Frederic Tubach

Born to German parents in San Francisco in 1930, Frederic “Fritz” Tubach grew up from the age of three in a German village on the Main River.  His mother died young, and he was raised by a grandmother and stepmother. As required of all German boys at the time, he was a member of the pre-Hitler Youth (Jungvolk) but was too young for the German army.  His father was employed by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and during WWII served in the German Army as a counterintelligence officer. After the war, at the age of 18, Tubach reclaimed his American citizenship and returned to San Francisco in 1949.  He attended San Francisco City College and the University of California at Berkeley where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1953.  He received an M.A. in 1955 and Ph.D. in German Literature in 1957.  He taught for a year at the University of Michigan and in 1958 was recalled as a professor to UC Berkeley where he wrote and published numerous scholarly articles and books throughout his 35-year career there.

Significant publications appeared in a variety of fields—in medieval culture: Struktur im Widerspruch. Studien zum Minnesang (1977); in folklore: Index Exemplorum: a handbook of medieval religious tales (1969), which is among the highly utilized reference works at the Biblothèque nationale de France and was in part reworked by a consortium of French medievalists including Jacques Le Goff (cf. links below); in the twentieth century: Michael Mann: Fragmente eines Lebens, co-author Sally Patterson Tubach (1983), the first biography of the youngest son of Thomas Mann, which was widely reviewed in Germany and is frequently referenced in publications about the Mann family; Germany 2000 Years: From the Nazi Era to the Present Vol. II (1986, 1992), German Voices: Memories of Life during Hitler’s Third Reich (2011), and An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust (2001, 2010), co-authored with his friend and Holocaust survivor, Bernat Rosner, and his wife, Sally Patterson Tubach.  This dual memoir became a commercial success and was translated into German, Italian and Dutch. Tubach and Rosner made numerous television appearances, including CBS’s The Early Show, and, together with Sally Patterson Tubach, spoke at more than 100 venues throughout the United States and Germany. One of those speaking engagements was featured on Book TV on C-SPAN2, and the book was awarded the Bruno Brand Tolerance Book Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2002. The authors also became laureates of the Friends & Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library in 2003 for An Uncommon Friendship.

During the turbulent 1960s, Tubach, as chair of the Student-Faculty Committee, became involved in key issues of university governance. He was particularly engaged in minority issues, which eventually led to the creation of the Department of Ethnic Studies.

Tubach also served on the Committee on Student Affairs, Educational Policy Committee, Fulbright Committee, Regents’ Scholarship Committee, and held the chair of the state-wide Faculty Committee on the Education Abroad Program. Tubach directed the UC Education Abroad Programs in Göttingen (1970-72) and Bordeaux (1993-95).  He spent three research sabbaticals in Paris and taught for a semester at the L’Institut d’Allemand, Université de Rouen Normandie (1987).  He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bordeaux in 2002.  He received two Alexander von Humboldt fellowships.

Tubach supervised twenty doctoral dissertations in German Literature and Comparative Literature. He retired in 1994 and from 2003 to 2018 lectured for European river cruises and land tours for Cal Discoveries. Over the years he has had productive friendships and associations with Michael Mann, Frido Mann, Christa Wolf, Martin Walser, the Thomas Mann House, and Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades. He has collaborated with his wife, Sally Patterson Tubach, on several projects.