I was born in 1955 and my home was and still is the small Mecklenburg town of Sternberg. I shared my happy childhood with younger twins, brother and sister. My father was a doctor and therefore had very little time for us children. When I was nine years old, he died at the age of 32. For me, my ideal children's world ended at that time.
I was listlessly passing through ten years of school. Not ready for life yet, I learned to be a gardener.
Because I refused to serve as a non-commissioned officer in the NVA after my apprenticeship, I had to do basic military service in Berlin with the “Friedrich Engels” guard regiment at the Kupfergraben. This turned out to be a great stroke of luck, because the Museum Island with the Pergamon altar and the other archaeological treasures was directly in front of my barracks. Even as a child, I was already fascinated by history and stories from the past. I spent this time in Berlin extensively at the museums. All the museums and art exhibitions in Berlin were my new home. Many impressive theatre performances and concerts made my army time bearable for me.
Afterward, I followed the offer to strengthen socialism as an employee of the county administration and joined the party. They wanted to have me under control because I had distributed flyers in 1968 calling for protests against the suppression of the “Prague Spring”. It was only thanks to my mother's full commitment and intervention that I was spared worse things. I am grateful to her for that to this day.
My work was and is not spectacular. My only highlight was a deployment in the winter of 1978/79.
My real interests were in a completely different direction. I wanted to see the big, wide world. Modestly, it started eastwards. After two trips to Prague and Moscow I was recruited as a tour guide for “Youth Tourist”.
Immediately on the first trip, a life-saving mission secured my future as a tour guide. I watched one of my young men disappear in the waves of the Black Sea. As a good swimmer and diver, I pulled the lifeless man up by his hair from the depths of the sea. On the beach he could be brought back to life with combined efforts. When he regained his strength in the late evening, the young man confessed to me that he had been hired by the state security. Of course, it would no longer be in the report if I were not to make politically correct statements on the journey.