Individual and group mobility, cultural and linguistic spaces across borders, multilingualism and multiculturalism of individuals or communities, are not new inventions of today. New is only the angle from which we are observing them, the good or bad will of the observer, the broadening or narrowing of his horizon. Human history was at all times covered by communication networks with looser or denser coverage. 

An ancestor moves in search of a better place with more freedom; he settles for hundreds of years, bringing with him his language, his culture, his customs, his clothing, his music, his traditions...blessing it with his seriousness, perseverance and his hard and productive work. A descendant moves back in search of the same freedom and betterment, bringing with him this time several languages, cultures, customs, traditions, hard and productive work – and in addition, the invaluable knowledge of people, respect for their diversity and their desire to live together in harmony, for their individual and common good...  

The descendant travels up and down the Danube and is diverted to Satu Mare, the Ukraine, and the Upper Tisa Valley, bringing with him his knowledge of languages, places, destinies and experiences of the people, listening to them and learning from them. Then he shares with us the results of his research in no fewer than 22 books published as author or with others, five practical courses of German language.... and Romanian for foreign students, a few hundred studies and articles, newspaper articles, conference papers and presentations.  

Dr. Hans Gehl was born in Glogowatz, today the village Tudor Vladimirescu, in the district of Arad. He studied German Language and Literature and Romanian Language and Literature, before specializing in Romanian Language and Literature, at the University of Temeswar/Timisoara. He taught German, Romanian, French and English at elementary schools and high schools in Sanktanna, Glogowatz and Arad. Between 1972 and 1986 he taught German and Romanian at the Polytechnic Institute "Traian Vuia" of Temeswar/ Timişoara. In 1973 he received his doctorate in philology with a thesis on German dialectology, published in Stuttgart in 1991.

Beginning in the nineteen-seventies, he tackles the Swabian ethnic culture from an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective, publishing works about family traditions, tradesmen, year-round customs of the Swabians living in the Romanian Banat (1973– 1984); linguistic and cultural contacts of Swabians from Romania, Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia (1987–2004); interethnic relations in the Romanian-Hungarian-Ukrainian contact space, and the material and spiritual culture in the Upper Tisa basin (2003). Dr. Hans Gehl was a scholar and a department head at the Institute of Danube-Swabian History and Ethnic Culture in Tübingen 1987–2004. He never refused his advice and support to those asking for them. His enthusiasm for research and his pen never grew tired. I know Hans Gehl, and I can say without exaggerating that many researchers in German language and ethnic culture are indebted to him for his good advice. He proved once again that science and research transcend all borders. And since the pen has become electronic, he created around himself an entire network, within which the expression “Hans Gehl said... "is somehow similar to "magister dixit."  

Dr. Hans Gehl continues to write and publish in magazines of his specialty, is a member of editing committees and reviewer for other magazines, and attends international conferences and symposiums. One of the latter is “Cultural spaces and archaic fond“, organized in Baia Mare on May 8 – 10, 2008.  

Today we have the honor and pleasure to welcome Dr. Hans Gehl among us, here in Baia Mare, to bestow on him the title of honorary professor of the Faculty of Letters of the University of the North in Baia Mare.