The young art collector was pacing the floor in the grandiose antechamber to the museum curator"s office. Martin Bernhard was uncertain what to say or even think, but he needed time to explain once and for all to his boss, the curator, why he had been making so many trips to Italy.
Martin was a product of the new generation of Germans who embraced a more modest style and peaceful temperament. It was as if this evolution of the national personality was part of the restructuring of the national psyche after the Second World War. His friends wouldn"t describe Martin as shy, but he was quiet and thoughtful, traits that made some people mistakenly conclude that he lacked depth.
Standing just under six feet tall with short cropped hair and blue eyes, Martin was the epitome of the new German so
