Heinz Wismann is the ideal European messenger. A Protestant raised in Catholicism, in a town in Westphalia where there was no question of not being Catholic if you wanted to eat your fill in the post-war years.
A young Hellenist made his entry at the Sorbonne to teach German philosophy in the early 1960s. But in 1968, the good story ended, and he was “fired” due to a misunderstanding: a photo published in left-wing newspapers showed him with a microphone in hand haranguing his students.