Even as a six-year-old, I wanted to become a conservationist. When I was at school, I felt sorry for the whales, but also for the Amazon rainforests, which were being mercilessly cut down even then. I studied forestry to become a forest ranger. Only later did I realize that forestry is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Large clear-cuts up and down the country are evidence of this. I worked in the Rhineland-Palatinate state forestry administration for around twenty years before realizing that it is almost impossible to change the system from within. That's why I founded my own ecological forestry business for my home community.
Because I told people about the secret life of trees on forest tours and was met with enthusiasm, I started writing about it at my wife's request in 2007. The 16th book, "The Secret Life of Trees", was surprisingly a global success and was translated into around 50 languages. I still work as a lecturer at the Forest Academy, which was founded in 2017 and has been owned by my son Tobias and his wife Johanna since 2018, when I'm not writing a new book or on a lecture tour.
After a long journey through the world of forests, I am finally doing what I wanted to do as a small child: Nature conservation.
