After attending the Fichtegymnasium in Krefeld and graduating with the Mittlere Reife in 1957, followed by practical training as a radio and television technician, various industrial internships and attendance at the Berufsaufbau-Abendschule in Krefeld, I began studies in electrical communications engineering at the Staatliche Ingenieurschule für Maschinenwesen Krefeld (the SIS) in the fall of 1961, with the Fachschulreife certificate in my pocket. However, only after an entrance examination, which was obligatory for all applicants at that time. The practical training had left me with many unanswered questions about the function of the technical systems and devices that I had become acquainted with and had also learned to handle. This was especially true of the electrical communications equipment, because you can't watch the electrical currents flow. So I approached the engineering studies with curiosity and interest, and in the course of the studies I also found answers to many of my questions.
At that time, SIS was housed as a provisional institution in various rooms of the Textile Engineering School (the TIS) at Frankenring and other surrounding historic buildings, some of them older, such as a remnant of the old weaving school, we called it the "Webstall". Learning in small lecture halls in the same class as in high school, and in higher semesters working in small groups in the laboratories in the basement of TIS was well suited to my way of absorbing knowledge. I enjoyed attending SIS and I really enjoyed studying.
In 1962, I was in the second semester, I became a member of the Technical Association Borussia Magdeburg zu Krefeld, the TVB. This fraternity was founded in 1906 by a few students at the Magdeburg School of Mechanical Engineering and reactivated in 1958 at SIS Krefeld by a few old men from the Magdeburg days after the Second World War. The first rector of the SIS, construction director Dr. Ing. Wüstehube (see photo), who himself had been a fraternity student, had actively supported the request of the old Magdeburgers, for which the TV Borussia later appointed him an honorary member. At the first meeting in 1958 so many students of the SIS had come together that we were able to start with an impressive young team. For several years the Borussians met for their evening events (the pubs) and the meetings (the conventions) in the middle-class restaurant Spoul at the Südwall, which had provided us with suitable premises. Unfortunately, the beautiful building with its historic facade was later used by a furniture company and, one must unfortunately put it this way, neatly disfigured.
Attending the engineering school was a good decision for me, as was joining the fraternity. The social get-togethers, the informal and relaxed cultivation of student traditions and rituals, the singing of beautiful old student songs - all this was an ideal complement to my everyday studies and gave me a sense of security in a world that was still foreign to me. Not to forget the convocations and events where I could practice free speech, give lectures myself, learn disciplined discussion and improve my piano playing, the dance and regulars' table evenings where I could also practice social practices and virtues, and the joint attendance of cultural events. For two semesters, I also had the opportunity to learn leadership practices and how to plan and organize events, such as large foundation parties, on the Aktivitas Executive Board as a Charge (that's what we call leaders), and also improve my social skills along the way. As a batch, one also had the task of maintaining contacts with the other liaisons, of which there were quite a few at SIS and TIS at that time, where I could and also had to learn how to introduce, introduce to and behave correctly in a group of initially strangers. All this helped me a lot later in my professional and private life.
A fraternity is a life bond for its members. Even if the great time of student fraternities is over and we no longer have a young team, as an "old men's association", to which many ladies also belong today, of course, the Technical Association Borussia Magdeburg zu Krefeld e.V. still exists and is celebrating its 115th foundation festival this year. -- And I belong to it. I also owe this to the former State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering Krefeld.
Thus I can say in summary that for me the visit of the SIS Krefeld was a complete success. Since I was awarded the general higher education entrance qualification along with my degree, it also enabled me to continue my studies at Aachen Technical University. Also during my studies at the SIS many questions about the why and how and about the functioning of the real-physical world and the laws governing it remained open to me and also many new questions were added, to which I then found scientific answers, at least to a certain extent, during my university studies. Of course, many questions remained unanswered even then. And until today in the year 2021, at the age of 80, I still remain curious and continue to search for answers to the great question of what holds our world together inside.
