Veranstalter: Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies

Voranmeldung bis zum 21. März an marion(at)gerlindinstitute.org

Das Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies begrüßt im Rahmen seiner Mündlichen Geschichtsreihe Michael E. Willis, der seine "American/German Journey" vorstellt.

"It begins in 1966 at Roosevelt High School, when I took German from Frau Westphalinger, in the German part of segregated St. Louis. Since I couldn’t speak any foreign language, it was either French or German. I flipped a coin and glücklicherweise, German won the toss. Stories came out of that interesting time!

After high school, and on to college, Washington University in St. Louis to study architecture, and I needed a foreign language, so I kept the German. Herr Mainschein introduced me to Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Die Physiker and others.

No more German connections until 1980, when I came to Berkeley to teach one semester in architecture. It was on that trip that I met my future bride, Iris-Christa Alberts, a wonderful person from a village called Scheuerfeld in Rheinland-Pfalz. We married in 1982. And I started traveling to Berlin in 1984. In 1987, there was our Sophia. At some point, we moved to Oakland, from San Francisco, and a few years after that, we brought Sophia to various German schools, from Menlo Park to Berkeley, and finally to Oakland at the Altenheim. And that’s where the saga gets interesting. To hear more, including poetry and music, I’ll see you on 26 March!"

Um eine Spende wird gebeten.