Our series gives international Germany alumni the opportunity to report on the impact their funding and stay in Germany had on their personal development and professional career. His stay in Germany became a true career springboard for the Mexican engineer Otto Plettner.
“Germany always has been and always will be a part of my life” – alumni Otto Plettner
His journey to Germany was a true adventure for Otto Plettner. The chemical process engineer was 24 at the time and wanted to get to know the country of his ancestors. So he took the opportunity to spend a semester abroad with a scholarship. Rather than covering the distance by plane, he decided to travel by cargo ship, which seemed like more of an adventure to him. Looking back now, aged 84, he recalls the trip: “To be honest, I only had a very vague idea of what to expect.” His odyssey took him from Mexico City via the USA and the Bahamas, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean and to Antwerp. “The sea voyage took over a month, and one day we got into a bad storm, but I still enjoyed it,” Otto Plettner says. From Antwerp he continued his journey to Freiburg im Breisgau by train.
Securing a DAAD scholarship
Otto had applied with the for a scholarship while he was still in Mexico, and had handed in his application to the German embassy in mid-1964. “It was a huge advantage that my older brother had also gotten a DAAD scholarship, so I knew what I had to do,” Plettner reports. In April 1965 he took up his work as the assistant of a chemistry professor at the Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry of the , where he learned more about the chemistry of plastics. This specialist area was to play a vital role in his future career. “The DAAD got me this placement and I am still very grateful for that,” Otto Plettner stresses.
Special characteristics of the German higher education system
The scholarship included a monthly allowance for covering his running costs, such as for accommodation. Furthermore, the scholarship enabled him to study a number of subjects at the university, free of charge. It was a bit of a challenge for Otto Plettner to navigate the , which was very different from Mexico’s. “Chemical process engineering was not a field of study in Germany at the time, you’d either study chemistry or engineering,” he explains.
There was another major difference to student life in his home country, which the young man enjoyed a lot: In Freiburg he had a room in a hall of residence for students. “This type of facility did not exist in Mexico. I lived with my parents until I graduated,” the 84-year-old recalls. The student residence was in an idyllic location near a quarry pond and Otto Plettner, whose father owned a coffee plantation, has fond memories of this time. He particularly liked how quick and easy it was to get to know other students. Among the friends he made was a medical student from Berlin, and the friendship lasted until the other man’s death over four decades later.
Scholarship as a stepping stone for a career with BASF
In addition to his successfully completed degree, Otto Plettner also benefited from the fact that his parents had always spoken German to him at home, and that he had attended a German school in Mexico. His German is fluent at a near-native level to this day.
Following his studies, Otto immediately joined in Ludwigshafen, but he did not stay in the city on the river Rhine for long. “Those in charge in Mexico soon found out that a Mexican was working for BASF in Germany, who had a background that was of interest to them. They offered me the post of plant manager of the BASF EPS raw material plant in my home country,” Plettner reports. This was a vital step up the career ladder for him, so he accepted the challenge. He worked for the chemical group for 20 years, before leaving the company in the 1980s and becoming self-employed.
Still in touch with Germany
Otto Plettner never lost touch with Germany. One reason for this was that following Germany’s reunification in 1989, his father’s family’s real estate in Saxony-Anhalt was returned to the Plettner family. In the mid-19th century, Otto’s great-great-grandfather had bought a generously sized half-timbered house and two pieces of agricultural land. Otto Plettner took care of the property in the former on his father’s behalf. For 34 years now, he has been visiting Germany every year to oversee the refurbishment work. “It was an extremely slow process to begin with, but ever since the German association for half-timbered buildings got involved back in 2014 and subsidies have also been made available, the project has gained momentum,” the property owner reports. The exterior of the building has meanwhile been completed, but it is still unfinished on the inside. On 8 September, Otto Plettner will return to Germany for the annual Day of Open Monuments. However, this time he is coming by plane, rather than by cargo ship.