German Donors Support Literature and Art at NYU

By Eric Narburgh

Inspired by their dedication to art and culture, two German friends of NYU recently found creative ways to make gifts to the University. Eberhard Berent, professor emeritus of German at NYU, made a commitment to establish the Eberhard Berent Professor of Goethe in the Department of German, and Paul Lott will establish the Paul Lott Lectureship and Fellowship Fund at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts (IFA). 

      Berent is making his contribution through a combination of life income gifts, which will provide him with tax-free income throughout his lifetime, and through a bequest.

      “This is all of my real savings,” Berent says. “I wanted to devote my money to something meaningful. The age of Goethe was the high period of German literature, and having a chair in Goethe will be a real boost for the department.”

      Born and raised in Germany, Berent earned a degree in engineering, but his real interest was literature.

      “When I had the chance to immigrate to the United States after the war, I wanted to do anything but engineering,” he says. “America is wonderful in promoting people who are capable and willing to work hard.”

      Berent took courses at Cornell during the day and worked at night. He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell and taught at Brown and Emory before coming to NYU in the early 1960s. Shortly after joining the faculty, Berent was appointed chair of the Department of German at Washington Square. He retired from NYU in 1987 and returned to Germany in 2003.

      Lott is supporting his named lectureship at the IFA through a combination of cash gifts and a charitable distribution through his IRA, and will fund his fellowships through a bequest. The lectureship will be inaugurated this fall.

      Although his career background is in tax and finance, Lott wanted to support fine art because of the positive influence it has played in his life.

      “Art has always been very important to me,” Lott says. “I have always enjoyed going to museums, and I also took courses so that I could learn and understand painting.”

      Lott, who is Austrian, came to the United States in the early 1960s and lived and worked here until retiring to Germany in 2004.

      “I hope my lectureship will give students an insight into the working of an artist,” Lott says. “It will focus on ideas. Not just the painters and their technique, but what is behind them.”

      This year, Berent and Lott were inducted as members of the Sir Harold Acton Society, which recognizes donors who have made individual contributions of $1 million or more to the University. Edward Sullivan, dean for humanities, traveled to Germany last month to present both men with Acton Society medals.