A anima naturaliter historian, a born historian, that is how Bunna Ebels-Hoving preferred to see herself. It was no coincidence for her that with her innate curiosity and interest she saw ‘history’ as her calling, she says in her History as a companion. She wrote this retrospective, well into her 70s, at the instigation of former students and colleagues who praised her as an erudite, critical and interested companion. Her memoirs never became nostalgic, that didn’t suit her.
Bunna Hoving was an afterthought. She was born in 1932 into a family of three girls. Her father had worked his way up from teacher to teacher of classical languages at the then 2nd gymnasium in The Hague. He died in 1942 after a few months of illness. Shortly afterwards, their house was confiscated by the Germans. Bunna was 10 years old, her sisters had left home and studied in Groningen. With the ‘little sister’, their mother also went that way, received an education and went to work to earn a living.
De Volkskrant portrays well-known and lesser-known Dutch people who have recently passed away. Would you like to suggest someone? [email protected]
‘All these events had a major impact on Bunna’, says niece and namesake Bunna Arends, who, following her aunt’s example, has also become a historian. ‘The period between 1940 and 1950 was radical for her. She withdrew into a rich fantasy world of her own, which colored everything for the rest of her life, sometimes to the annoyance of her sisters. She tended to romanticize things, no, not in a naive way, but her approach was different, she saw different depths in the stories than most of us.’
Bunna was 18 when she went to college. Later, she often mentioned that she was the only history student that year. The study consisted of lectures and reading piles of books. By the time she thought she had read enough (time was no object), one professor took a three-day candidate exam, comparable to the current bachelor’s degree.
Tricky rich guys
Almost immediately she discovered the joy of teaching. She got her first job at the then infamous Institute Hommes, where difficult boys from wealthy parents had one last chance to get their diploma. ‘A fantastic school, she said herself. She had no idea about didactics, as a student you were simply put in front of the class’, says her niece. ‘She could tell beautiful compelling stories, give good lectures and inspire people. The teacher’s knowledge and enthusiasm were very important in her eyes, as is also apparent from a statement accompanying her dissertation Byzantium in Western Eyes 1096-1204.’
Her violin brought her aboard a ship to entertain passengers on the Holland-America Line in the mid-1950s as a member of a student orchestra. The pianist was Ebel Ebels, a near-graduate medical student who would later become her husband. Not right away, he had to be patient, she told him. The day after she graduated, he was on the doorstep. They married, had three children and seven grandchildren. Ebel became professor of neuropathology in Groningen. He died in 1999 of cardiac arrest.
Thousands of books
Bunna herself took early retirement when she turned 55. “I should never have,” she said later. University and science were part of her, so she continued to publish in professional journals and talk about the Middle Ages she loved so much. She passed away on July 4, aged almost 90. Her niece: ‘She was very hospitable and sociable, very present, always witty and don’t forget: also a role model as a married woman at the university. Her house with the thousands of books was a place where people liked to come until her death.’
‘You often sat breathlessly listening when she spoke’, says her grandson Robbert (23) who, to the delight of his grandmother, also went to study history. “She planted the seeds.”