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| I met
Gerhard in 5th grade. I had been bragging that I
owned over 200 books, and when he seemed
incredulous I said: "You can come and count
them." The next day our doorbell rang and
Gerhard stood in front of the door: "I have
come to count Klaus-Eberhard's books."
(That's my full name in German; I was relieved to
drop the 'Eberhard' when I came to America!)
We have been close friends since then. We used
to ride around Berlin on bicycles, at one point
we collected every science fiction magazine that
had been published in Germany, we debated the
mysteries of the opposite sex – we grew up
together.
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Gerhard
1958
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Gerhard
1995
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| Gerhard
knew from his mid-teens that he was going to be a
mathematician; he had an extraordinary talent. I,
on the other hand, couldn't figure out for the
longest time what I was going to do with my life,
and for quite a while I was envious that he had
picked a career without hesitation and agony,
while I was clueless
until almost 30. Now Gerhard is a professor
for mathematics at the University of Bremen.
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