Dr Ken Mills (1943-2003)

It was with immense sadness that we in the German Department and many other colleagues and friends across the University learned of the death of Ken Mills on May 4th, 2003,  just a few days short of his sixtieth birthday.

Ken joined the German Department in 1974, after working as a tutor at Downing College, Cambridge. His doctoral thesis was on the Outsider Figure in nineteenth-century German literature, but Ken rapidly established himself at the heart of the Department’s academic, cultural and social activities.

He taught across the whole range of modern German literature and ran extra lunchtime classes for many years on the great German philosophers. In more recent years he established an innovative, workshop-based course on Theatre in Performance. Indeed, the theatre was an enduring interest, and for a quarter of a century and more Ken directed the Department’s German play, with a cast composed of undergraduates, visiting German students, and sometimes even colleagues. The plays ranged from the nineteenth-century drama ‘Woyzeck’ by Georg Büchner to the celebrated modern classics of Brecht, Dürrenmatt and Frisch. The last play he directed was a typically ambitious undertaking, Carl Zuckmayer’s ‘Des Teufels General’, which deals with deep problems of conscience within members of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. In all his productions Ken was guided by the text; he strove always to realize that, and avoided all gimmicks and offbeat approaches. Frequently the German production visited other parts of the country and was presented as part of a festival of German drama. The plays were in fact the most tangible evidence of the Department’s existence for the local schools and colleges, and have over the years helped introduce many pupils to the fascination of German drama.

Ken greatly enjoyed teaching undergraduates. He never described this as part of his job, still less as a duty, but rather - when he spoke of it directly - as a privilege. In the late seventies it was Ken who was the guiding spirit behind the reorganization of the academic courses. With his gifts of clarity and structured thinking, he was able to plan the layout of all four years, and to trace clear lines of development from one year to the next, a form of organization which served our students well for many years; some aspects of this still in fact survive.

In September 1999, Ken had to spend time in hospital, and it was there that an idea crystallized which he was able to turn into reality in the Spring of 2001: the German Cultural Festival, an extensive programme celebrating many different aspects of German culture: the visual arts, music, dance, cabaret, film and, of course, drama. The whole culminated in a drama festival with Ken’s production and those of visiting German universities. This was Ken’s way of putting German culture on the map, and it represented perhaps his finest hour. Only someone of Ken’s vision and prodigious energy could have organized and carried off such a project, and filled students and colleagues alike with the enthusiasm needed for the myriad tasks associated with it.

Less directly academic, but nevertheless essential to the character of the Department over the years, was the air of sociability with which Ken imbued life in the Department. Freshmen and -women, at the end of a hectic and confusing first week at the University, would be welcomed at a First-Year lunch, organized and prepared under Ken’s direction. Four years on, Finalists would be treated to a special supper and party, a rite of passage to the next stage of their adult lives. Between the two, students were likely to be invited to Hollybush Lodge in Stoke Bishop to enjoy a firework party, a barbecue, or a feast - Ken was a talented chef, capable of cooking a wonderful meal for a multitude or for an intimate group. For many years, Ken, ably assisted by the German language tutors and colleagues such as Brian Keith-Smith and Geoff Windsor, led parties of Finalists for German-speaking weekends in spartan surroundings in the Black Mountains and the Wye Valley. For many these weekends were a revelation, bringing out talents - academic and practical - which the participants never knew they had. Many described this as the best experience they had in connection with their studies.

It is probably no exaggeration to say that, for most of the graduates of the German Department since the mid-seventies, Ken’s activities, whether as teacher, producer, host, or party-maker, have left the most abiding impression. Ken’s office is the first one which one comes to as one arrives at the Department. His door was usually open if he was not teaching, and he always had time for students’ problems and for colleagues’ comments. Some students indeed went through their years at Bristol in the erroneous but plausible belief that Ken was the Head of Department!

Ken was in every sense a big man. The cars he drove were large, inelegant, but intensely practical and serviceable. For many years he drove a noisy, brown VW bus, christened the ‘Fun Bus’ by a former student and lifelong friend. Such vehicles would ferry students, or parts of stage-sets, or vast quantities of food to their appointed destinations. Not always watertight, and often acquainted with rust, they were key instruments of Ken’s commitment and generosity to his Department. His contribution will continue to be felt down the years, but all who were fortunate enough to know him can only regret the passing of a man who, in Fontane’s almost untranslatable phrase, was “Seele von Mensch” - a true human being.

Mike Levene