The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

The mother took in laundry from the U.S. military
base. She heated water on the coal stove, washed the
clothes, then dried them on ropes stretching across the alley
with the aid of a pulley system. I was charged 25 marks a
month for bed, breakfast, and laundry. After the son departed
for school I would sit across the table from the parents,
who knew no English, and read a phrase from my phrase
book. They would laugh, correct my pronunciation, and we
would continue for many hours. While they were not educated,
they were fine teachers. Within a month we could
When people met me, they knew I was a
foreigner because of my accent, but they
guessed that I was from Holland or
Denmark and were very surprised to
learn that I was American.
discuss the finer points of daily life, death, and taxes.
Because classes did not start for a month, I bought a
bicycle and rode to youth hostels in Augsburg, Ulm,
Stuttgart, Tübingen, Rothenburg, Würzburg, Frankfurt,
Idar-Oberstein (they said I was the first American they had
seen since the war), Trier, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam,
Amsterdam, and then back to Germany for the train ride
back to Munich. Day rooms in youth hostels were a great
way to meet people from all over the world.
Back in Munich I studied physics at the university.
Another Fulbright student was an opera singer, so we
would line up ten minutes before the opera performances,
show our student cards and acquire any unsold seats for
only two marks. On many weekends the son of my host
family took me skiing in the Alps. Chair lifts were too
expensive so we would walk up the hills, then ski down.
When the Fulbright Commission sponsored a meeting
in Berlin, all 250 Fulbright students rode a train through
the Russian zone to Berlin and were able to travel to all
Berlin sectors. The music students discovered that they
could convert West marks to East marks at a very favorable
exchange. They returned to the East zone and came back
loaded with music books.
During a vacation period I discovered that the Turkish
Maritime Line would transport students for 25% fare. I
boarded at Naples, with stops in Athens, Istanbul, Izmir,
Beirut, Alexandria, and Venice. High points were climbing
the great pyramid and visiting the Valley of the Kings at
Luxor.
The goal of the Fulbright program is to promote international
understanding. It really does. One family revealed
that they hesitated to offer a room to an American woman
because, “American women drink, smoke, and wear lots of
makeup, and they didn’t want their daughter to be exposed
to those kinds of influences.” They were pleasantly surprised
when their Fulbright scholar was modestly dressed
and behaved politely, unlike what they saw in American
movies. When people met me, they knew I was a foreigner
because of my accent, but they guessed that I was from
Holland or Denmark and were very surprised to learn that I
was American.
SPENDING A YEAR IN GERMANY really
changed my life. I learned how others live, and how they
feel about many situations. I was charmed to see children
walking to their first day of school carrying a large cornucopia
of treats their parents had given them. In Munich
during the pre-Lenten Fasching festivals there was a ball
every night. On Shrove Tuesday they made rounds carrying
a coffin and singing “Fasching is dead!” Germans were tolerant
toward interracial dating in a way that would not have
been possible in America in the early 1950s. And they
loved the German Lieder; some of the Fulbright musicians
were requested to sing at women’s meetings.
During my Fulbright year, I developed a taste for travel
and for learning about other cultures. I have taken every
chance I have had to spend time in foreign countries,
meeting the people and learning their ways. My family
has traveled with me many times (including visiting my
German family) and enjoys promoting further international
understanding.
John G. Webster received a B.E.E. degree from Cornell University, NY, in 1953,
before spending a year at the Universität München on a Fulbright scholarship. He
earned M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Rochester, Rochester,
NY, in 1965 and 1967. He is Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the field of medical instrumentation he
continues to teach undergraduate and graduate courses, and is involved in research
on radiofrequency cardiac ablation (heating) to improve cardiac rhythm and
hepatic ablation to cure cancer. Webster is the editor of Medical instrumentation:
application and design, Third Edition, Encyclopedia of electrical and electronics
engineering, and 15 other books. He has been married to his wife Nancy since
1954. They have four children, seven grandchildren and they all enjoy travel.
War ruins greeted Webster upon his arrival in Munich.
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