Kurt Schwing Fellowship

Oct 6, 2012 | Graduate Fellowships

The Kurt Schwing Fellowship was established by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System on October 6, 2012, to benefit the University of Texas College of Natural Sciences.
Kurt Schwing in Bremen, Germany 1934.
Christa Schwing endowed this fellowship to honor the memory of her father, Kurt Schwing. Born in Bremen, Germany, in 1909, Schwing immigrated to the United States as an adult, established U.S. citizenship, and remained in the country for the rest of his life. He died in 2002. Kurt Schwing valued his personal connection with the natural world and never lost sight of being an Naturmensch, or “man of nature.” A poem from Goethe’s “Faust,” “Lied des Lynkeus,” best communicates his relationship with nature. The donor hopes this poem’s sentiment will strike a chord with each of the fellowship’s recipients.

Lied des Lynkeus
Aus: Faust II. Teil
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Zum Sehen geboren,
Zum Schauen bestellt,
Dem Turme geschworen,
Gefällt mir die Welt.
Ich blick in die Ferne,
Ich seh in die Näh’
Den Mond und die Sterne,
Den Wald und das Reh.
So seh ich in allen
Die ewige Zier,
Und wie mir’s gefallen,
Gefall ich auch mir.
Ihr glücklichen Augen,
Was je ihr gesehn,
Es sei, wie es wolle,
Es war doch so schön!

 

Song of the Tower Watchman
By Goethe
Translated by Christa Schwing

Born to see
Summoned to watch
Sworn to the Tower
The World pleases me.

I look into the distance
I see nearby
The moon and the stars
The woods and the deer.

In everything therefore I see
The eternal Splendor
And as this pleases me
So do I find pleasure.

Oh, you fortunate eyes,
For all that you have seen,
Life will be what it will be,
It was, though, so beautiful.

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