Life is a Journey: Live it (Part 40)

The other autobiography
The best at Hamburg University was semester break in spring and summer. Two weeks' work to earn money gave me in the summer from July to September the chance to leave Germany and travel extensively.

At Hamburg University Professor Dr Mommsen was one of my lecturers for history and famous German General Professor Wolf Graf von Baudissin was my lecturer for Political Sciences. Von Baudissin had invented the concept of Citizens in Uniform for the German Bundeswehr, the army of Germany. He saw soldiers not as the instruments of the state and saw war as another means of politics but soldiers as independent citizens responsible for defending national interests when needed. Thanks to him Germany has several Military Universities across the country. Any military officer must pass one of these universities. At the same time, Professor Baudissin was Director of the Peace Research Institute of Hamburg University located at Hamburg Falkenstein before being later integrated into the main university campus Von-Melle-Park.

While von Baudissin was the German representative at the OECD his time to lecture us was short. The new organisation was significantly shaped by him. When the meetings to form the OECD were on break he would share with us as much as possible about the progress of the negotiations. More than the press would know. For my papers about the peace Initiatives of the German government, once a week, I took the S-Bahn to Blankenese and the bus to Falkensteiner Ufer. The atmosphere in the old Villa was ideal for research and the staff were very friendly.

Professor Dr Stephani was my main professor for Political Sciences and Professor Dr Hartwich was my second important professor in my subject. My area of interest and examination was in International relations and International government administrations. My 150-page thesis was to discuss whether or not the European Assembly of the Roman Treaty can be seen as a parliament and what the history was leading up to 1985. In history, I wrote about the American fight for independence, and had to compare the American government system to the German government once. As a second examination subject, I focused on British government history and compared its governance to ours in Germany.

To present the thesis six months were given to us. The time to wait for the results lasted about three months before someone would be allowed to go for an oral examination. Immediately after presenting my thesis I left for the UK. Determined to leave Germany behind for good and the shame to call myself a German, I gladly accepted the invitation from Professor Dr Fred Blum from the previous year. In summer 1984 I stayed at The Abbey in Sutton Courtenay for a builders' camp organised by the International Builders in Worms. Fred Blum knew of my intentions to settle down in the UK for good and had offered me to use The Abbey as my base in England. At that time I did not know Princess Diana would pay a visit to the Abbey as a significant place in the history of England and with great importance to England today. Little did I know by that time I would meet her psychologist in London Harley Street off Oxford Street and Madame Tussauds. I gave him and the invited experts a presentation on Autogenic Training from H. A. Schulz the German form of self-hypnosis.

The day before my oral examination I flew back to Hamburg. Professor Dr Mommsen had contacted my mother days before asking me. He wanted to discuss the next day and advise me on how best to present myself. I returned his call and was relieved that we talked for half an hour. The next morning all my professors had gathered. I passed my final examination with a mark of three as I had lost interest in university affairs. I took my flight back to London later that day.

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