Free Guilt about the Past by Bernhard Schlink

responsible for the escalation of violence. But it was indisputable that the violence on either side had escalated in a way Heidelberg had not seen before – even though all the injuries were treatable on an outpatient basis and the charge of attempted manslaughter was soon dropped.
    Across the street from the Hotel Europäischer Hof is the University of Heidelberg’s law school. On 19 June its doors were carefully supervised; it was not supposed to be affected by any street battles. When two young female students sought entry they were reluctantly let in. One, an education major, had been beaten by the police, lost her glasses, was distraught and crying; she was brought into the law school by the other student, a law student, so she could freshen up and calm herself down. As they both came out of the restroom and wanted to leave the building, they found the doors were locked and Professor S wanted to know who they were. The law student gave her name and semester. But why did he ask? The education student snapped that he should keep his mouth shut and let them get out. Did she also call him a ‘filthy pig’ as Professor S reported to the Heidelberg press? In any case, he slapped her across the face and then, according to the students’ report, he became enraged and struck the education student again and again. According to Professor S’s report both students left the law school without further incident after the slap.
    There was no legal consequence to the incident; the district attorney’s investigation against the professor was dropped and an investigation against the education student was never opened. But there was a consequence of a different kind. On 22 June, the law students held a plenary meeting in response to the events of 19 June. Not all the law students were gathered but the politically active ones were there, especially those from the Basis Gruppe Jura, the association of radical-left law students at Heidelberg University in those days. They resolved that ‘S no longer lecture’. A professor hit a student – the students did not want to let him get away with it. And they especially did not want to let this particular professor get away with it since in previous years he had attacked the students’ representation for their political position and had refused the Basis Gruppe the use of law school rooms that other student groups had enjoyed. He had fought them politically, using the law as a weapon while simultaneously preaching the apolitical formality and neutrality of the law. And in 1938, he had recognised the will and command of the Führer as the source of all law.
    On the 24 June, shortly after 8 am, the yard in front of the main university building was crowded with students as Professor S tried to enter to teach his class. Most of the students wanted to prevent him from going in, but there were also some who wanted to procure his entrance. One of his colleagues and several assistants accompanied him to offer him their support and to witness everything that happened, and the vice rector of the university was at the ready to diffuse the conflict and to guarantee that the class could take place. The stage was set for the usual drama of the time: an exchange of indignant and enraged words, screaming and tussling and, at the end, the professor’s retreat, or, perhaps arbitrated by the vice president, the students’ exit. But instead of this little political mini-drama, a personal vendetta was performed. A friend of the student who had been slapped, a chemistry major, sprayed Professor S from behind with a rancid liquid. The stench was intense, the students were aghast, and the professor feared chemical burns and other injuries. That was it for the class and the blockade; the professor let himself be taken to the hospital and the students dispersed.
    The liquid turned out to be butyric acid, non-corrosive, non-injurious and only foul smelling. But in the portrayals that followed, the event gained