received his habilitation (higher academic qualification) on 10 November 1909, this time from the University of Kiel. The qualification opened up the path to a life-long university career, and he now accepted an academic post at Kiel as a "Privatdozent" (sub-professorial tutor). The post involved no class teaching duties, and he was for the most part able to determine his own academic timetabling. There were also important developments in his personal life at this time. He earned his habilitation with a piece of work on the early centuries of French expansionist policy up until 1308 ("Grundlagen der französischen Ausdehnungspolitik bis zum Jahre 1308"). The dissertation was published in book form in 1910. Although it highlights its author's formidable skills as a meticulous researcher and interpreter of sources, the book also repeatedly discloses elements of the underlying Franco-German antagonism which were features of the intensified Franco–German rivalry that followed the Franco-Prussian War, but which post-1945 appear as distractions in a work focused on developments in the Medieval period. It is fair to add that during the id-1920s, apparently influenced by the foreign policy approach of Gustav Stresemann, Kern came round to a more mainstream view of the evolution of the France during the medieval period, seeing the issues in the context of European political evolution more broadly. With regard to the twentieth century, however, his fevered preoccupation with Franco–German enmity would endure. In 1913, despite his relative youth, Fritz Kern was offered and accepted an extraordinary professorship at Kiel. Government service In July 1914 he accepted the offer of a full professorship in Medieval and Modern History at the newly launched University of Frankfurt. At 30, he was the youngest of the university's professors. Weeks later, war broke out. For Fritz Kern it became an over-riding duty to seek out men of political influence and make himself available for "political" work: between 1914 and 1918 he undertook government work, at times in place of and at times in parallel with, his university responsibilities. Under-secretary of State Zimmermann persuaded the university authorities that Kern's first term at the new university should be replaced by a "holiday" whereby his linguistic abilities and familiarity with "abroad" might be used in the service of the imperial state. His initially assignment on behalf of the Foreign Ministry involved travelling to Rome where he worked on influencing the press. (Italy entered the war only in May 1915,