Prof. Krammer

3,668 Views | 21 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by chimpanzee
Ag_EQ12
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I am very sad to share that Dr. Arnold Krammer has passed away. Dr. Krammer was one of the best the Texas A&M History Department had to offer and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him. His Nazi Germany course was one of the most popular courses offered by the department. If I remember correctly, he won the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching twice (1989, 2000) - an award that is impressive to win once. He retired in 2015 and traveled quite a bit with his family.

Dr. Krammer had a significant impact on my life and the lives of many other Aggies.

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RGV AG
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Here, he was a great Prof.
agfan2013
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Very sad to hear, he was a great guy. I never took his class at A&M but met him through his wife who I took two years of high school German with.

Very nice family and both him and his wife are incredibly knowledgeable on many things related to history, culture, etc. Every summer they had a trip to somewhere in Europe as a vacation, and back in high school I spent two weeks in Germany with them on a school trip.

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FarmerKeith
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He was an AMAZING man...A veteran, a teacher, a father, a husband, and a truly genuine friend to what must be thousands of people. He was kind, thoughtful, and had a fantastic sense of humor...He was also the son of Hungarian Jews who survived the holocaust.

As a historian, he spent time with people ranging from Albert Speer, to Harry Truman, to Muhammad Ali. I named my daughter after his mother after becoming close friends having spent several summers with him in Eastern Europe. He wrote a book in the late 80's where the last known escapee from a German POW camp in the US during WWII turned himself in to Dr. Krammer on Good Morning America. He wrote a book about it called "Hitler's Last Soldier in America." You can still find it on Amazon.

Thank you Dr. Krammer for being such a dear friend and great man...Our prayers are with you, Jan.




CjAg05
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He lit up the room with his presence and disarmingly endearing demeanor, and he was a model professor that you respected and listened to not because you wanted to pass, but because he made you want to learn. His Nazi Germany course was an institution unto itself that awed and inspired three decades of Aggies. He touched more lives than he will ever know, and he will be sorely missed.

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TexAgs Sponsors
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Here.
jkag89
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Here
Cinco Ranch Aggie
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Here.

I only know of Dr. Krammer through my dad, who took his class in about 2004 or so. I wish I had taken it back in the 80s when I was a student.
Aggie12B
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Blue Diamond in memory of Dr. Kramer. Dr. Kramer was the type of professor that EVERY STUDENT HOPES THEY ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE and EVERY PROFESSOR WISHES THEY WERE; Brilliant and Interesting lecturer who was easily approachable and a friend and mentor to his students.

His history of Nazi Germany class was the ONLY one that I NEVER missed any of the lectures.

HERE!
Schall 02
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Great man. Great professor. And an out-of-this-world story teller. A treasure.

Thank you, Professor.
UTExan
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Very sad. I had him at A&M and when I went to Utah found some material on Axis POWs in the state: those POWs were an academic interest for him. I heard from him about two years ago. RIP, sir.
PS- I will not forget his funny account of his father in the Imperial Austro Hungarian Army: the KuK.
Liquid Wrench
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Never got a chance to take Dr. Krammer but I tried to. He and my hero Bob Calvert had cult followings.
GSPag`
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I had a seminar of sports class with Dr. Kramer and Bob Calvert. Bob and I were close friends and the seminar class was one of my favorites of all my studies. RIP.
jeffk
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Wow. I don't come around this board nearly enough and missed this thread until now.

Dr. Krammer was an amazing teacher and an even better man. As a history undergrad in 2001-2005, I tried every semester to get into his Nazi Germany course but of course it was always full. (He gracious forced me in my senior year.) He allowed me to pick his brain during office hours on a number of things/topics even before I took his course. Always so gracious and helpful. His teaching was enthralling - he'd just walk in each day and ask a student where we'd left off the class before and he'd launch right into it. An oh, his show and tell items! I lost track of how many times he'd preface an artifact reveal with "I probably should be bringing this to class any more, but..."

Dr. Krammer was the best prof I had at A&M. I feel fortunate that I was able to learn from him.
Danger Mouse
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I too attempted to register (back in the phone registration days) for Dr. Krammer's course. His popularity made it almost impossible. I will purchase his book as a way of taking his course 30+ years after the fact.

Here.
Rabid Cougar
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I know this is not the same gentleman but does anyone remember the History professor who taught a course on the American Civil War at A&M during the late '70's into the 80's? Dressed and spoke like he was a true Civil War veteran.
Sam and Dean
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Dr. Ashcroft?? The man the ignited my love of history from my first class with him in the late 1970's until now, and am eternally grateful.
"I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna...I shall never surrender or retreat."
agsalaska
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Me too. I tried several times to get in that class and never could. I was not a history major or minor so I didnt have much of a chance. But I still tried every semester.
The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you never know if they are genuine. -- Abraham Lincoln.
aalan94
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I was overseas when this was first posted, but I want to chime in now with my Krammer remembrances. I was not a history major, but a German major, and I think that's how I got into his history of Nazi Germany class at A&M when it was all booked up, because there is a requirement for German majors to take German history. We had a great class, he was always super sharp. A couple of things I recall:

1. His father fought in the Austro-Hungarian Army in WWI, and he used to quote an old Hungarian proverb: "When an old man dies, it's like a library burning down." It was never more true than in his own case.
2. I had read Shirer's Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich before going in, so I knew the material better than most students, so I was kind of that annoying nerd who always answers everything. But I STILL learned so much more in that class.
3. Someone in our class had a father who had been a doctor who had operated on the guy who captured Hermann Goering, and when that guy passed away, he gave him Goering's pistol (I believe it was a Walther). The guy had it all documented. He brought it to class and passed it around the table. Everybody got to hold it. This was 1993. Administrators would go ape **** over that today. But it was perfectly harmless and he carried it around in a cardboard box.
4. I really got to know Krammer when I went on an exchange program at the German University of Tuebingen, which has student and professor exchange programs with A&M. I had been there one semester already when I saw Dr. Krammer walking (shuffling in eccentric old man style) down the street. I stopped him and he recognized me and said my name. Turns out he had just arrived for a semester teaching at the university. I immediately signed up for his class, which was on the history of German-American relations. It was taught in German. His German was not as good as mine (I was very good in those days), but is more like what I speak now, which I called "rusty fluent." That class was fun.
5. When I became a journalist after college (that was my second major), I ended up working near Alvin, Texas, and I wrote to him and borrowed some of his notes on the German POW camp in Alvin, which he mailed to me. I used them in a feature story in my paper. Sadly, the notes were lost in the mail on the return trip, something I've been kicking myself over for years, but he forgave me.

I had some great profs at A&M, but he was very likely the best.
terata
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Dr. Krammer had one of the best, and a prolific, personal collection of German and Nazi memorabilia.
BCOBQ98
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Did another prof pickup the class or did it die?

Last exam I ever took at A&M. Headed straight from there to the Chicken if I remember right.....
agsalaska
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If you are class of '98, I was probably your bartender.
The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you never know if they are genuine. -- Abraham Lincoln.
chimpanzee
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I somehow lucked into getting into his American history class that was required of all students. It was like going to watch really well researched and presented documentaries every class. If you liked history at all, it was worth the cost of tuition just for entertainment value.

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