The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

Family Ties
by Chalmers MacCormick
MY JOURNEY TO GERMANY in late summer
1953 was altogether satisfactory, enhanced as it was by the
close companionship that I enjoyed with my bride of three
months, who was a German by birth. This event was also
enhanced by the presence on board the S.S. Independence of
other Fulbright scholars who constituted the equivalent of a
high-grade chamber orchestra. It was a glorious trip. I experienced
scarcely any seasickness and my wife had only a little,
which turned out, in retrospect, to have been morning
sickness!
Lilie and Chalmers MacCormick
Chalmers MacCormick was born in 1928 in Framingham,
Massachuesetts. He served in the U.S. Army, 1946-48,
attended Bowdoin College 1948-52; received a Danforth
Fellow 1952-59; and an A.M. from Harvard University
in 1953. Before leaving for Tübingen, where he spent his
Fulbright year, MacCormick married Lili Koelln. After
their year in Germany, he attended Harvard University
1954-58, receiving his Ph.D. in history and philosophy
of religion in 1959. MacCormick served as Professor of
Religion at Wells College 1958-1992 and has since been a
Professor Emeritus. He is the author of The Zen Catholicism
of Thomas Merton (1972) and has five children.
Our arrival and three-week stay in Bad Honnef was for
us a boon. We quickly learned that we could get pasteurized
milk just a block or two from where we were staying, and
didn’t have to depend on just wine or beer, as we had initially
been told. There were unanticipated bonuses, such as
the weekly rehearsals of the local men’s Singverein outside
our room. We heard endless renditions of such songs as
“Einmal am Rhein...,” a composition that has become a staple
in our private in-house repertoire.
We were able to visit my wife’s family in Hamburg and
near Kassel before settling in to Tübingen, which was our
main objective and which, happily, did not disappoint.
Four things distinguish the personality and character of
Tübingen and its environs. First, it’s so photogenic! Second,
in having such a fine university it exceeds merely ordinary
expectations in regard to higher education generally.
Thirdly, regarding its value to me personally, I will
mention a few professors who were outstanding. Helmuth
von Glasenapp was and remains one of the leading authorities
on Buddhism, especially Theravada Buddhism. In
1953-54 he was past his prime, but even so could provide
the impetus—as he did for me—to advance the study of the
history of religion in the global context. Whether Helmut
Thielicke, the leading light of his day, was truly such, he
assuredly commanded the awe and attention of the students.
Equally flamboyant, but decidedly more rumpled, was Otto
Michel, professor of the New Testament, whose captivating
teaching style, my wife once observed, was that of a genial,
drunken bear.
Fourthly, it was also special to us that my wife could
enroll at the university as a student of Egyptology. Professor
Dr. Hellmut Brunner and his wife, Dr. Emma Brunner-
Traut, both distinguished Egyptologists, were most gracious
and invited us to their home. Their kindness and hospitality
remain a shining memory from that year.
OUR LIVING ARRANGEMENTS gave us a window
into the lives of ordinary Germans. We sublet a room
in the Klostermühle of the Cisterician Monastery at Bebenhausen,
three miles south of Tübingen. Our room had
meter-thick walls and a genuine Gothic window dating
back to 1360 A.D., but no running water or kitchen facilities!
In good weather we could bicycle back and forth to the
university, and in bad weather we took the bus.
Our year was capped by the birth, on May 25th, of our
first child at the Frauenklinik, which was connected with the
university. Our DM 25 student insurance paid for the delivery
and the standard 10-day hospital stay for mother and
child!
It was the best year of my life!