The Wonderful Character Traits of Peter and Joni Petschauer

“The way is the goal,” Confucius says. Anyone who has ever written a book can confirm this sentence. The path to a book knows crossroads, turns, dead ends, and unexpected encounters. On my way, I met Peter Petschauer in 2011. I was writing a biography of the conductor Hans Schwieger whose papers were at Petschauer’s Appalachian State University. I had tracked him down and sent him an email; he immediately agreed to support my project. He arranged for copies of the important parts of the Schwieger papers to be scanned and sent to me in Berlin. This unselfish willingness to help others is an essential trait of Peter Petschauer’s character.

Fortunately, Peter and his wife, Joni, were in Erlstätt, Bavaria, where they rented a vacation home for several months. In retirement, he intended to spend more time in Germany and Northern Italy where he had spent parts of his childhood and youth. By comparison to Boone/North Carolina, he wasn’t that far away from Berlin. So, I eagerly wrote him that I would like to take the opportunity to meet him in person. No problem, he wrote back, there was a guest house in Erlstätt where they could put me up. Another email came a short time later: His wife, Joni, had pointed out that they had a guest room, and they invited me to stay with them. This shows another trait of Peter and his wife: tremendous hospitality.

I gratefully accepted the invitation and made my way from Berlin to Bavaria shortly before Easter 2010. Peter and Joni picked me up at the Traunstein train station, and there was not a moment of strangeness, just immediate warm feelings of mutual trust and common interests.

To make a long story short: Very soon, an important friendship developed out of this trip, which also included my wife and our two sons. Peter and Joni were in Berlin several times; my wife Petra and I were often in Erlstätt when they returned to Europe. In 2015, we were their guests in Boone, and in 2019, they came to visit me in Prague, where I was working at the time. The capacity for

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friendship is certainly another important trait of Peter (and Joni) Petschauer.

Over the past 12 years, I have also gotten to know Peter Petschauer the scholar, including how he has productively translated his complicated family history—his father was a high SS officer in South Tyrol—into his research on the Holocaust. I am always amazed at how precisely he can remember and describe everyday elements, bringing together the history of culture and mentality. His output—books, lectures, essays, and volumes of poetry—is still enormous today. It is always a pleasure to talk with him. Peter is an excellent listener; he gives you the impression that an opinion is worth taking note of, even if he doesn’t share it, and always in an amiable, calm tone, which is exactly what is so badly needed in our overheated public debates in Europe as in the United States.

My friendship with Peter and Joni Petschauer is a privilege, as well as allowing me to contribute to this Festschrift. Peter undoubtedly deserves this honor. I wish him a continued productive life and the best of health.

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