Life is a Journey: Live it (Part 39)

The other autobiography
Gisela was a real Princess from insight out. Tall, slim, blond long hair, walking upright always with elegance, polite and well-mannered. The old classical white Villa in Alsterdorf not far from the Airport Hamburg without the noise of aircraft, the family lived the typical life of the upper class. Once she invited me to their house and I felt more than welcome. To confess my feelings for her would have never been on my mind. I adored her beauty as much as my heart started jumping when she was around.

Opposites have a magnetic attraction for each other. Heidi Willer was my new crush. A round-shaped girl with short brown hair small in height not above 1,60 meters, well educated but not close to being elegant caused me sleepless nights. With her parents and her brother, they lived in a modern Villa in Wellingsbuettler Landstraße, in walking distance to their first jewellery shop next to the train station where today a bank has its branch. One night I took my bike to her house. My heart was beating. I put down a red rose next to the gate hoping she would see the flower, associate the gesture with me and fall in love with me. Nothing of that sort ever happened.

My history teacher was a talented opera singer. Due to sickness as a child he was handicapped. Being small with a leg not functioning normally he took up the profession as a teacher. His love for history fired my passion for history even more. Before the oral examination, he asked which subject I wanted to be examined on, and I answered Alexander the Great. He asked for literature on the subject and I gave him three of my books. I passed the oral examination with a mark of 1.0 and finished school with a mark 2,2 only 0,2 less compared to the school before.

As I held my A-level qualification in my hand I most certainly wanted to go to university. A one-in-a-lifetime chance was not to be missed or wasted. In line with the past, I set my mind on becoming a teacher. To enroll I had to pass a consultation session with my prospective Professor of Political Sciences. When I told him I wanted to become a teacher for Politics and History he advised me not to study to become a teacher for these two subjects. In 1980 when we spoke about my future many teachers, lawyers and doctors were unemployed. They drove taxis and made an income from other low-paid jobs. During my years at Hamburg University 1980-85, many people wanted to study Political Sciences. It was the time of Nuclear Power stations and Atomic bombs like Pershing II and Cruise Missiles stationed in Europe based on the NATO Double Treaty. The Numerus Clausus before I started to study was 1,1 for only the best of the best to be admitted. Of my 120 classmates, only 6 decided to study. For lunch, we met in the University Mensa. One semester later in Germany, this means about six months none of them were anymore enrolled with Hamburg University. I had to eat alone. It was not an issue of intelligence but a matter of self-esteem and self-motivation. No Professor is interested in any student. The students must get up in the mornings, sit in seminars or reading sessions and present their requested papers as scheduled. Unlike at school no Professor calls any parents and chases after students or wants to motivate them.

My first year at Hamburg University was very complicated. But no way did I want to give up. To adapt to university life which is a lifeclass of its own very different from what outsiders imagine I needed professional help. Hamburg University provides psychological support to help students get used to university life. For a few months, I used this service before I was fully integrated into the university. I had so much passion for Political Sciences and History that I ignored everything around me. My focus was on getting my university degree but I never loved university life.

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