#WhoAmI
My story begins in 1982 in Papenburg, a 'ticky-tacky' fen town in northern Germany, often called the Venice of Northern Germany. Growing up near the former Emsland camps, whose administration was based in my hometown, I was deeply affected by the lingering presence of historical destruction.

From an early age, I faced significant health challenges. A severe immunodeficiency frequently brought me to the brink with 40-41°C fevers. Around age seven, I rapidly lost 70% of my vision. After years of consulting puzzled doctors, I was diagnosed with macular degeneration and told I would be completely blind by age 18.

Despite these challenges, I continued playing soccer, my favorite hobby, until age 15-16, when reality hit hard. Living in a small town with no prospect of a driver's license and being effectively disinherited by my father (a construction entrepreneur) who saw me as 'unworthy' due to my inability to take over his business, my life took a difficult turn.

What followed was a textbook case of juvenile rebellion. Protesting against school conditions, state policies, ongoing global wars, and particularly against a German teacher who gave me poor grades for appreciating Bertolt Brecht (labeling me a 'potential communist'), I set fire to my school in a night operation. Days later, I was dramatically arrested by criminal police during physics class, paraded past my classroom window to the police car.

Though threatened with 10 years imprisonment and discussed at the state level by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture, I received support from several advocates. This allowed me to return to another school (Aschendorf) and achieve my Realschulabschluss (middle school diploma), improving from nearly failing grades to a B average in just six months - proving that when I want to achieve something, I can. I just rarely wanted to.

My educational journey was marked by constant struggles with an inflexible system that failed to accommodate my visual impairment. Teachers who didn't understand that someone without glasses could be legally blind forced me to sit inches from the blackboard, where I still couldn't see the white chalk on dark green in certain lighting conditions. My independence and 'inner vision' developed because my parents refused to send me to a special school for the visually impaired early on - a decision that ultimately proved beneficial.

This journey shaped my early worldview and resistance against rigid systems and uninformed prejudices, leading to a unique perspective on life and society.