Remembering Professor Karl Pestalozzi (1929-2023)

In the Winter Semester of 1998-99, his last semester at the German Department at the University of Basel, Professor Karl Pestalozzi (1929-2023) taught a seminar on Contemporary German Poetry that concluded with a live reading by the poets discussed during the term, including Peter Waterhouse, Michael Donhauser, Brigitte Oleschinski, and Durs Grünbein. Each poet was introduced by students from the seminar. As part of our group's Grünbein introduction, I read a German translation of my "Waves of Clear Water", whose title comes from a Grünbein poem, and which recounts how I first read his work. After a long and productive retirement, Professor Pestalozzi died last week at the age of 94. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 7 August 2023)