Fritz Stern, born in Breslau, Germany, in 1926. Ph.D. from Columbia University, New York City. Professor Emeritus of Columbia University, New York City. († 2016)
Guest of the Rector (1 April 2002 – 30 June 2002)
In the short time I was here I prepared and delivered various lectures, but my main task was to prepare from scratch a lecture for the German Orden Pour le mérite honoring the 50th anniversary of the re-founding of that Orden by Theodor Heuss, first president of the Federal Republic. I called the lecture “Ein neues Lied, ein besseres Lied”, a line from Heinrich Heine’s poem of 1844. The lecture will be published this summer.
In addition I worked on Chapter 7 of my book “Five Germanies I have known”, an enterprise I began at NIAS in 1998 and wish I could finish at NIAS as well. But I will presumably finish it under less favourable circumstances. The Rector’s guest is immensely grateful.