Jef Jacobs                                                  

Jacobs starts off his account with a mention of the dangers threatening Germanic Studies in the Netherlands before, during and after WWII. He sketches the history of Germanic Studies in Leiden, calling Soeteman the ‘founding father’ of the academic course, and pays attention to all those who surrounded and succeeded him and left their mark on the course and its curriculum. In his conclusion Jacobs expresses his concern for the future of Dutch Germanic Studies.