Advertising is clearly my thing. You can see it just by looking at my childhood photos, where I look like I’m being cast for the *Kinder Chocolate* packaging. Right?

But seriously: Before the idea of trying my hand at the advertising industry even crossed my mind, I gathered a wide range of experiences – experiences that perhaps go some way toward explaining why I’m so well-rounded and versatile today. They also show that I love learning new things and quickly getting up to speed on a huge variety of topics. Aside from excellent German language skills, that’s a key prerequisite for my job as a copywriter and conceptualizer. Some people call it curiosity.

I was born in Oberhausen in October 1964. After that, I went through the standard schooling – which I’ll skip here in order to not make you fall asleep.

My interests have always been versatile, and so in my younger years I practised as a magician, detective, scientist and author, among other things, and later I intermittently tried to sell vacuum cleaners and capital investments... well. Today, in addition to my professional activities, I dedicate myself to fine art.

No, never an athlete – even though I tried tennis and table tennis. That wasn't really necessary either, as I grew up in the countryside (in Krudenburg on the Lower Rhine) and was practically on foot or by bike all day.

My favourite sport was reading. I read everything I could get my hands on from the school library – from Asterix & Obelix, through The Three Investigators and Mark Brandis, to hefty tomes about aviation, shipping (and all the accidents), and the universe in general. When I got bored, my lexicon also had to serve as reading material. Wasn't the worst thing...

At some point, from home, I was Forbidden to borrow more than 3 books at once. That was quite nasty, because at that time I was consuming about 3 „Famous Five“ books a day. So I had to show up there every day. Which was rather difficult on the weekends.

Oh, by the way: I forgot to mention that for a very, very long time (months? a year?), I was grounded. Why, I've forgotten, but I think it had to do with my stepmother, who certainly did credit to her evil counterparts from various fairy tales. Probably also a reason why I learned to grit my teeth and to solve problems, rather than discussing it at length. Ultimately, therefore, also a valuable experience.

You'll best see the individual stages of my life so far at the bottom of the timeline. This saves time and should also inform you sufficiently.