The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

The first group of Fulbrighters were in Germany from the fall of 1953 to the early summer
of 1954. They included 192 students, 19 lecturers, 15 researchers, and 13 teachers and were
scattered all over West Germany and the western sector of Berlin.
Members of the American Class of ‘53-54 met up in Washington, D.C. in October 2002
at a State Department reception to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the German-
American Fulbright Commission. From L to R: Carl Alexius, Charles Buntschuh,
Donald Crosby, George Huson, Richard Hillsley, Jack Waldrip, and Reinhard Wittke.
Aboard the U.S. Independence
the Freedmans put on life
preservers during a fire drill.
John F. Mead, Executive
Secretary of the Fulbright
Commission in 1953
A special train took American Fulbrighters from Genoa across the Alps to Bad Honnef am Rhein.