Friends

On this page I would like to introduce you to some of my friends. This "galeria" is not complete nor ordered in any way.

Let's start with Andreas von Dömming. We've been very good friends since we were fourteen, when we got into a conversation at school and noticed that we both were very much interested in mathematics, physics and programming computers.
We spent a lot of time together programming computers during the day and partying at night until we were twenty and Andreas moved to Hamburg to study Civil Engineering.
But the fact that he now lives in Hamburg did not bring our friendship to an end. We still meet on average at least once a month and I always look forward to it when I know that he is coming "home" for a few days.
The picture to the right shows Andreas and me during my visit to Hamburg in August 1998.

When Andreas is "in town" we often go to the Saga (a nice pub in Troisdorf, near Bonn) to drink a delicious "Hefe-Weizen".

In 1992 and '93, we went to the Saga nearly every Friday and we always met a lot of our friends and quite a few other nice people there.

Many of the friends we met in the Saga (most of whom I got to know through Andreas) were members of the youth organization of the German Red Cross in Siegburg (near Bonn).
I think the first one of the "Red Cross people" I got to know was Frank 'Balu' Honisch. When I met him, he had been training to be a librarian. Unfortunately he could not find a job in that area. Several months later he started training to be an educator, and he finished the training in 1998. Sadly, the job prospects in that branch don't look very good at the moment either.
This photo shows Frank in Summer 1993.

In February 1996, some of the "Red Cross people" and I did not know how to dress up for carnival - so we founded the "Kelly Termination Group" (KTG). After carnival we carried on with this idea as a humorous satire group with our own Homepage on the Internet.
In July 1996, five of the KTG people (including me) started off on a bike tour through Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria. We called it the "KTG Keep On Terminating - Tour '96". The following photo shows four of us (the fifth one, Marlon, was holding the camera) on the way to Bonndorf (Southern Germany, near the border with Switzerland).

This tour was sometimes quite hard (we had to climb a lot of hills in the Black Forest) but we had *lots* of fun during these two weeks!

The pictures above show Sven 'El Cattivo' Bothe and Martin 'Glawfinger' Glaw during our breakfast in a youth hostel in Bregenz (Austria).
After leaving school, Sven did his military service and then took up his studies of Chemistry at the University of Bonn.
Martin became a marine in the German armed forces (that is why we sometimes called him "murderer at sea" in fun). He was stationed in Northern Germany, but he came home nearly every weekend so we still had a lot of fun together during his five years in the army.
After leaving the armed forced, Martin took up his studies of Electrical Engineering at the Fachhochschule Rhein-Sieg (Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences).

The photo on the right shows Ulrich 'Graphics Ör Die' Clasen in our room in a youth hostel in Sankt Gallen (Switzerland), receiving an "enlightenment" ;-).
Uli is a very talented graphic artist and studies Graphic Arts and Design.

The last one of "the five brave riders" was Marlon D. When I got to know him in 1992 he was notorious for always bringing a rucksack full of "Hansa Pils" (a cheap canned beer) with him to nearly every party - even if everybody knew there would be enough bottled or even draught beer.
Since I also like(d) "Hansa Pils" very much, this might have been a decisive factor in our very good friendship which started soon after our first meeting and still lasts today.

In the spring of 1995, Marlon and I started our weekly "Hansa Nights" which we still hold every Monday. We soon noticed that - after drinking several cans of this delicious Hansa Pils - we developed lots of creativity during our Hansa sessions and so we started writing song texts.
The first one - of course - was about Hansa Pils. I wrote a simple but nice tune for it and some weeks later we presented the song to some friends. They liked it and wanted more, so Marlon and I wrote some more funny songs and founded the "band" (just guitar and vocals) "Die Hanseaten". Frank, who always liked to sing with me since I had learned to play the guitar, soon joined us.
The picture above shows "Die Hanseaten" during the presentation of their first songs on 1st May 1996.

Now, to bring this introduction of some of the KTG members within my friends to an end, here is another picture which was taken in Constance (Southern Germany, close to the border with Switzerland) by Martin during the KTG tour. Well, I think I just decided to include this photo because it clearly shows me with long hair (remember those times ...)

This picture shows Tobias 'Lord Schnittchen' Jelen during his holidays in Scotland in 1998. He asked me to mention that he was not drunk when the photo was taken, even if it looks very much like he was. He had just been out in the sun all day.
I got to know Tobi in 1987 and we met regularly over the next two years, but then I lost contact with him.
At the end of 1995, I bumped into him at a party and since then we have seen each other regularly again, at least once a week for the "Hansa Night".
After chucking his studies of Social Economics at the University of Bonn, Tobi started his training for the hotel business, which he finished in the summer of 1999. In Fall 1999, he started studying Business Economics.

This is Christina P. Like most of the "Red Cross people", I met her in 1992. This picture shows her during the Red Cross summer camp in Ringkøbing/Denmark in 1993.
After passing her Abitur, Christina worked for an insurance company. In 1999, Christina decided not to miss life as a "lazy student" ;-) and so she chucked her job to study Social Education. Welcome to student life!

The girl on the left is Esther B. She is the last of the members of the "Friday group" of the Red Cross who I still meet (more or less) regularly.
I got to know her at the "Red Cross Whitsun camp" in May 1995. In Summer 1996, I spent a lot of time with her, until she started going out with her new boyfriend.

This is Daniela 'Dany' T. I got to know her in Fall 1996. We soon became very good friends and have spent a lot of time together since the spring of 1997.
After leaving school, Dany started training to be an Educator.
This picture shows her during our camping weekend at Whitsun 1997.

The following picture shows Jan H., Sina P. and me in Vlissingen/Netherlands during our holidays in July 1999. Jan is a fellow student of mine and Sina studies Business Economics at the same university.

That's the story so far... (last updated March 2000)