been forming in his mind for many years, and securing the publication contract represented the fulfilment of a longstanding ambition: in the event the work would not be published during his lifetime, however. There were further delays before Kern was able to resume his German residency. He was now in receipt of income in Germany now including, presumably, his university pension, but for the first eight months following his formal retirement any money he received in occupied Germany was directed into a special closed account due to inscrutable financial regulations imposed by the British military authorities, the ambiguities of which were copper-plated with ultra-cautious interpretations inferred by nervous German officials. It was only on 17 August 1948 that Kern was able to enter the French occupation zone of Germany, thanks to the intervention of his old friend Jean de Pange who arranged for his invitation to join a History Symposium in Speyer, after which the payments began to flow again, though they continued to be subjected to a 10% deduction by the authorities until the currency reforms of 9 May 1949. By that time, however, he was at least no longer prevented from returning to Germany. Detoxifying history teaching In Autumn 1948, notwithstanding the bureaucratic hurdles involving visas and other documentation and the continuing deductions on his currency receipts, Kern felt well enough to undertake a major round trip in connection with the ten volume "Historia Mundi" for which he was making preparations. Between 20 September and 14 November he visited Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Paris, renewing old contacts and setting up new ones. In December he spent more time in Paris. In January 1949 he visited Bonn and Düsseldorf in order to try and resolve "salary issues" before setting off on a second round trip on 19 January in connection the "Historia Mundi" project. This time his trip, lasting around seven weeks, took him to Strasbourg, London, Paris and Madrid. During the second half of March 1949, while he was passing through Baden-Baden and Speyer, he was contacted by Raymond Schmittlein, the general director for Cultural Affairs in the French zone, with an invitation to become involved in a project for the "detoxifying" German history books used in the schools. Kern elaborated the idea into the plan that had already set out in August 1948 at the Speyer History Symposium, for a new "Institute for European History" to be