It is not widely known in the U.S. that in the early '70's in the German colleges that the inmates were running the asylum. The students were all Marxists and had these little cells with really boring discussions about how to be a good , self realizing Marxists. One of my two best friends, Thomas Kenngott (presently a smith in the Stuttgart area)and the only person in the smithy besides me who spoke English was in one of these and I went with him a couple of times and spent most of the time outside smoking. Well, they were all inside smoking too and using all these political words I wasn't familiar with. They did really clever things like call a student strike two days before Christmas holidays began.
One of the terms of my fellowship was that it could be revoked if I involved myself in any way in German politics. That suited me fine because I could use it as an excuse when they tried to wear me out over the Vietnam war. I simply said I wasn't allowed to talk , but that I felt basically the same as they did, end of discussion.
The Kunsthandwerkschule itself was in turmoil and declining fast. It was in transition from control of the City to the technical university .It wasn't totally clear to be, but I sensed that there was a lot of class stuff involved. Hands on craft was considered lowbrow and they were gradually phasing out the professiona shops like the woodworking shop with no more full time students. A full time shop person helped architecture students make mockups for playgrounds for example.Of the ten or so students only two others besides me were in the shop most of the time. Professor Ulrich spent a fair amount of time there fall semester because he was making a large number of heavy copper enameled bowls. After that he spent most of the time in the office, the excuse being that the transition required him to spend a lot of time there. I think the real reason was that the professors had no authority and could not make any demands , and he just wasn't going to fool with the lazy bastards. The ones who did show up spent most of their time in the well heated and lit locker room talking to each other and to Heidi.I saw a few kisses snatched along the way.
I wasn't going to miss out however, and Fritz was proud to have an American student, and we liked each other. I would take my question and my workpiece to the office and sit behind the counter until he had time to answer my questions. I was the only student to ever do that and it suited us both to do it that way. He'd come into the shop and demonstrate something for me when it was required. The only other guys who were there most of the time were Martin Barth who had a very pretty wife and who was a consumate craftsman. He made a lot of copper relief wall sighs for professional offices and charged surprisingly little. He was smart, modest , and showed me a lot and was very close to graduating. Thomas was there fall semester but had to leave second to do his alternative military service, driving an ambulance. Spring quarter a very strange Dutch priest came and stayed the whole semester maniacly fixated doing endless variations on the second exercise after nails, the forged double point.You forged a square point, preferably short on the far side of the anvil, and then on the near side corner another another point with the corner of the hammer, similar to the way a potter throws a cup off of a hump of clay.
My other best friend who rented a room a few blocks from where I did, came from a smithiing family near Freiburg and was very skilled.He almost never came in to the shop except near the end of the semester when all the students crowded into the forge trying to use the power hammer at the same time in order to get a project done.At the end of the year I went and stayed with his family and worked (for free) in their shop to get the feel of how a professional shop should run. I really learned a lot and realized why Werner was a poor student. He already knew just about everything, but had one of the meanest, most downputting jerk fathers imaginable. There's more to tell about the year's study ,but just one last thing for now. I went with Werner and his father and another of their workers to install a set of really fancy gilded ranaissance style gates inside a home. It was an hour or so away, we got there and with as my years experience as Mr.Holzer had, he still sweated like a pig and forgot a necessary tool and had to send somebody back for it while we had an extended lunch. So there is some justice in the world.
