Dr. Arnold Krammer (Alumnus 1964)

Professor Emeritus of the Texas A&M University

Your kind invitation to recall our recollections of the glorious (in my case) summer of 1964 at the Sommerhochschule in Strobl brought back a stream of wonderful memories.

I was assigned to live in the home of Gräfin von Paar on the very edge of Wolfgangsee. What an adventure!  The Gräfin's home was a picture of the past centuries, with paintings of aristocrats on every wall and enough Geweihe to empty the forests of Austria.  I was mesmerized and living History. The Gräfin told me stories every evening over tea, on occasion walking me out to the edge of the Wolfgangsee to point out the spot where Enrico Caruso had sung over the lake. On one occasion when she apparently trusted me, she whispered (and looked both ways) that the death of Archduke Rudolf Habsburg at Mayerling in 1889 was "not suicide" as History believed, but murder.  I promised her that I wouldn't tell another soul.

Together with my daily classes and the Gräfin's home atmosphere, I learned more than I ever expected to, making my own career to a (G-4) Professorship a wonderful journey.  I recently retired from the faculty of Texas A&M University after 41 years, having taught thousands of students in the U.S. and as a Visiting Fulbright Professor at Tübingen (1991-2) and Jena (2002-3), and owe much to my Strobl Sommerhochschule experience of 1964.

Ich bedanke mich.

Dr. Arnold Krammer
Strobl Alumnus 1964