worked for a
short time in Marburg again. But Heinz Nöth was moving back to
München to become the successor of the great Egon Wiberg. So
in the fall of 1969 I was back in München. There we intended
to consolidate our lives and settle for a while. We rented and
furnished our first spacious apartment in Eching, and we
bought a sporty car. Having learned this in Madison, we
started all kinds of social activities. Before I was 30 I was
even a member of the local church board.
my parents in Marburg
our home in Eching
our Ford Capri
My scientific work
proceeded nicely. I attracted my first coworker, Winfried
Ehrl. The close neighbourhood of the Technische Hochschule
München brought me to the attention of E.O. Fischer who became
a generous patron. I attended my first international
conference in Moscow in 1971, where for the first time I met
all the famous organometallic chemists. My strongest
supporter, however, was again Larry Dahl who stayed in München
for a sabbatical leave in the summer of 1970. He made me
believe in myself and he often got on people's nerves by
praising me.
discussing with Winfried Ehrl, 1972
E.O. Fischer at ICOMC 5, Moscow 1971
excursion with the Dahls, 1970
We felt well at
ease in München in the early seventies, and I was convinced
that there wasn't a better place in Germany. I finished my
thesis submitted for the certificate of habilitation in the
summer of 1972. With the status of a Privatdozent and the
prospect of getting a permanent position as an Akademischer
Rat, working in the hottest field of inorganic chemistry in
one of the best German chemistry departments, everything
seemed to be arranged for a pleasant and trouble-free future.
Then, one day in February 1973 I was invited at short notice
for a lecture at Freiburg University. That was only my third
invited lecture, and I did not know that a chair was to be
filled there. Hence I was quite relaxed and enjoyed the
lecture and the ensuing discussion. Less than a week later I
was appointed on a preliminary basis for that chair, and in
the summer of 1973, still 32 years old, I was a full
professor. The time of playing was over.
I served as a
chemistry professor in Freiburg for 65 semesters, which at the
time of my retirement was exactly half of my life. The Bible
(Psalm 90,10) says "The length of our
days is seventy years, or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet even the best of them are struggle and sorrow, for they
quickly pass, and we fly away." That's
what it was. Looking back I can say: they were the best, they
were struggle and sorrow, and they quickly passed. Fortunately
I was not doomed to fly away too soon, see "Tireless
Retirement" (below) or the "Highlights" section.
This chapter covers 30 years, and of course many things
happened during that time. But since the inner clock moves
faster with increasing age the chapter isn't much longer than
the other ones. Furthermore, if I would really mention some
critical names and places the risk of legal action would
become critical itself. And, again, the reader is referred to
the section "My Academic World" for
details on my scientific development.
1977
1987
1997
2007
The most pleasant
memories are assiciated with the places where we lived. In the
fall of 1973 we rented a semi-detached house in Wolfenweiler.
It was only 5 m wide, but it seemed like a castle. Remarkably,
during my first few years in Freiburg I still had enough time
after work to enjoy the place and to explore the region. We
were happy at home, made friends with many neighbours, and
enjoyed frequent visits by my parents.
Wolfenweiler
Only four years
later we felt strong enough to build our own house. We chose a
lot overlooking the village of Ebringen, and we never
regretted that. The house was built big enough so that my
parents could move in, but only my mother lived with us from
1983 to 1995, as my father died before having the opportunity.
Since 2002 I have been the only inhabitant.
Ebringen
One of my great
dreams became a reality in 1992 when we built our second home
in Archsum on the island of Sylt - a genuine Frisian house
with a thatched roof. Originally thought to be our retirement
home, we enjoyed it for only 10 years. I still miss it,
because I love the island and the sea. But after our divorce
it became a burden, and it became clear that the cool and wet
climate is not ideal for me. So after 15 years I gave it up
and sold it in 2007.
Archsum
In terms of my
daily work, teaching, research and administration, life was
not so pleasant. When I checked in for work on April 1, 1973,
I had a chair as a professor, but not a chair to sit on. My
colleagues had not been able to provide me with an office nor
with appropriate laboratories. I had no secretary and no
budget, no coworkers and not a single big instrument. Getting
all this took time, and living in that world of predators was
not possible without producing some collateral damage. When I
started I declared it my duty to make my institute as strong
and successful as the neighbouring ones. It took almost 40
years, but looking back I can say that I, my colleagues and
our successors have achieved that.
The major advances came in 1976 with the creation of an
independent Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and in 1980 when
Gerhard Thiele became my colleague. After our junior
colleagues Bernhard Lippert (1985) and Thomas Schleid (1994)
had arrived, we finally were fully operational and efficient.
Since then my institute has enjoyed a succession of talented
young professors who came and then moved on to become full
professors at other universities, and the successors of both
Gerhard Thiele and myself have been succcessful in further
increasing our reputation.
The Institute today
Gerhard Thiele
Bernhard Lippert
Thomas Schleid
In research progress
was a little faster, although the first years, due to lack of
people, equipment and money, were also frustrating. But in the
late seventies I was blessed with a group of coworkers who
turned out to be the best whom I have ever had. They produced
the chemistry which made us successful. They were all
excellent, and it is with some regret that I can show only
four of them here as they looked in the year 1980.
Egbert Keller
Thomas Madach
Felix Richter
Harald Beurich
The successes in our
cluster chemistry opened many doors, and I came to enjoy the
slogan "be a chemist and see the world". Within a few years I
had been on all continents, and even in the early eighties I
already had coworkers from the U.S., China or Brazil. They and
all their successors (see the section on Coworkers) have been
my big family, and they prove the thesis that the community of
chemists is like a medieval brotherhood of monks: wherever I
go there will be food and shelter for me.
I like to remember all the places where I stayed as a lecturer
or as a visiting professor, in between La Plata in Argentina
and Huhehot in Inner Mongolia, in between Pietermaritzburg in
South Africa and Juensuu in Finland. Again it is the people
who really make the happy memories, and again I can only show
here a few of the many with whom I shared duties and
pleasures, successes and failures, disappointments and
rewards.
Pierre Braunstein, Strasbourg
Tapani and Tuula Pakkanen, Joensuu
Pradeep Mathur, Bombay
Gerard Parkin, New York
People have called me
a workaholic. This is only correct insofar as I have always
been keen on finishing a job (my definition of "professor" is
"problem solver"). But for all these years I have kept in mind
two statements by Larry Dahl whom I hold in such high esteem:
"Henry, you live only once" and "work hard, play hard". I am a
dedicated teacher, and in my whole career I never missed a
lecture due to illness. I never let my coworkers wait when
they had a problem or when their theses had to be finished.
Yet, up into the eighties I managed to keep Saturdays and
Sundays free from duties. After the first tough years I took
advantage of every opportunity to have a sabbatical semester,
during which I spent several months abroad, taking my wife
along. I worked and lectured in New Zealand (1981, 1986,
1995), Italy (1985), South Africa (1987), Finland (1988,
1992), Argentina (1988), France (1990 and 1996), China
(1991 and 1999), India (1995), Taiwan
(1996), USA (2004) and South East Asia (2006).
One price for success in science is being a referee. Already
in the early eighties I was a member of the refereeing
commitees of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie, and already
in my forties I was an elected referee of the German Science
Foundation. In my fifties I served for six years in the Senate
commitee for "Sonderforschungsbereiche" of the German Science
Foundation and for ten years as the head of the Curriculum
Commitee of the German Chemical Society, while at the same
time being the most-cited chemist from Freiburg. That stole my
free Saturdays after 1980 and my free Sundays after 1990. On
top of that came the temporary duties that no professor in our
universities can evade: head of department, dean of the
faculty, member of the university's senate, head of the
examination commitee, member of funding bodies, speaker of
research teams, member of editorial boards. At the peak of
this time of duties I was the supervisor of seven secretaries.
My last and most influential function was that as the
President of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Freiburg,
which I finally gave up in 2008.
Thus time passed and my hair turned white. A rough count has
revealed that I delivered almost as many referee reports as I
gave lectures (around 3000). Therefore, considering the
academic tasks of teaching, research and administration, at
the beginning of one's career it is all research, and at the
end the load of administrative duties has eaten up everything
else. Many colleagues keep part of their research group and
hope to dive into research again after retirement. I decided
to make a clean break at the earliest possible date. One
reason for that was a wisdom which came from being a professor
at such an early age: he who is the youngest in a team at a
very young age will also be the oldest at a very young age. In
2005 I had been a professor of chemistry in Freiburg for a
longer time than any one of my predecessors. I made sure that
all of my coworkers had finished their doctoral work and that
the faculty hired my successor in a timely fashion. Ingo
Krossing moved into my office the day after my retirement. I
avoided all official festivities, gave a long speech on all
the things which I like to remember, celebrated all night with
my academic friends, and said farewell.
my guests during the farewell lecture
my beloved academic teachers, Heinz Nöth and Larry Dahl and
their wives
It was easy for me to leave
the academic world behind. My favourite mottos "brood
more, cackle less" (1) and "red tape is forbidden" (2) had become
old-fashioned, and I had to resort to
motto (3) "act lively, say what you
think, finish in time" which is ascribed
to Martin Luther. Step by step I
withdrew from writing reviews and going
to meetings. My last paper was published
in 2007. At the end of 2008 I gave up my
last public position, the presidency of
the "Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft in
Freiburg". In 2009 I was obliged (not
entirely voluntarily) to give up my tiny
office in my Institute, and in 2010 the
relation between me and my Institute had
become so distant that it would not have
been appropriate to stage a public event
there for my 70th birthday.
Since I have been retired, I have
experienced what every retiree tells me: I
am busy all the time. Part of this comes
from getting up later in the morning and
having a coffee break every afternoon, part
from the fact that at my age everything
takes longer. But the main reason is the
discovery late in life of so many things
which are worth doing. I have spent little
time in front of the TV, I haven't read many
books. There is always something waiting,
and there are still so many projects which
haven't been tackled yet.
Of course being a chemistry professor
means being in love with science for one's whole life.
In my case this means that I have always enjoyed
teaching, and I have not stopped my efforts for the
public understanding of science. For he first few
years after my retirement I still gave popular science
lectures, but I stopped writing popular science
publications.
The "Saturday University", Freiburg 2010
my last review article
A title from the "Why" series
My main and happiest activity in
the field of teaching, however, has been my employment
as a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University in
Bangkok. Beginning in 2006 I have spent the cold months
of the German year in Southeast Asia (see below), and it
so happened that the Chemistry Department at Chula
needed English speaking lecturers for their
international "Bachelor of Science in Applied Chemistry"
program. I was most happy to join in, and for three
years I taught freshman chemistry for large classes of
19-year-olds. My teaching load was light, and I had a
lot of free time. I stayed in the University Guest House
right on the campus, in a green island of peace in the
heart of loud and polluted Bangkok. This has given me
the motivation and the time to get to know and
understand Southeast Asia, which has resulted in so many
new friendships. My interactions with people at Chula
were the beginning, and I remember with gratitude the
help and cooperation of Patchanita, Soamwadee and
Jutatip, and particularly of my co-lecturer, Preeyanuch
from Mahidol University.
the program
my course
my opening address
Patchanita
Jutatip and Soamwadee
Preeyanuch
Really the first thing which I
discovered after my retirement was my garden. Before
2005 I never cared about it, and now it is a source of
satisfaction and joy for me, the old man's ever-pleasing
motivation for improvements and physical activity.
Likewise, there is always something to be improved in
the house, and during the first five years after my
retirement I completely repainted it inside and outside
and had large parts of it renovated. The desire for
physical activity also made me move about on the bicycle
or on foot, easy to do in this lovely part of the world
where I have the pleasure to live. My camera was my
steady companion, and sometimes I spent as much time editing
my photos as I had spent for the excursion. Enjoying
outdoor activities so much, I converted my Opel Zafira,
a family car, by removing the back seats, into my
"hypnomobile", the simplest-possible campervan, which gave me
freedom
and independence, and in which I have already travelled
as far as Cabo Finisterre in Spain and the North Cape in
Norway.
my garden
hiking in the Black Forest
camping with my hypnomobile
During my
career I did not "waste" much time for social
activities, and when I went into retirement I had rather
few friends. Fortunately this has changed, and now
maintaining my friendships has become one of my most
pleasant activities. It was so delightful to "find" my
youthtime friends Eberhard and Irmtraut again and to
re-activate my old relation with Wolfgang and Almut. A
special highlight was the reunion with my highschool
classmates, upon the occasion of the 50th anniversary of
our graduation, whom I had not seen for 50 years. In the
academic world colleagues very
seldomly become
close friends, but after retirement a small group of us
have managed to be that, and our monthly "Stammtisch" is
a fixed date on my calendar now. Moving around with an
open mind, it has become easy for me to find new
friends. Of all these, located everywhere in the world,
my neighbours, Sylvie and Dieter, deserve most to be
mentioned here.
Eberhard with Christa
Irmtraut
Wolfgang and Almut
the classmates
the Stammtisch
Sylvie and Dieter
Like many
retirees, my favourite pastime has been travelling. Up
to my 40th birthday the attractive part of the world was
to the West, particularly North, Central and South
America. Since my retirement I have made about one trip
per year to the U.S., and I love the American West. But
in the 1990's my heart started beating for the East. I
fell in love with Bangkok when I first saw it in 1981,
and since then I have spent a total of more than five
years of my life in Thailand. That had to be the case
for me, being a passionate reader of Joseph Conrad's
novels. So I started following his traces, and I hope
that one day I will understand the magic of the East and
its people.
Since my
retirement I have been in East Asia once or twice a year
for extended periods, getting around by public transport
or with rented vehicles. There isn't a country between
Sri Lanka and Vietnam or between China and Australia
which I haven't visited. The booming cities, the
tropical nature, and the wealth of history and culture
attract me again and again. The real irresistability,
however, lies in the souls of the people. I have sunk
into so many of their deep dark eyes, and I still
haven't found a bottom.
Rangoon - the Shwedagon Pagoda
Singapore - Sir Stamford Raffles
Saigon - Ho Chi Minh
Sukhothai, Thailand
Angkor, Cambodia
Bagan, Myanmar
China and
Thailand are the countries where I have spent most time.
It was in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where my serious
encounters with the East began in 1991. My close
scientific ties with China and Chinese coworkers have led
to many visits. Now I can summarize my feelings about
China by answering the question, do I love China or hate
it, with "yes". Two of the people dearest to my heart are
Chinese, but I could kill every Chinese when a Chinese
tourist group runs over me in Bangkok.
Huang Shan, the magic mountains
Beijing, the Qing style restaurant
Huanglong, the Tibetan foothills in Sichuan
Bangkok has
become my second home. For me, there is no better place to
live in, and there are no better people to live with. I
was fortunate to find what I was looking for, my
post-retirement occupation, at Chulalongkorn University.
Many friendships have resulted, and I have had the time to
see Thailand and its people. Slowly but surely I dare say
that I begin to understand them.
Bangkok - Chulalongkorn
Bangkok - Chinatown
Bangkok - old and new
Of
the people of the East, those who move me most are the
children, even more confiding and curious than ours.
When they cast me a serious look I think that I will
never find the bottom of their dark eyes. But when they
smile I have hope that I will.
No wonder that
all of my "adopted" children (see the section on my
family) are from the East, three from China, two from
Myanmar and one from Thailand. The photos show them as
they looked in 2011.
Nin Nin in Bagan
Freia in Fuzhou
Nalapan in Bangkok
Nin U Mong in Mandalay
My three
Chinese girls are well off. Nalapan in
Bangkok is a genuine part of my family
now. My two "daughters" in Myanmar, Nin
U Mong from Mandalay and Nin Nin from
Bagan, have grown up to be teens and
twens, trying with their families to
cope with the difficult situation of
their country.
with Nalapan
with Nin U Mong
with Nin Nin
My
adopted children and my students are my life. I have
no children of my own, but with them I can enjoy the
pleasures of a grandfather. Thinking of them and
even more being with them really does make every day
a Sunday.
When I reached age 70, I was still
blessed with a reasonably good health. I had lost very
few days due to illness, and I still had all but one
of my own teeth. At age 65 my heart had started
beating irregularly, which marked the beginning of my
regular consumption of pills. But that didn't bother
me, and it did not impair my physical strength. Yet
many a good friend had passed away already, and the
world had started to grow smaller. But even that made
the sun seem brighter every morning, and it
strengthened the motivation to find adventure in every
activity. Above all the little troubles of old age it
was certain that every day will be a Sunday.
Like
everybody in my age I felt that time rushed away and became
ever more valuable, and suddenly I was 75. But I also
enjoyed my time ever more, despite the growing
inconveniencies. Those years between 70 and 75 were the best
of my life, and when they were over I was still not finished
with all the things I wanted to do. Here is the story of those
five years, mostly told by my photos.
What have I been doing?
Since I was 70 my life has
almost equally been shared between the western and the
eastern world. I have always loved my home in Ebringen, but
I have found equally enjoyable locations in Bangkok and
other cities of South East Asia where I could relax before setting
out for my activities.
Ebringen
Bangkok
in my garden in Ebringen
overlooking the Ayarwaddy in Mandalay
While my professional life was full of official
events, they became
rare in my life as a retiree. But they still occured, such
as on my 75th birthday with the visit of a delegation of my
village led by the mayor, or upon my election as a
corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
my 75th birthday
the Bavarian Academy
Thus I had the time
to pursue my favorite interests as shown below: going out
for physical exercise, visiting historical places, enjoying
the beauty of Nature, and meeting people everywhere in the
world, capturing everything with my camera.
Vosges Mountains
Amboise
Black Forest
Bagan
I still enjoyed a
reasonably good physical fitness. Nevertheless there were
those setbacks, such as when a blood clot got stuck in my
kidney. But my friends made sure that I always looked
perfect on my outside, allowing me to do my favorite act:
laughing.
after the kidney infarction
after the embellishment of my teeth
Travelling
There was never
anything that I liked more than looking for new
frontiers.........
Thus I kept travelling into the corners of
this world, preferably in the United States and in South
East Asia, using every kind of vehicle and aiming for
every remote corner and every hidden natural, cultural
or historic landmark.
near the border between Laos and Cambodia
near the border between Arizona and Nevada
near the border between Thailand and Myanmar
Quite often my
destinations were places with which I associate
nostalgic memories and which I like to visit again and
again.
Madison, Wisconsin
Waipoua, New Zealand
Canyonlands, Utah
If it comes to cultural highlights and the
splendour of the religious palaces and temples, no area
surpasses the East.
Rajabophit Temple, Bangkok
Bangkok by night
Kyauktawgyi Temple, Mandalay
But
the grandeur and wildness of Nature are equally exciting
in the East and in the West.
Wulingyuan, China
Mekong Falls, Laos
Shiprock, New Mexico
The subsequent
photos from three different continents are meant to
convey how intensely these places attract me.
Bagan in Myanmar
New Zealand's North Island
the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, USA
Deep in
the jungles of northern Laos I came across the
grave of the man whom I would have liked to
be: Henri Mouhot from Montbéliard in France
(1826-1861). He was the European who re-
discovered Angkor Wat, and he was the first
European who made it up the Mekong river all
the way to Luang Prabang, the former capitol
of Laos. Everything he found was new to the
world, and everywhere he mastered the
obstacles. He payed his price for this when,
only 35 years old, he died of a fever. His
grave on the banks of the Nam Khan river near
Luang Prabang, forgotten and overgrown, was
only found again in 1990. Remote and not
easily accessible, it does not attract many
visitors, quite appropriate for a character
who preferred to explore the unknown by
himself.
Meeting People
and Peoples
Before my
retirement duties filled my days, and I did not have
much of a social life. But since then I have had the
time to meet and interact with people. All races,
all types, all levels of education or prosperity.
The zoom of my camera has allowed me to capture
exotic characters from afar, the friendliness of the
South East Asian people has allowed me to get close
to them and to befriend with them. I have had more
time for my own family, I could meet frequently with my old friends, and I have found
new friendships at home and abroad. Again it doesn't
take many words to tell the story; the photos will
do it.
Family and Friends
I had no brothers or sisters, but one male
and ten female cousins (see the Section on my family).
Seven of them were still alive in 2015, of which I
like to mention three:
Christa from Duisburg
Fritz from Duisburg
Dörte from Stuttgart
And there are
three female beings from the eastern world whom I have
loved, treated and tried to educate like my children:
Lanfen from Baotou, China, with her husband Bailu
Mian from Shijuajuang, China
Nalapan from Samut Songkram, Thailand
Almost like
family are those friends with whom I got along even
better than with my relatives:
Vern from Cincinnati, USA
Wolfgang and Almut from München
Jörg from Darmstadt
Last but not
least in this group are those friendships which
blossomed during these five years:
Sylvi and Dieter, my neighbours
Charoenkwan, my colleague from Bangkok
Nancy with Felix Richter, my former coworker
The closest of
these has been my relation with Susanne from Berlin, 13
years younger than me and full of life.
Our encounter resulted from
a crazy circumstance: the lack of tables in the
riverside restaurant in Bangok on New Year's Eve
2013/14. We ended up at the same table and since
then have spent quite a few New Year's Eves in that
my favourite restaurant, the "Be My Guest", and we
have shared many activities at home and around the
world.
At age
75 there aren't many close
relationships left from ones professional or
even more distant past. Ever more rarely I
have met my former colleagues on birthday
festivities or funeral or memorial events, and for just a
few times I have met the remaining few of
my highschool classmates. But even in 2020 there
existed
a carefully selected group of former colleagues from
my department, with whom we met every month to drink
a lot of beer and to exchange old jokes and old
gossip from our active times.
with my old friends at a memorial event
with my highschool classmates at the
"Klassentreffen"
with my Freiburg colleagues at the "Stammtisch"
Of all the scientists whom I met
in all countries during my professional life I wish to
mention those two for whom I have the highest respect
and who, over almost 50 years, have become real
friends: Larry Dahl (1929-2021) who was my
postdoctoral supervisor and who, together with his
wife June, gave me the courage to start an academic
carreer, and Pierre Braunstein (born 1947) with whom I
have shared a long sequence of scientific cooperations
and with whom and his wife Marie-Jeanne I have spent
so many joyful hours.
June and Larry in Madison, Wisconsin
Pierre in Strasbourg, France
The Exotic
East South
East Asia is a challenge for all senses, be it by its
climate, by its food or by its colours and sounds. Being a
male, I am of course most highly attracted by the beauty
of its women, and I don't mind posing with the pretty
young ones.
a holiday procession in Mrauk U, Myanmar
Myanmar beauties in Yangon
Lao beauties in Vientiane
Thai beauties in Bangkok
in Champasak, Laos
in Bangkok
in Khong Chiam, Thailand
Yet it is not only the beauty
that fascinates me, but the sum of all the exotic
characters, sights, places and events. Be it the
makeup painting on the faces of the Myanmar women and
children, the dresses of the minority peoples, or the
massing of people in and on their vehicles.
in Bagan, Myanmar
in Mynkaba, Myanmar
near Mae Hong Son. Thailand
Be it the
colourful appearance of people whom you meet in
the streets.....
in Chiang Mai, Thailand
in Nonthaburi, Thailand
in Mandalay, Myanmar
Be
it the surprising observation that the omnipresent monks
do everything that ordinary people do as well.....
near Luang Prabang, Laos
near Mrauk U, Myanmar
near Chiang Rai, Thailand
All
this culminates in Myanmar and in its female
inhabitants.....
in Bagan
my longtime friend, the beggar Cherry
in Mrauk U
The Ones who are no more
As we get older, we have to say
Farewell ever more often to those who have passed
away. I wish to mention four who have been dear to my
heart: my former wife Carla who died in 2013 at age
77, my doctoral supervisor and longtime mentor Heinz
Nöth who died in 2015 at age 87, my highschool friend
and unwavering optimist Eberhard Hintzsche who died in
2012 at age 73, and my student friend and fiercest
intellectual challenger Diethard Wendt who died in
2015 at age 77. My photos show them as I like to
remember them.
Carla
Heinz
Eberhard
Diethard
My Foundation
Ever since I started travelling
in the Sout East Asian countries from Bangkok in 2008,
I have supported poor families with the purpose of
giving one of their children a better education. That
didn't cost me much, and I got a lot of pleasure from
meeting these sweet people and learning about their
living. Now I can call all the infant and adult ones
involved my friends.
my little ones in Bagan, Myanmar
Htay Htay and her son in Bagan, Myanmar
a graduation in Bangkok
While checking the preschool to
which one of my "children" went, I got aquainted with
the people who run this preschool, the YMCA of
Mandalay in Myanmar. Nay Win, their secretary general,
became a friend, and during the discussions with him I
became enthused about running such a place for little
children myself. The idea was born, out of which
resulted the formation of my Foundation "A Place for
Children" (www.hv-foundation.de). The foundation was
established in 2012 and endowed with its funds by
myself. The pictures below show our emblem and myself
among the directors of the YMCA Mandalay.
our emblem
the directors of the YMCA Mandalay
It was with great enthusiasm that
we started building "my" preschool for 60 children
which was to be operated by the YMCA. In mid-2013 the
beautiful building in Patheingyi near Mandalay was
ready to use. But that was not to be. By that time the
aggression against non-Buddhists in Myanmar had become
really severe, and the local congregation of Buddhist
monks vetoed the operation of our school, and they
have not recalled that veto until today. So the
building remained unused and rotted away in the tropical
climate.
I have to acknowledge with great gratitude that my
YMCA friends collected funds for the construction of a
second school near the village of Paleik south of
Mandalay within the boundaries of a Baptist church
compound. It is located in a rather poor environment,
which suits the goals of the Foundation.
building the first school
unused for two years
the second school
Fortunately the disappointments with the first
school were more than compensated by the enchantments by
the second one. It was opened by the local bishop in
August 2015, and soon it sounded with the joy and
excitement of the three to five year old boys and girls.
Four nurses were hired to take care of the 60 children
who stay all day including a lunch and a midday rest.
with Nay Win during the opening ceremony
the school in operation
teachers and pupils posing for me
Initially two thirds of the Foundation's
revenues went into the Mandalay school. With the
remaining funds we supported varying educational
institutions of a similar character. Two examples are
shown below: a school for orphans in Pathein and a
preschool like mine in Kayinthonesint, Myanmar. Since
2015 we have become more strongly associated with
Michael Sebastian's SMILE project in Luang Prabang,
Laos, for teenagers whose parents cannot support them
(see below).
Bishop John and Father Florence in Pathein
the old church near the school in Kayinthonesint
Teacher Michael and his students
Mandalay
Kayinthonesint
Luang Prabang
Even
though our activities are just "a drop of water on a
hot stone", they are gratifying, and the protection,
the eagerness and the joyfulness of the children are
more of a reward than any income from the invested
capital. They are the sunshine of my old age.
"Citius,
altius, fortius" (faster, higher, stronger),
the motto of the modern Olympic Games, dominates the
first half of a man's lifetime. Then, slowly but surely,
it turns around, and after a life of 80 years it has
become "slower, lower, weaker". It is quite a challenge
to accept this and adjust to it. Forced by the
increasing physical defects, I have tried to look at it
with a positive attitude, evoking the "Praise of
Slowness". And, more often than not, I have been able to
live accordingly and do the pleasant things before the
urgent things, see the photos.
The body got weaker, but the soul didn't.
During my whole lifespan I have felt like a child,
driven by curiosity rather than assessment, being urged
to experience the unknown, and learning by making
mistakes. In my old age this has kept me mobile. The
weakening legs made me slower, but they did not stop me.
The four pictures show how my physiognomy changed over
20-year periods. But the eyes, the windows of the soul,
stayed the same. They are the eyes of my mother, see the
Section on my family.
age 20
age 40
age 60
age 80
So the stories to be told in this Section are
all stories of enjoying life while coping with
decreasing strength. Fortunately there was no lack of
things that could be enjoyed, of people who were worth
meeting, and of places I liked to find or visit again.
1. Downscaling
Beyond
age 75 everything gets smaller. I could not avoid the
experience that I cannot sleep so long anymore, that I
can no longer eat two pieces of cake, and that the
time of full-day hiking tours is over. The number of
friends and family has decreased painfully, and even I
myself have been shrinking, from once 185 cm down
to 182.
But at age 80 I can still sleep, eat cake and hike,
and an easy walk with leisurely rests in the Black
Forest is just as enjoyable as the strenuous hikes of
the past used to be.
age 70
age 80
When family and friends are getting less,
the big events are shrinking too. Up to my 75th
birthday I used to stage a big party every five years
with all my former coworkers; for my 80th birthday it
was just a humble gathering with friends.
75th birthday
80th birthday
And there are always enjoyabe replacements
for those activities which have become impossible. The
fitness bicycle had to take the place of the mountain
bike, and my large TV screen had to let me relive the
Alpine mountain tours.
"on the road"
"in the mountains"
Just the same way as the physical abilities
are getting smaller, so is the private environment.
The house is becoming too big, the work in the garden
has to be simplified, the overloaded shelves must be
relieved of the books. With painful regret I had to
cut down my walnut tree which I had grown myself from
a nut. It had grown too big and became a threat for
the neighbourhood.
the fallen walnut tree
What is shrinking most, of course, is the
remaining lifespan. So far I have accpted the
challenge to use it rewardingly.
2. Enjoying Home
When the lack of physical fitness reduces
mobility it is time to remember the nearby pleasures.
So rather late in my life I realized how privileged I
was in having a most comfortable home in a most
beautiful environment. Almost two thirds of my life I
have lived in my house in Ebringen, built according to
my design and layed out according to my ideas of
well-being. The house, the village, the country of
Baden and the German-French surroundings make up an
ensemble which is second to none.
I wish to stay in my house as long as possible. I have
always been keen on keeping it tidy, even in times
when I had to do the housekeeping myself. It has
always been not only my living, but also my working
place, after my daily duties when I still had my job,
and later for all my office work. It has kept me busy
in the garden ever since I have lived alone, which has
given me satisfaction even in later times when the
back and the knees started aching.
The country of Baden has many valleys heading from the
Rhine river plane up towards the Black Forest. But few
of them are as pretty as the valley in which Ebringen
is nested. I have walked every path in the vineyards,
up the hills and in the surrounding forests. The
vineyards look down to the 1300 year old village, the
winegrowing dating back to the Roman times. And for
the connaisseur there are the hidden corners where the
blueberries, the lilies of the valley and the orchids
grow. They all are within a short walk from my house.
view to the north
the bumblebee orchid
view to the south
Further out the Rhine river divides Germany
and France, with the Vosges Mountains in the west
being the counterpart of the Black Forest in the East.
Both mountain ranges provided us with hiking trails
for our weekend excursions for decades. Later, when
the long hikes became too strenuous, the area was
explored by car, and always the trip was accompanied
by a culinary pleasure in a "Berggasthof" or "Ferme
Auberge" of which there are so many nested between the
hills.
the Vosges Mountains as seen
from my living room
the Black Forest as seen from
the west
Eating and drinking are an important part of the
privilege of living in Baden. But of course there are
other places which are world-known for their culinary
class. And I have had the additional privilege of living
in one of them: Bangkok.
Ever since I happened to become a temporary lecturer
at Chulalongkorn University I have returned to Bangkok
every winter for four months and every summer for one
month. Altogether I have spent more time in Bangkok
(more precisely Souh East Asia) than in any other
place except my youthtime in Dortmund and my life in
Ebringen. Righteously Bangkok is my second home.
After living in guesthouses, hotels and furnished
apartments for the first years, I found permanent
residencies in the large condominium buildings, and I
established friendships with the owners. I wish to
mention two of them here, Kitty from the Supalai River
Place and Tanya from the Urbano Absolute. The third
place in Bangkok which I can call home is a
restaurant: almost every night I have had my dinner in
the "Be My Guest" at the Klongsan riverside, and the
people there are like my family.
Kitty on "my" balcony
Tanya in "my" living room
"my" Be My Guest
Bangkok is
the place where I could enjoy a life without duties,
while having every service within reach, being only a
short flight away from all my destinations in South
East Asia and enjoying first class technical and
medical support. I always got along well with the
climate, and the friendliness and helpfulness of the
Thai people are unsurpassed.
Initially the famous monuments, the temples and the
markets caused the excitement. But that wore off, and
the atmosphere of the place became the attraction, the
chaos on the streets, the crowds in the narrow
shopping lanes, the omnipresent Buddhism, the
different ethnicities, the river with its busy
traffic, the numberless food stands,
the colour of the flowers among all the dirt and the
full range of all smells. Having lived in Bangkok long
enough, I have learnt to tolerate all the negative
aspects of the Thai world and to accept the Thai
attitude of ranking fun higher than duty. So my motto
"Every Day is Sunday" was born in Bangkok while I
enjoyed my strolls through the flower markets, the
breaks at my rooftop pool and the nightly views from
my balcony.
Unlike
Ebringen, Bangkok has no vineyards and no mountains
around it. But its panoramic views easily match those
of Southern Baden. There are more skyscrapers in
Bangkok than hills in the Black Forest, and the
fireworks on New Year's Eve spread across the horizon
just like the vines in Ebringen.
view from the Maha Nakhon
tower
New Year's Eve
I
would not like to stay in Thailand permanently. That
would involve too many negative aspects. But I call
myself lucky to be able to cherish the beauty and the
culture of both my home countries, Thailand and Germany.
3. Cherishing Friendships
When
one turns 80, many an old friend has passed away
already. I was lucky: I lost only a few between 75
and 80. So I could still enjoy their company, albeit
quite rarely with some of them because they live 5000 miles
away from Ebringen, both to the East and to the
West. I like to mention three pairs each from
nearby and from far away. First my German
friends from Ebringen, Freiburg and München:
Sylvi and Dieter
Lanfen and Bailu
Almut and Wolfgang
Second
my American
friends from Ohio, New Jersey and Delaware:
Elizabeth and Vern
Norma and Gordy
Flora and Joe
These longtime
friends
were accompanied in the later years by the new
ones from Bangkok, all related to the
university:
Kay and Jack
Soamwadee and Paul
Last but not least there
should be mentioned those
friendships which evolved out of
business relations. Years after my
retirement the age difference
between me and my first scientific
coworkers had become
insignificant, and we formed a
small group which meets once a
year. Similarly pleasant ties have been established with the people involved
in my children school in Mandalay.
Harald Beurich, Egbert Keller, Eckehart Roland,
Felix Richter
Gerhard, Nay Win, Sola
All my
life I had rather few friends, but that was
happily compensated by the closeness and
durability of those friendships.
4.
Having Children
Having no children of
my own, I was lucky that late
in my life I was blessed with
so many of them who are all so
likeable. I have talked about
them in detail in the section
on my family. Here I wish to
mention again those three who
became dearest to my heart, my
daughters Lanfen (born 1963),
Mian (born 1962) and Nalapan
(born 1988). The photos show
them as they looked when I
first met them.
Lanfen 1991
Mian 1999
Nalapan 2009
But this
short chapter cannot end without
showing the large group of my
little ones in my preschool in
Mandalay.
2019 painting of Myo Zin
from Mandalay
5.
Celebrating
Anniversaries
In my life many things
of significance happened between
my 25th and
30th year. I
bought my
first car, I
received my
Dr. degree, I
got married, I
went abroad, I
started my
scientific
carreer, I met
my longtime
friends, and I
obtained my
permanent
position in
public
service. Thus
the 50th
anniversaries
of all these
events were
due between my
75th and 80th
year. Some of
them were
worth
celebrating.
My
time as a a
student ended
on March 2,
1967 when I
received my
Dr. degree.
The university
of München
honoured me by
issuing
a renewal document
on March 2,
2017. Some old
contemporaries
and colleagues
joined me in
celebrating
this in
München.
the two "promotion" documents
guests at my "promotion" party
In
October 1967
I started my
work as a
postdoctoral
fellow in
Madison,
Wisconsin, in
the group of
Larry Dahl,
whom I hold in
such high
esteem. It was
in his group
where I met
the longtime
friends Gordy,
Joe and Vern,
mentioned
above.
There was no
doubt that the
50th
anniversary of
this had to be
celebrated. So
I went to
Madison in
October 2017
and enjoyed
the company of
all four of
them and their
wives. The
vitality of
Larry (then
88) and his
wife June
(then 87) was
delightful.
Larry 1967
Larry 2017
the old buddies
the group reunion
Vern
and I have
become like
brothers,
having visited
the
other
countless
times and shared
delights
of the palate
and pains of
the back.
The year 1968
also marked
our first camping
trip to
the American
West. I fell
in love with
it, and I have
returned again
and again,
camping in the
wilderness and
in the
National
Parks. So
after 50
years, in
2018, I had to
repeat that
first trip in
a campervan.
The photos
below show us
in the north
of Wyoming
near the
border with
Montana.
Bighorn Canyon 1968
Bighorn Canyon 2018
One
25 year
anniversary
must be
mentioned here
because it
relates to my
second home
Bangkok. The
first time I
visited
Bangkok was in
1981. It was
love at first
sight, and I
immediately
thought of
reasons to
come back,
an obvious
reason being a
scientific
visit of "the"
university.
"The"
university was
supposed to be
Thammasat, the
only one that
I became aware
of,
not knowing
that Thammasat
does not have
a chemistry
department.
Well, it took
25 years
before I
really visited
a chemistry
department in
Bangkok, which
fortunately
was that of
Chulalongkorn.
My happy
carreer there
started in 2006.
The rest is
history, see
above.
the gate of Thammasat, 1981
on the campus of Chulalongkorn, 2006
I
come from a
family where
every
anniversary
was
celebrated. So
I hope that
there will be
a few more for
me to
celebrate.
6.
Revelling
in Nostalgia
When
one is 80,
looking back
has become
more frequent
than looking
ahead.
Fortunately in
my life there
has been an
abundance
of
events and
places which
are worth
looking back
at. So with
the help of my
photos I could
turn my lonely
evenings into
festivals of
nostalgia,
relating to
the farthest
away places or
the
unsurpassably
romantic
moments.
"Farthest
away" is
demonstrated
by the drawing
below which
shows an
inverse
projection of
New Zealand
through the
center of the
earth onto the
map of Europe.
"Unsurpassably
romantic" is
demonstrated
by the evening
scene viewed
from my place
in the
wilderness
where I spent
the night in
my campervan.
Luckily there were
also enough nearby places
which were worth remembering.
In Germany it is the state of
Bavaria with which I associate
the happiest memories, in nearby
France it is the province of
Burgundy, both blessed with
cultural and natural wealth.
Escherndorf in Franken, Bavaria, home of the famous
white wine "Escherndorfer Lump"
near the Cotes du Beaune in Burgundy, France, home
of the famous Burgundy reds
Each of these places offers
pleasures for all senses,
including the palate. Two of
them are shown below: when I
came to München, my first
stop was always the
Augustiner restaurant for a
really good
beer and the original
Weisswurst. A visit to
Beaune was always arranged
such that a tour of the
Marché aux Vins was included, providing
a chance to savour the
very best of the
Burgundy's.
in the Augustiner
in the Marché aux Vins
My
most
romantic
feelings,
however, are
those for the
far away
countries.
First and
foremost for
South East
Asia which I
have made my
second home.
Second for
North America
where I have
so many
friends and
where I have
travelled to
almost all of
the natural
wonders.
Third for New
Zealand with
which I fell
in love during
my first
sabbattical in
1981, and
which I have
visited five
times since.
Last but not
least for Sri
Lanka with its
amiable
people, its
magnificent
history and
its gorgeous
scenery,
which I have
visited four
times. One
photo for each
of these
countries must
suffice
to document my
affection.
on the left the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda in
Yangon, Myanmar
view from Muley Point, Utah
Lake Matheson on the west coast of New Zealand's
South Island
one of the huge temples in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka
I may not
have many more chances to travel
to far away countries. But I can live on with my host of
memories of them.
7.
Wasting Money
I could call
myself a rich man almost
all my life, because I
needed less for my living
than I earned. Thus I was
able to accumulate a
little fortune. As I was
approaching the end of my
lifespan, this fortune had
to be allotted. Having no
natural children to be
appointed as heirs, I
decided in my last will
that my belongings
should be donated
entirely to non-profit
humanitarian
organizations.
When
I came to this
decision I was
already busy
helping young people
with their education,
see above. This way
my "daughter" Nalapan
obtained her bachelor
degree in English at a
Rajabhat university,
and as a reward for
this I invited her for
a trip through
Germany. For my Lao
student Vanhxay, who
wanted to become a
doctor, I
payed the fees for his
pre-clinical studies. My
reward for his excellent
performance was of a
kind which is
unthinkable in our
world, but commonplace
in these utterly corrupt
countries: in order to
continue with his
practical years he
needed a position as a
doctor's assistant in a
hospital. Such a
position was
available, but only
for a "handling fee"
amounting to
1.500 Euros.
With clenched
teeth I provided
this fee.
Nalapan with her colleagues
with Nalapan in Germany
Vanhxay (left) in Luang Prabang
Vanhxay's family in a mountain village
The major decision
about "wasting" my money
during my lifetime, of course,
was the establishment of my
Foundation in 2012 (see above
and www.hv-foundation.de). By
the end of 2020 about one fifth of my
estate was
spent in this context,
and no other expenditure in
my life has provided me with
so much pleasure and
satisfaction.
The first
big project was the
preschool in Mandalay,
Myanmar. I payed for the
land and the first
building. By 2018 the
school was so successful
that an extension was
deemed appropriate. I
provided the money, and
the extended building was
finished in 2019. It can
hold 140 children, and it
didn't take long and it
was full again.
location of the school in Paleik near Mandalay
the new building
the opening ceremony
My activities in Luang
Prabang, Laos, evolved slowly.
First I just supported Michael
Sebastian, the founder of the SMILE
project, with small amounts.
When the lease of his school
building was going to be
terminated, I decided to
become fully involved. I
gave the money for buying
a piece of land and to
start the construction
work. When finished, this
place should provide a
classroom, accommodation
for part
of the teenagers and a
living quarter for
Michael.
location of the school in the outskirts of Luang
Prabang
clearing the land
ready to start construction
All my life I was not
very generous in wasting money
for myself. But in my later
years this reluctance became a
bit more relaxed. The fun
trips from Bangkok (the
proverbial border runs) became
more frequent, and the long
distance voyages became less basic. I
didn't avoid the better
restaurants any more, but I
still did not care about
fancy clothing or an expensive
car. Two of my pleasant
luxuries are worth
mentioning: the little sweet
extras once in a
while, and the real
pleasure of flying
business class.
With all the
satisfaction they give, these
little pleasures and big
activities are still just the
preliminaries of the ultimate
challenge:
8.
Accepting
Old Age
After age 75 all the
troubles of old age start
sneaking in,
typically the weakening of
the senses of hearing, seeing and
smelling. In
my case it began with the
hearing aids and the varicose
vein operation. Then, slowly
but surely, the number of my
daily pills started rising.
The real
stuff came at age 78 with
the replacement of the
right knee, which
unfortunately was a
failure and did not
improve my mobility.
So the pills and the
various aids have
become my daily
companions.
the right knee "before" and "after"
I can't be without
In November 2018 fate
struck harder. A sudden attack
of polyneuropathy deprived
me of the feeling in both
feet, thereby severely
damaging my sense of balance. That added
the walking stick to my
daily companions. It did not
kill my desire to move around. So you
could see me with the cane
in my garden as well as
20.000 km away from
there at the
Milford Sound in Southern
New Zealand.
Let's not talk about
the nastiness of the memory,
but let's agree that the skin
of an 80 year old is no longer
that of a newly-born baby.
There is hope, though.
Even at age 80 I still had
almost all of my own teeth and
still my full head covered
with hair. That doesn't help much in terms
of strength and mobility, but it
offers a little
consolation against that lingering
end-time mood.
My
genes and my family
background have provided
me with rather realistic
views and a rather good
sense of humour. That
has helped me cope with
critical times, and it
will hopefully help me
through the times to
come. Is it
wisdom of old age
or despair which expresses
itself in the old German
epigram or in the adaption
of a Waylon Jennings song
below?
Well, I may be worn, but baby I ain't
worn out ______________________________________________
Well I look a little rough, and I've got a few
miles on me,
My body needs work, and my style ain't what it
used to be.
I've been wrecked a few times, and honey it
shows I guess,
And more than once or twice I have been
repossessed.
I guess that I'll no longer make it to the top.
Well, I may be used, but baby I ain't used up.
Be it like that or not,
there are certainly
enough pleasures and enough
places left, and
hopefully enough time to enjoy
them.
"Trink, o Auge, was die
Wimper hält, von dem
goldnen Überfluß der Welt"
(Gottfried Keller, 1879)
Mae West, my favorite actress, is
quoted as saying "Getting old isn't for the
faint of heart". At age 85 I have to
agree. The number of pleasant issues is by far
outweighted by the number of unpleasant ones. I
have had to give up my famous motto "Every Day is
Sunday". But I
do my very best to replace it by "Every Second Day
is Sunday". As
we are blessed by the mercyful ability to forget
pains and failures, I can say that in my memories
even these last five years have benn full of
Sundays. Yet, let’s start with the unpleasant
things:
1.
Health Issues
I
made it through the Covid pandemic unharmed. But at age
85 I realize with regret that there are
not many parts of my body left that do not bother me
from time to time. From bottom to top they are:
my
feet: the polyneurapathy is creeping upward and my
sense of balance is getting lost.
my
legs: the deteriorating blood circulation makes
them weaker and weaker.
my
knees: they have no grease left, and they creak
like a broken hinge.
my
hips: worn down by arthritis, they seriously limit
my mobility.
my
prostate: keeps swelling, impeding my urination.
my
spine: two vertebrae, fractured by a fall, have
required spinal surgery.
my
lungs: were loaded with 6 litres of water in 2024,
seriously affecting my heart.
my
heart: was down to 25% efficiency in 2024, brought
up to 50% by medication.
my
teeth: about half of them are left, allowing me to
chew only on one side.
my
brain (in parts): progressive forgetfulness,
mostly funny, but sometimes embarrassing.
my lungs full of water
in March 2024
my spine: two repairs
in March 2025
my pills
after breakfast
Fortunately
a few of my organs still work properly:
my
digestion: eating and drinking, the pleasures of
old age, are fully alive.
my
arms: not very strong any more, but still fully
functional.
my
eyesight: after cataract surgery I can get along
without my glasses.
my
brain (in parts): still quick and witty, sometimes
even too much.
The
number of my daily pills has reached a two-digit
value by now, and there is no question
that they will not get less any more. My stomach has to
be praised for accepting that.
2. The last friends
Just as painful as it is to get weaker and
weaker, it is painful to see the number of family and
friends dwindle, accompanied by that doubtful question
“why am I left over”. Several of the people mentioned in
the previous section had to go. Typically, the male part
of a couple passed away first, in my case the old
friends Wolfgang and Joe and my dear “postdoc father”
Larry. My most painful loss was that of my cousin
Dörte who died in February 2025. She was seven years
younger than me, just as if she were my little sister.
With her I had my closest relation, and she was intended
to arrange things after my death.
In
the previous section I have shown them young and lively.
The pictures below were taken when their diseases had
become obvious.
Wolfgang Storch
Joe Calabrese
Larry Dahl
Dorette Müller-Podobnik
Just like the number of my close personal
friends, the number of people in my group activities is
getting smaller and smaller. I still go to München, my
university town, once or twice a year. Each time I meet
there with old student friends in the famous Augustiner
beer house for “Edelstoff” beer and white sausages. Once
we occupied the largest tables, now only two of the old
friends are left. The same holds for the “Stammtisch”
meetings with my former academic colleagues from the
Freiburg Chemistry department. When I had my retirement
20 years ago we were twenty people. Now we are just
five.
in the Augustiner
the Stammtisch
Although
I regret to say that of my longtime friends only
one (Vern in Cincinnati) is left, I can count myself
lucky to be blessed with some deep friendships aquired
later. The deepest is that with Lanfen, listed as my
daughter in the section on my family, whom I have known
for 34 years now. Not quite as long lasts my relation
with Sylvi, my former neighbour, but who became ever
dearer to my heart with time. My love for my second
daughter, Nalapan in Bangkok, is dealt with in the
section on my Second Home below. With Susanne, whom I
have known for eleven years now, I had my ups and downs,
but we have settled into a warm-hearted relation now.
with Lanfen, 2024
with Sylvi, 2023
with Susanne, 2019
Another
group of people, however, who used to be my
subordinates, have turned into friends with time: my
doctoral students from the first ten years of my
professorship in Freiburg. During that time I was not
very much older than them, and the interaction with them
was more lively than that with the later coworkers.
Accordingly, they remembered me when they approached
their retirement, and we realized that our statuses and
our ways of thinking were getting more and more similar.
Out of this resulted occasional meetings with
some of them. This in turn created the idea of one
more (maybe the last) meeting of this old group.
This meeting was staged for my 85th birthday in my new
home (see below).
3.
My new home
Around 2015 it became obvious that I would not
much longer be able to handle all affairs of my big
house and garden in Ebringen. When polyneuropathy struck
in 2018, that finally obliged me to look for a smaller
place. I located some senior’s residences in the
vicinity, soon focusing on Bad Krozingen 10 km south of
Ebringen. I put my name on the waiting lists, and then I
had to wait for more than two years. But at the end of
2020 a flat that suited my ideas became available in the
”Parkstift St. Ulrich”. I moved in on February 1st
of 2021, and since then I have not regretted making this
choice.
Bad Krozingen is ideal for seniors. All
shopping options, all medical services, the train
station and a wonderful park are all within walking
distance. My 50 square meter one bedroom apartment on
the fourth floor has a panoramic view of the Black
Forest. All essential services for seniors are available
in the building, and the atmosphere in the house is most
pleasant.
the Parkstift
my living room
the balcony
When
I moved in I was afraid that from now on
loneliness would be my fate. But the opposite
was the case. Very soon I became friends with my
tablemates, and within a year I was part of a
joyful group of co-inhabitants. Now I can enjoy the
company of my lady friends, and I live in a most
pleasant relation with the waitresses and the ladies
at the reception.
Inge, Sönke und Ilse
Andrea, my favourite waitress
with Marga and Vera
There are always opportunities for group events. In these,
the ladies always are a majority, as the ratio of womem to
men is around nine in the house. Thus, a purely male event
is a cherished event for us as the minority group.
birthday party in the garden
the "boygroup"
4.
My second home
For almost 20 years now I have spent
every winter in South East Asia.
I
have grown roots there, and rightly so I can call
Bangkok my second home.
When people ask me “what are you
doing there all the time?”, I reply with the same
question “what are you doing all the time?”. I am no
longer a tourist visiting sightseeing spots. I satisfy
my daily needs, and except for this I live the
easygoing life of a senior, more or less like at home.
I enjoy my cozy apartment, the views from my balcony,
and my occasional Mojito cocktail on the terrace of
the shopping center “IconSiam” with the view across
the river.
The fascination of Bangkok is matched by only a few
other places, and listing all of it would go beyond the
scope of this report. I limit myself to two locations
and the amiable Thai people who are dearest to my heart.
Among the places which I visit immediately after my
arrival is the flower market.
Buddhism is omnipresent in South
East Asia, and so it is in Bangkok. When walking
around, every few steps there is evidence of it.
Little prayer niches, Buddha statues, decorated little
houses for the local spirits or the deceased, and a
multitude of shrines and temples. I select here three
of them which attract me occasionally.
the Erawan Shrine
Paknam Temple with the 69 m high Buddha statue
my favorite: Rajabophit Temple
Having grown roots in Bangkok, I
am fortunate to have found some friendships which go
beyond the occasional aquaintance. They are
long-lasting, and it feels like living in a family
with them. Like in other times in my life, they are
all lady friends. The three whom I cherish most are
named here.
Charoenkwan, my dear old colleague from Chula
YuYou, my hostess and the landlady of the Be My
Guest
Miaw, Nalapan's sister, my always helpful friend
But the person dearest to my
heart is my beloved “daughter” Nalapan, now 37 years
old. I discovered her in my “Be My Guest” restaurant,
where I became convinced of her talent. I enabled her
to visit a Rajabhat University, where she went every
Sunday (her only day off) for five years, obtaining a
bachelor degree in English. One of my happiest moments
as a father was the graduation ceremony when she was
handed her diploma by a daughter of the king. With
this she could get a position as a teacher in an
international children’s school, a really permanent
employment which is still rare in a third-world
country like Thailand.
Nalapan has become part of my
life in Bangkok, all the more as my physical abilities
are dwindling. Despite her fulltime job of six days a
week she always offers herself for help. I can trust
her fully in financial and organisational affairs. But
above all that she is a sunshine for me and others
with her empathy, her always joyful spirit, and her
loving affection.
5. My
Foundation
My
foundation’s history of these five years was marked by
both a very saddening and a very delightful event. The
saddening event was the disastrous end of the SMILE
project in Luang Prabang which we had supported with so
much enthusiasm and money. Its leader, the charismatic
Michael Sebastian, was arrested in the U.S with the
charge of child abuse in 2021. The case is not closed
yet, but the SMILE group fell apart without its head,
and the piece of land intended for the school is
overgrown with tropical vegetation already.
All the more pleasing was the development of
the children school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I have been
in Sri Lanka several times, and I wanted to visit it
once more in early 2021. Not only was I surprised by
the enormous development of the city, but also by
another one of the gratifying encounters which have
shaped my life.
Colombo in 2024
While waiting for the bus at
Colombo airport, I got involved in a conversation with
a Buddhist monk. His name is Indarathana Thero, he
belongs to the Darmadutha monstery, and he has become
an esteemed friend. He helped me find my way, and he
invited me to visit his monastery. There I learnt of
the operation of a rather small children school, and I
was moved by the loving care of the teachers for their
children. After thinking about this for a year, I
decided that my foundation should get involved there.
We provided the money for a school building, and on
Feb.1, 2023 we celebrated the opening.
Indarathana Thero
the small school
the new school
the opening ceremony
the opening festival
the new name
Meanwhile the school has grown
to full size with 50 children and 4 teachers. Unlike
the situation in Mandalay, the school also provides
meals for the children, as these come from the poorest
families in the neighbourhood. So far I have visited
the operation twice and returned home with most happy
feelings. The innocence and the joyfulness of these
small children and the warm-hearted character of the
monks and teachers more than outweigh our expenses for
them. The Sri Lankan children have the biggest eyes,
looking right into one’s soul.
among my children
children's festival
The development of my school in
Mandalay was not quite as pleasing. The military
junta is ruining the country, the civil war rages on
the outskirts of Mandalay, and the earthquake of
March 2025 has caused devastating damage to the
city. The covid pandemic has claimed one life among
my people, and two relatives were killed in
shootings on the streets. Fortunately the earthquake
did not harm anyone of my friends, albeit there were
losses of some houses.
The ruling generals try to suppress any
non-Buddhist operations. This forces the local YMCA,
which runs my school, to operate quite inconspicuously.
As a consequence, the number of pupils has shrunk from
140 to about 80. But we try to keep employing all
teachers and to run the normal procedures. The two
pictures of the founder with his teachers and among his
pupils look a bit happier than they really are.
The running of the school behind closed doors is as joyful
as ever. The children are learning in small and big
groups. Even though they are far below university age,
they enjoy their “graduations” and the accompanying pomp.
The
highlight of the year are the Christmas activities, and
during the whole lifetime of the school the founder has
been able to participate. The children practise for
months to please their parents and the German visitor
with their performances.
In Mandalay just like in Colombo the
faces of the children and their innocent livelyhood
are the reward for the founder for his activities, which
are becoming more strenuous with his progressing
age. I hope that I will get a few more chances to
enjoy this.
6.
Travels
My joints ache, my legs are getting weaker,
and my heart is giving me trouble, but even from age 80
to age 85 I have been blessed with the ability to to
continue with my extensive travelling, and my wanderlust
is unbroken. Be it in he immediate vicinity or be it in
far away countries, the number of places and people I
like to see is unlimited, even though in most cases now
it means to see them again.
The number of family and friends is
shrinking. All the more I feel the desire to see them
one more time. Thank God I still had four cousins in
Germany, and fortunately I have maintained the contacts
to some of my academic friends.
Christa in Duisburg
Irmtraut in Nürnberg
Dörte in Stuttgart
Pierre und Marie-Jeanne in Strasbourg
Wolfgang in München
I don’t have to travel far to enjoy our lovely
countryside, on this side of the Rhine river or just on
the other side in the Alsace. And the famous historical
places in our neighbouring countries have still been
accessible by car for me.
the Weser river near Hannoversch-Münden
the fortified church of Hunawihr in the Alsace
Chambord, the famous Loire valley castle
Marienburg, now in Poland, the seat of the German
Knights
During these five years I still have
been able to reach the places where continental Europe
meets the sea. I visited the Portuguese Algarve again,
almost 60 years after our first visit there, only to
feel the pain in my heart because of the touristic
overkill, but still enjoying its natural beauty. In
contrast to this, at the northern end, where Estonia
meets the gulf of Finland, the coast is still mostly
undeveloped. Travelling is still quite relaxing there,
and the leftovers of the medieval castles of the German
Knights stand as witnesses of a past when there was a
kind of united Europe already.
the Algarve coast in Portugal
Toolse castle on Estonia's northern coast
My enthusiasm for South East Asia is unbroken.
I cannot go and stay there for five months a year any
more. But except for the time of the Covid pandemic I
still went twice a year for a total of two to four
months. I have seen all parts of Thailand, and I love to
visit my favourite places again. The pictures show one
example each for the far North and the far South of the
country.
the white temple in Chiang Rai
the rock formations near Krabi
During all these years Bangkok has been my hub for trips
to the neighbouring countries. In three of these
countries my foundation's projects emerged from meeting
people there. This in turn made it attractive to go
there again and use the visits for exploring more of
these countries. The pictures demontrate this for my two
project countries of Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon
the extraordinary natural beauty of Sri Lanka
7.
The Sundays
As mentioned above, my old slogan “Every Day is Sunday”
can no longer be maintained. But I can say with
gratitude that there are still a lot of Sundays in my
life. In most cases they have to do with people or
places which I see again. But a few times during the
last five years I was blessed with unexpected days of
happiness. Again, my photos will express my impressions.
My new home, the Parkstift St. Ulrich, has turned out to
be a real benefit. Since I moved to the fourth floor on
the Eastern side, I enjoy spectacular views of the Black
Forest every day. And when I go out, either by car or by
E-bike, I have this wide and open Upper Rhine valley for
myself.
the view from my balcony
out in the Rhine Valley
Even though so many of my family and friends have passed
away, I still have enough with whom I enjoy getting
together again. And particularly meeting my people in
South East Asia, the friends, the colleagues, and my
children, warms my heart each time.
Vern and Elisabeth in Cincinnati
Erna and Dela on Sylt island
my children in Colombo
my teachers in Mandalay
The last Sunday event in this 80-85
five-year period was the celebration of my 85th
birthday in my Parkstift together with 30
coworkers from my first years as a professor at
Freiburg University. The age difference had become
irrelevant, and we could share a long and joyful
evening filled with happy memories and funny
stories of the past.
And were it not for South East Asia, the island of Sylt
where I once owned a house would be on the top of my dream
places.
So I
will honour it with another photo here.
my island Sylt
This concludes the story of 85 years of my life. God
will decide whether there will be another chapter.
Fortuna
with the horn of plenty, the Goddess of luck,
has been on my side most of my life. She
helped me stumble in the right direction, just
like my Guardian Angel caught me when I was
falling. Using the words of my old friend
Diethard, I can say:
If I ever
meet them, I will pad them on the shoulder and
pay them a drink.
Cheers!
