Categories: konigswinter, germany
Date: 25 November 2008 23:14:51
So there I was at Lincoln College following signs through the courtyards and corridors to find the designated room. When I arrived I managed to find one of the very last free seats - which involved squeezing past a lot of very intelligent looking under/postgrads.
It occurred to me that I hadn't a clue if Dr Lammert was going to speak in German or English. As the event was co-hosted by Oxford Uni's German Society I presumed it would be in German... and wondered if my rather sketchy knowledge of German politics would hold up under the strain.
After a few minutes, a whole crowd of important-looking Suits entered the room and sat down at the front. A nervous young man made his introduction as did someone else (I assumed representatives of both OUGS and Königswinter Alumni). One of them listed the speaker's credentials and also said that he hoped he was not piling on the pressure too much by saying that Dr Lammert was well known for being a witty, amusing and engaging speaker and then Dr Lammert stepped up to the lectern.
English, he spoke in excellent English - he had been an exchange student at Oxford in 1971. His talk was on "Consensus and Conflict". I have to confess at this point that although I wrote a few notes at the time, I have shamelessly plagiarised much of the following from a certain Harry Mount's account of the proceedings.
Essentially, Dr Lammert said that a democratic system does not necessarily result in stability and political stability is evident in non-democratic states - cf. the Weimar Republik which was democratic but not stable. Society is united by culture, not politics. Reason and faith are two major cultures in Western civilisation. He quoted the meeting between the then Bishop Joseph Ratzinger (now the Pope, of course) and Jürgen Habermas who agreed that one (reason or faith) cannot be sustained without the other. No society can survive or remain stable without a minimum base of common values, beliefs and orientations.
Major decisions in a democracy should not be viewed as truth. Majority rule can lead to wrong results (Kerensa says: cf Hitler who was democratically elected) and therefore limited terms of office are required. There is also the necessity for a possiblity of conflict. A society which does not allow conflicts does not allow individual freedom.
A a fairly lengthy Q+A session followed. I only remember one question in general terms: one young lady asked Dr Lammert to define something in two sentences. A tall order. I whispered to my neighbour that it was almost impossible to do - certainly in English... it might be syntactically more possible in German... The speaker paused and considered and then delivered his answer. He really did manage it in two sentences. Whether or not one agreed with his definition, I thought he deserved a round of applause for fulfilling the two sentences part of the request! Shortly afterwards, all the students melted away into the night.
When registering my interest in the lecture, I had had the option of attending a meal as well. I had assumed that this would be well attended by lots of students and I would be sitting in some darkened corner of a dining hall somewhere. I suddenly realised that I was practically the only non-Suit left in the lecture room and had a moment of panic. Help! Was I going to be sitting in some intimate little room with the Speaker of the German Parliament, the Deputy German Ambassador and Cultural Attaché and required to discuss German politics all evening? I wondered if I could slip unobtrusively away - and then thought there might be a place setting with my name against it thus making my absence rather conspicuous. I decided the only thing for it was to brazen it out.
I was directed to a room where thankfully there were already a few other people waiting for the arrival of the Suits. The room was wood panelled, the horseshoe-shaped table was highly polished with arrangements of freesias, silver candlesticks, white candles, silver cutlery, white linen napkins upon it and four sparkling glasses per place-setting awaiting alcohol.
I was seated at one of the ends of the horseshoe opposite a woman I recognised immediately as being Frau Berger, the person who had organised the Königswinter conference all those years ago. She was charming and so easy to talk to as was my neighbour to my left, Martina. [We were all on our best behaviour so we were all "Sie"].
Martina and I had an entertaining conversation about the various words and phrases used in English and German for excusing oneself to go to the smallest room. [There was only one available to us]. Having exhausted all the phrases we knew, she then excused herself - and I thought I would make my excuses when she arrived back at the table. Just as I thought that, I saw Dr Lammert walking towards the door. I thought, "Huh, now I shall have to wait a bit longer until he returns as well..." when he sat down next to me! Whereupon I thought "Oh heck, I can't disappear now... I shall have to hang on for a bit longer...."
Fortunately, just prior to his arrival, Frau Berger and I had been talking about Lammert's lecture and what we had enjoyed about it - so I'd had a bit of practice with my thoughts and phrases. Frau B brought the subject up - and I followed suit, reiterating my recent pronouncements. Dr L. was not in the least bit stuffy and, although in the lecture he had perhaps not lived up to his "witty and amusing speaker" role, he was certainly relaxed and had some very interesting things to say. To my shame, I can't quite remember what any of them were. I wasn't taking notes...and I was also trying to time my exit politely (!) which I did eventually.
Having feasted on fillet of halibut, fillet of beef bordelaise (which was sublime), sauté potatoes, seasonal vegetables, raspberry charlotte and coffee - and drunk white and red wine followed by port - I felt suitably spoiled as it is almost impossible to get much further away from what might have emerged from Kerensa's kitchen on a Tuesday evening.
All in all, a very, very enjoyable evening - particularly as it was so different to how I had imagined it might be!