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The time when students were starting to rebel

   Hamburg, how did I get to Hamburg? That was in 1968, I think, or was it '67? In any case, it was a time when students were starting to rebel. So I said that I was used to different systems, somehow it would all work out. And then I arrived at Hamburg Station. There were two assistants standing there, who said, “Yes, Professor, we are now going to take you to your room and then into the university and so on, and then we will be with you in your classes, in your seminars and we will mark any essays for you.” That didn’t suit me at all. I ran two advanced seminars, one about Heine and the other one about modern German poetry.

   I got to this seminar and didn’t understand what the people there wanted. There was a class in which I tried to work through a poem and all of a sudden there were arguments which I simply didn’t understand.
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