Freie Universität Berlin paid tribute to another cohort of alumni celebrating their Golden and Silver Doctoral Jubilees this year. Two of the attendees recall how their time at the university coincided with some of the most important milestones in Berlin’s history: Dirk von Einsiedel was a physics student when the Berlin Wall was built and John F. Kennedy visited the divided city, while Anja Schwarz studied veterinary medicine during an era of student strikes and the fall of the Wall.

Dirk von Einsiedel made quite the entrance on the morning of November 10, 1989, as he greeted his tenth graders at the Königin-Luise-Stiftung boarding school in Dahlem: “The Wall came down last night, and you’re sitting here at school as if nothing has happened?” Von Einsiedel made a split decision there and then. “Physics class? You could do that any old day – history was in the making. I set off with my pupils to Brandenburg Gate, where many more people joined our ranks.”

Von Einsiedel, who is eighty-five years old and celebrating the golden anniversary of his doctorate in physics, reflects on this turning point: “I had always believed in German reunification and was simply over the moon.”

Family Uprooted after World War II

Von Einsiedel’s hopes for a reunified Germany perhaps lie in his family history. He was born into the Wolkenburg line of the von Einsiedel dynasty in 1940. Because of land reforms in the Soviet occupation zone, Wolkenburg Palace was expropriated in 1945 and a young von Einsiedel was forced to leave the estate with his family.

He grew up in Minden in West Germany during the postwar years, later moving to West Berlin, where he began his physics studies in 1959. “Back then there were only about six thousand students at Freie Universität Berlin – something that is hard to imagine now,” laughs von Einsiedel. Although math and physics had been his favorite subjects, he found the transition to university to be quite the challenge: “It deviated significantly from what we had studied at school. I simply had to tough it out.”

Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

Von Einsiedel persisted, in part because he was motivated by instructors like professor of mathematics Karl Peter Grotemeyer, who was highly respected among his students. “Just before he was about to accept a position at another university, a group of us organized a torch relay to his home to convince him to stay.” The then-director of the Institute of Mathematics at Freie Universität Berlin did in fact decide to stay, but later moved to Bielefeld University in 1969.

For a time, von Einsiedel’s studies were relegated to the sidelines as he bore witness to the grim realities of the barbed wire scarring the city and the Berlin Wall’s construction in 1961. He devoted his time to helping the people who were assisting escapees from the East reach the West – something that could have easily landed the young man in hot water.

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Two years later, von Einsiedel stood in line with his classmates the entire night to see US president John F. Kennedy hold his iconic speech in front of the Henry Ford Building during his visit to Berlin. “I was really impressed by how he stood up for human rights and democracy, which is something that you can’t take for granted, especially when you think about who is running the United States now,” von Einsiedel muses.

Having completed his undergraduate studies at Freie Universität Berlin, he went on to study for a graduate degree in theoretical physics in Munich and Marburg. He then returned to Freie Universität Berlin, where he earned his doctorate in experimental physics on quadrupole interactions in ferroelectric phase transitions.

The Student Becomes the (School)master

Ultimately, von Einsiedel chose not to embark on an academic career: “I was never one of those researchers who couldn’t talk about anything other than their work after clocking out,” he says. “At the time there was a dire shortage of teachers, so I said to myself, ‘Why not?’”

Von Einsiedel stresses that he never for a second regretted undergoing teacher training and making this career pivot. After a short pause, however, he corrects himself, chuckling, “Well, maybe during my first few weeks at Königin-Luise-Stiftung. We didn’t really know what to make of each other at the school, as I had never studied educational theory or teaching methodology. I’m afraid I may have overwhelmed my pupils when I first started.” He went on to assume special responsibilities in his role as teacher and mentor at the school, and later taught the newly established subject of computer science alongside math and physics.

A Passion for Life-Long Learning

Von Einsiedel had no intention of twiddling his thumbs at home once he retired. His wife, who was a teacher at the same school, was still working at the time. That is how the father of three (now grandfather to six children) ended up returning to Freie Universität Berlin – this time to study for a bachelor’s degree in biology. In 2005, von Einsiedel, who was by this stage in his mid-sixties, was delighted to don his lab coat once again. The only difference was that he was now surrounded by fresh-faced twenty-year-olds attending lectures with him. He has fond memories of this era: “What was so lovely about it was that my classmates, who could easily have been my children, treated each other as equals.”

Anja Schwarz, who earned her doctorate in veterinary medicine twenty-five years ago, also lived in Berlin and studied at Freie Universität during a time of major upheaval. She moved to the city in 1987 to study. The 1988/1989 winter semester was marked by the “UniMut” strike throughout the country, which began at Freie Universität with occupations of institutes and university buildings. Freie Universität was administered by “occupation councils” and declared a “liberated university” for almost an entire semester until February 25, 1989. Schwarz and her classmates joined in on the protests against austerity and conservative education policies. The demonstrations were once even graced by a celebrity guest: Franziska, the sweet-natured veterinary school cow. The students took to the streets with her, an excursion that she seemed to enjoy.

The Start of Something Big in 1980s Berlin

“An event that left a much stronger impression on me than all the student strikes, was, of course the fall of the Berlin Wall. Those were exciting times, and I identified much more with the city in the following years,” says the sixty-one-year-old, who grew up in Voerde, a town in the Lower Rhine region in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Before she was able to achieve her dream of studying veterinary medicine, she first undertook a traineeship as a lab technician. “I wanted more than anything to go to Berlin. But the plan to first do a traineeship at home to bridge the gap while I was waiting for a much-coveted place in the veterinary medicine program was a very good idea for sure,” says Schwarz. Today she heads the Medical Affairs Germany department at the international biopharmaceutical company UCB, which specializes in researching, developing, and marketing pharmaceuticals that treat rare illnesses, neurological disorders, and autoimmune conditions.

From Veterinary Medicine to Pharmaceutical Research

Her practical experience in labs not only proved useful in her undergraduate studies, but also opened plenty of doors in her professional life later on. “Employers often took an interest in my application because of my traineeship and not necessarily because of my doctorate,” she laughs.

Schwarz never actually took up work as a veterinarian. “Jobs were few and far between back then, and I wanted to stay in Berlin at the time.” Following her studies she set off to travel South America and spent six months in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Brazil in particular made a huge impression on her: “I even decided to learn Portuguese.” For her doctorate later on she changed course and worked in basic medical research at the Charité and the Robert Koch Institute. She wrote her thesis on blood pressure regulation in transgenic mice.

Berlin is Still a Home Away from Home

“I really enjoyed the work I was doing. Unfortunately I could only ever get temporary contracts, which is typical in research,” Schwarz says. “That’s why I decided to switch to the private sector at some point.” Since then she has worked for different pharmaceutical companies. She even left her beloved Berlin in 2009 to move to Munich for work, before settling back in western Germany. Schwarz now lives in Cologne and in the Lower Rhine region. In a way, she has come full circle. Yet she has not lost her connection to Berlin – her friends always keep the guest room in their Kreuzberg apartment free for when she comes to visit.

 Mareike Knoke