Armin Mruck - Discover Towson - Towson University
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meet Armin Mruck
history professor emeritus
He established TU's first
study abroad and international
exchange programs.
Armin Mruck and TU students in Berlin, Germany.
In his four decades with Towson University, Armin Mruck has overseen
thousands of individual cultural exchanges and dozens of trips abroad that
broadened minds and opened hearts. But of those stories of travel and
transformation, none is more riveting than Mruck’s own journey.
In the summer of 1970, Mruck made his mark on TU when he established the
university’s first study abroad program, introducing students to Europe’s
leading cities. That first tour stopped in London, Rome and Berlin - East and
West. Berlin was, in 1970, still divided after the ravages of WWII, a war Mruck
saw firsthand.
Life During War Time
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Pages
1 person named Armin Mruck in the
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“My parents were good patriots, but very anti-Hitler.
They knew he would be a disaster for Germany and
Europe." Mruck says. “I was sort of perplexed or sad
that another war started,” he adds, but admits he was
a typical teen and really did not understand the
significance of Hitler’s rise to power. That
significance soon became apparent as hospital trains
full of wounded soldiers moved through his small
town in East Prussia.
At 17, Mruck was drafted into military service and
entered basic training for the Luftwaffe, the German
air force, in 1 943. “I never saw the inside of a plane,”
he says. Within a year of entering the military, the
Luftwaffe had literally run out of gas. There was no
more fuel for training exercises, and Mruck ended up
as a runner on the Eastern front. He was also an
occupation soldier in France.
1 person named Armin Mruck in
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Armin Mruck on leave
from German Air
Force in 1944.
What he remembers most is “fraternizing” with the French people, and being
lucky that he performed or witnessed “no evil or bad experiences.”
Coming to America
Eight years later, Armin Mruck’s life would take a completely different path. He
returned to his studies after the war and received his doctorate in history from
Goettingen University. He then took advantage of an academic scholarship
and came to America. After teaching at New York University for three years,
he began teaching history at Morgan State University. Among his students
was Judge Robert Bell, now judge with the Maryland Court of Appeals.
The Globalization of Towson
Mruck joined the faculty of Towson’s history department in 1967. Just three
years later, he would inaugurate his first study abroad program.
“It was so wonderful. So wonderful. It opened a
whole new life,” says 96-year-old Margaret Lafferty,
who was a student on that first trip abroad in 1970.
“We went everywhere around Europe. England, Italy,
Germany...”
That first excursion sprouted another 20 study
abroad tours including a January (or Minimester)
option, providing hundreds of students with life¬
changing experiences.
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http://www.towson.edu/main/discovertowson/arminmruck.asp
2/28/2012
