“But in my view, Georg’s works are not committed to a sterile principle of objectivity either. For him, the question of justice and the values that are necessary for building a humane world play a major role. As I’ve already indicated, I’m pretty sure there never will be. Looking back, I know that Czechoslovakia, which I was born into and championed enthusiastically throughout my childhood and youth, wasn’t paradise for everyone. Even Tomáš G. Masaryk, with all his excellent qualities, could not do it, and the events after his death, there and in the rest of the world, certainly did not promote the prospects of a better world.
Georg is a man of duty: he is almost always working, whether on his scientific writings, on supporting his doctoral students and other young historians, or on political and social issues. He mainly reads newspapers and specialist literature to find out more, or he swims for the sake of his health. But reading for pure pleasure, watching films or plays - unlike me, he almost never does that. (Although, to be honest, I often do this with a guilty conscience, and I feel better when I can convince myself that it has a useful purpose.)
My head is full of “Moischelach” stories that I read at Rakous’ or that Frau Wondrasch told me in Teinitz; My father’s pranks from his youth, the Fritz Löhner parodies that my mother knew by heart, stories that were told in Teinitz about people I knew, some of which go back a few generations - they all add up to a colorful picture of life, which, however, has more funny than sad sides.”
Source: Wilma and Georg Iggers, Zwei Seiten der Geschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002, p. 308f (translation)