The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

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Thanks for the Memories by Mathilda Nickel Born in Ohio, Matilda Nickel began her singing career in Europe with a Fulbright Fellowship for study in Hamburg. She sang extensively across Europe, making her London debut at Wigmore Hall. Since returning to the United States she has sung leading roles with opera companies from coast to coast. Nickel’s affinity for American composers has led her to sing in many new works, including the role of Sabrina in the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Dominick Argento’s Colonel Jonathan the Saint. Nickel has also performed such demanding roles as Madam Butterfly, Salome, Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelo and Senta in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. She now lives in Winston-Salem at teaches at the North Carolina School of the Arts. IT ALL BEGAN with my very first trip to New York from Ohio in order to board the S.S. Independence. I was young and scared to death. When I located my assigned stateroom, which had four double decker bunk beds, the first person in sight was the famous conductor, Robert Shaw, sitting on a lower bunk. He was there to wish bon voyage to a fellow Fulbrighter who had been a member of his chorale. That was enough to get my blood rushing. The voyage was thrilling. Other Fulbrighters, who were musicians, and I entertained our fellow travelers and we passed Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, finally landing in Italy. The next trip was by rail up to Bad Honnef and our orientation sessions on the banks of the Rhine. Then on to Hamburg where I was to study voice and opera. Then came the reality of what war can do. I found a place to live in a high-rise apartment building, which had been built to house war survivors. My landlady, the wife of a well-to-do oil company CEO, had lost her husband and her home in the bombing, but she took me, an American student, in and treated me like a daughter. She fed me and saw to it that my stocking seams (no blue jeans and sneakers in those days) were straight and that my dates passed with her approval. It was not only my studies at the Hochschule für Musik that were important to me. It was the opportunity to go to the superb Hamburg Opera nearly every night. It was elegant even though they, at the time, played on what formerly had been the stage of their bombed out theater—audience and all. They did not give up! I didn’t learn from my opera studies alone. I learned how to live from these people, who had been through so much. I remember Christmas Eve of 1953, when a friend and I, another Fulbrighter, went skiing in Hoch Solden, Austria. She skied. What I did can’t be called skiing, but I had a great time! We went to midnight mass in a lovely old church. It was so beautiful to come out into the moonlit snow that covered the Alps. It was friends that I have lost track of, news of whom I read about in places like the New York Times—good news as well as the obituary of another Fulbright friend—that made the experience worthwhile. I learned that I can get homesick, but Thanksgiving dinner at the Consul General’s house fixed that—turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and, would you believe, fresh celery! I learned by work and play. I was with mixed emotions that I got back on the S.S. Independence to go home. I would love to go back some day. Thank you, Senator Fulbright.
Mathilda Nickel (far right) and Fulbrighters Pizarro, Patterson, Schultz, Brown, Roulier, Myers, and Border prepare for a concert during the Bad Honnef orientation. Then as now, public transportation is a staple of German cities. Here Nickel hops a streetcar. Nickel buys tickets for the Hamburg Opera 52 53
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The First Class of Fulbrighters FUL
Page 3 and 4: Welcome Grußwort A LOT HAS CHANGED
Page 5 and 6: AT VIRTUALLY THE SAME TIME, a fresh
Page 7 and 8: Dr. Werner Freiesleben wurde 1929 i
Page 9 and 10: alkoholischen Getränke bestellen k
Page 11 and 12: Auch nach 50 Jahren - immer noch Da
Page 13 and 14: courage, wie das in Deutschland nie
Page 15 and 16: Das Athen von Ohio von Manfred Kule
Page 17 and 18: mich gewähren, machten mir aber na
Page 19 and 20: Ich freute mich über die zusätzli
Page 21 and 22: Zu Hause folgen die Zeitungen Stedt
Page 23 and 24: DER STUDIENAUFENTHALT IN ROCHESTER
Page 25 and 26: 1953-54 Deutsche Fulbright Stipendi
Page 27 and 28: Uni or operas, or out for a snack,
Page 29 and 30: Delbert Barley, 1989 Delbert Barley
Page 31 and 32: German lessons in the garden in Bad
Page 33 and 34: A New Perspective by James E. Turne
Page 35 and 36: Charles Buntschuh, born in 1931 in
Page 37 and 38: Sometimes you have to ask for direc
Page 39 and 40: from the war on the road to Bad Hon
Page 41 and 42: fled back to the perennial Californ
Page 43 and 44: A Dream of a Lifetime by Trudy Gilg
Page 45 and 46: WE WENT AS A GROUP to the big beer
Page 47 and 48: The mother took in laundry from the
Page 49 and 50: After a week with the relatives we
Page 51 and 52: Contributing to the Next Generation
Page 53: Designated an “Entartete Künstle
Page 57 and 58: Payne (center front), Baer (left fr
Page 59 and 60: 1953-54 Fulbright Grantees to Germa
Page 61 and 62: The first class of Fulbrighters is
Page 63: IMPRINT Publisher: German-American
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The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

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