In order to be reinstated in the civil service after the end of National Socialism, my grandfather, as a former member of the NSDAP, had to prove his denazification. To his displeasure, he was assigned to Group IV as a follower. After paying a "monetary atonement" of 500 Reichsmark and bearing the costs of the proceedings of 525 Reichsmark, his past no longer stood in the way of his appointment as a professor of medieval and modern history at the University of Cologne. Relatively penniless at the time, he had to borrow the total of 1025 Reichsmark from his family.