Sphinx

I sit in Kilkenny’s Irish Pub
In Flughafen Schönefeld 
Uncertain and afraid
Or at least rather depressed
As the clever hopes expire
Of an interesting couple of years...

This has been my final week in Berlin as Einstein Visiting Fellow – we weren’t successful with an application for an extension, and in any case my long-standing collaborator, Christian Wendt, has moved to Bochum – and I’ve spent much of it trying not to get too miserable. It’s been a privilege to spend so much time here over the last three years, to work closely with an excellent group of colleagues and graduate students, to get to know more about the German university system and the research landscape (especially as I started getting invitations to events organised by the Berlin-Brandenburg Akademie der Wissenschaft and similar organisations), and to participate in some interesting events organised by the Einstein Stiftung. If nothing else, it has been incredibly good for my German.

I’m sure that, whatever happens with the ongoing car crash of Brexit, I’m not going to lose touch with Germany; the most positive aspect of this week was a meeting to hatch plans for future collaboration with Christian, I still have a co-supervised doctoral student to worry about, and I have plenty of contacts elsewhere. But there’s is something special about being able to develop a long-term relationship with a university and especially a city that isn’t one’s own: time to work out properly how the different library catalogues work, time to find the best cafes and narrow down my preferred Berlin craft beers, time to find the more obscure jazz venues. It’s easier to feel like a proper European, not just a tourist.

Highlights? The workshop we organised on Capital in Classical Antiuity at Easter; the discussion of Thucydides Reception at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft a couple of years ago; the crazy Einstein Fishbowl Diskussion where I had to react spontaneously to random comments and ideas. I will miss the sour espresso at The Barn, the barbecue at the Rollberger bar in Neukölln, the glories of Dussmann Kulturhaus but also the fact that every little centre, at least down in the south-west, has a bookshop. Some amazing jazz gigs (Aki Takase’s Japanic, Alexander von Schlippenbach solo, and a whole load of groups whose names I can’t remember at ZigZag in Friedenau), and the fantastic production of Parsifal last year at the Staatsoper. But I never did get round to experiencing any avant-garde theatre…

Well, the cats will be happier that I won’t be away so much, and probably my wife too. It’s been a big part of the last three years – and will also always be bound up with my move from Bristol to Exeter, as one of the things that broke my loyalty to the former was a line manager who thought such a fellowship was a terrible idea – why should I do work for a German university when they were paying me? – and that I needed permission even to do it outside term. So, I suppress my fear that it’s going to be much more difficult to collaborate in future, and look forwards. Any other European cities want to have me visit a couple of times a year..?