Profit is only a side effect E-Book

Gerold Wolfarth

• Herausgeber: Piper ebooks
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

»Profit is Only a Side-Effect«   »For me, success means balancing all the aspects of life that make me who I am as a person.«    Gerold Wolfarth shows you - Ten simple rules for how to balance entrepreneurial success and a fulfilling life. - The perfect tools for the day-to-day management of companies and for successful self-management. - How to succeed and yet to remain true to yourself.  »Profit is Only a Side-Effect«   is aimed at all who want to - live authentically and consciously, - communicate more effectively, - increase their competence, - be more confident, - be successful and fulfilled in all areas of life, - inspire and fascinate people.       Six years after starting his own business, Gerold Wolfarth's enterprise was suddenly in dire straits. But the young entrepreneur stayed strong and found a solution. While expanding his business into a market leader operating throughout Europe, he made a surprising discovery: entrepreneurial success is compatible with – and might even depend upon – taking care to lead a fulfilling life in all its aspects. Gerold Wolfarth now knows that ten points are the key to his success. In »Profit is Only a Side-Effect«, he introduces them and explains how they can guide one's life.   Nine surprising facts about Gerold Wolfarth 1. From the son of simple farmer he became the CEO of a Europe-wide company. 2. He began to manage the family farm when he was only 8 years old. 3. He completed his first Ironman at the age of twenty-two - for months his day started at 4:30 in the morning. 4. At the age of twenty-six he became the manager of a franchise business. 5. He has led his company from a one-man business to the European market leader. 6. Six years after its founding, his company was about to go out of business. He saved it. 7. Recipe for success No. 1: Do not bend, but be open, honest and direct. 8. Recipe for success No. 2: Concentrate on the essentials. 9. Recipe for success No. 3: Take your fellow human beings seriously in all areas of your life.

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ISBN 978-3-492-07004-1

Conception and text: Sibylle Auer, München

Editing and consulting: Tanja Ruzicska, bookTRade UG, Berlin

English translation: Jessica Strain and Ben Kamis

Editing of English translation: Rick Madsen

© 2019 Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich

Cover design: Heidi Jenner, Munich

Cover image: Fotolia (iStock)

Data conversion: Kösel Media GmbH, Krugzell

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Table of Contents

Cover & Impressum

Prologue

Certainties

The Boy on the Tractor

Gerold, You’ll Manage Just Fine!

Ewald and the Pickaxe Handle

Thinking Allowed?

The Ironman

The Path to Becoming an Entrepreneur

Beyond the Edge

Headlong into Cold Water

Standing on My Own Two Feet

1 Baukreativ Street

Goosebumps

The Birth of the bk Group

365 Degrees in a Circle

Ten Guidelines for a Happy Life

1. Say What You Mean

It Won’t Work Without Rules

Nip It in the Bud

The Power of the Spoken Word

The Pareto Principle

Takeaway: The Path to Greater Clarity and Effectiveness in Communication

2. Define Your Goal

When Is a Goal a Goal?

Daddy Day

Idea for Sale

Takeaway: The Path to Goal-Directed Behavior

3. Focus on What Matters

What Matters?

Delegate, But Monitor

The Inner Circle

Here and Now

Takeaway: The Path to Greater Efficiency in Daily Activity

4. Have Confidence in Yourself

Pen and Paper, Not Coach and Consultant

I Am Unique

The Highlights of the Day

Takeaway: The Path to Greater Self-Confidence

5. Be Authentic

“I Don’t Have to Do a Damn Thing!”

Honesty Is the Best Policy

The Entrepreneur in Sweatpants

Don’t Force Yourself

Takeaway:The Path to Authenticity

6. Have Courage and Follow-Through

The Worst-Case Scenario Test

The Reality Check

Make the Impossible Possible

Takeaway: The Path to Courageous Behavior and Follow-Through

7. Motivate Yourself

The Magic Words: Self-Motivation

The Goal Collage

A Parking Space from the Universe?

Takeaway:The Path to Effective Self-Motivation

8. Decide Quickly and Trust Your Initial Intuition

The Three-Phase Model

Change with Foresight

The Decision Diet

The One-Minute Decision

The Delayed Decision

Takeaway: The Path to Deciding Efficiently

9. Be Grateful

The Downward Spiral

The Five Magical Things

The Happiness Diary

Takeaway: The Path to a Positive View of Your Own Life

10. Find Your Inner Peace

The Internal Camera

The Internal Valve

Takeaway:The Path to Greater Inner Balance

Success in all Areas of Life

The bk Family

Managers and Employees of the Future

A Trade in Hand Finds Gold in Every Land!

A “Spiritual Entrepreneur”?

The Good Deed

I Have a Dream

A Glimpse into the Future

The Meta-Universe

New Ideas and Innovative Opportunities for Retail Outlets

Mobility and Logistics

Enterprise and Industry 4.0

Peace on Earth Through Digitalization?

Acknowledgements

Further Reading

Image Credits

Annotation

Images

Prologue

A meter-long tabletop of Americanwalnut, brilliantly polished, its veneer shining icy cold. Around it, elegant, chrome-flashing conference chairs. Harsh light from expensive designer lamps mercilessly highlight every impurity and unevenness in your face. If you are looking for coziness, you are in the wrong place. Today is not about coziness, but about business — and revenue — a lot of revenue and a lot of profit.

Three men are sitting on one side of the table. All three are wearing suits with “bk” badges pinned to the lapel. Two of the men are executives of the bk Group whose headquarters are in the tranquil village of Endsee in Franconia. The third man is me, founder and CEO of this company, which specializes in turnkey shopfitting and interior design for hotels, restaurants, car dealerships, showrooms, and shopping centers.

Sitting across from us are three more men, also in suits — our hosts. It is January 2013, and we are in a large meeting room of the European headquarters of a world-famous American retailer from the entertainment industry. A team of bk Group specialists has just built three hypermodern stores for this client. The stores were built and designed to showcase the exclusivity of these expensive products. The client is extremely satisfied with the new stores and has decided to commission us with 15 more this year.

So, the prospect for splendid revenues is tantalizingly close at hand, revenues which we could really use. But of course, there is a catch, one that I am quite annoyed about. And that is saying something, because I very rarely get annoyed.

Suddenly, the head of the International Shopfitting department interrupts my thoughts with, “Mr. Wolfarth, are you interested in another commission?” He is a slim, nearly two-meter-tall middle-aged man with dark slicked-back hair. He continues with, “and if yes, what does your time-line look like?”

I take a deep breath and stiffen my spine to prepare for what will come next. Sitting just beside me to my right is the project manager responsible for our last commission and I know he might just kill me for the decision I am about to make. The amount of effort he invested to realize the first three stores was incredible.

I respond with, “We would love to build more stores for you, under one condition.” I take a strategic pause, and notice out of the corner of my eye that my colleague, the department head of shopfitting, is looking at me in open astonishment. I continue, “The condition is that from now on you and your team will treat my employees as equal partners, fairly and respectfully. They are neither your errand boys nor your doormats. Otherwise I don’t see how we can work together on any further projects.”

I can distinctly hear our project manager take a sharp breath. And while I was speaking, I observed my counterpart’s face slowly turning beet red, his temporal veins throbbing.

No sooner had I finished than he jumped up from his chair, tipping it over backward in the process and shouted, “Well I never! Are you serious?! You want to dictate how we are to treat your staff?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well you can forget it! If you want to work with us, then it will be on our terms! You should count yourself lucky to be asked to work for such a renowned brand as ours! Your team will be treated exactly as before.”

This remark drove me out of my chair as well. And when I get angry, I can also become quite forceful. “I am sorry, but we have absolutely no interest in working with you on a further 15 stores under these conditions. Don’t get me wrong, I am aware that a few million in revenue have just gone up in smoke, but I don’t care. This is about one of the basic principles of the bk Group and my corporate and entrepreneurial philosophy, which I would never undermine simply to add another famous name to our client list.”

“Our bk project team coworkers are tough,” I add; “the satisfaction of the customer and the quality of the work is our first priority. However, during this project your team crossed a line. My employees felt badly treated, and your communication was condescending and impolite. I was even told that this went so far as to dictate when they were allowed to grab a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks. We are in the 21st century and not in the time of slavery! Clearly we have a different understanding of what partnership and fairness means.”

Once again, I noticed a distinct change in the coloring of my counterpart’s face while I was speaking; it had now taken on an unhealthy reddish-blue hue. When I finished, he shouted something or other about “Never in my life, have I ever!” And “Unbelievable!” and left the room slamming the door shut on his way out.

My colleagues and I looked at each other somewhat helplessly and waited. After a quarter of an hour, our choleric friend returns, his face now quite pale.

“Have you thought over your decision?” he asks, looking at me expectantly. “I believe we can still reach a mutual agreement if you rethink your demands. I would really like for you to build our stores.”

“Yes,” I reply, as I calmly put the documents in front of me together and stow them in my briefcase, “we have come to a decision. We will not work for you under these circumstances. Goodbye.” While our former client looks on in bewilderment, we leave the building.

I know I will never forget that moment. Shortly after that drama, as we were sitting in the taxi on our way to the airport, my project manager asked me what would happen now. In the blink of an eye he had lost a major project and was out of work, and it was clear he was extremely worried. “We just lost quite a lot of revenue; how are we going to fill this void?”

“Simple.” I told him. “We just opened the door to potential clients who will be a better fit for us. I am sure they will find their way to us, I can feel it. Don’t worry about it.”

And as a matter of fact, just one week later, I got a call from the head of construction of one of the leading European hearing aid companies. Indeed, a potential new client. He wanted to know if it would be possible for us to realize around 20 new stores for him by the end of the year. At the end of the day he became our new client, and has remained so, alongside others, many of which I have had a wonderful and successful working relationship with for the past 20 years.

Based on decades of experience with a wide variety of clients and people in general, I can say one thing with confidence: pressure does not lead to success, for pressure will always create counter pressure. You will have much more success choosing a path of partnership that is founded in mutual respect and appreciation; indeed, this is the path I have chosen for myself and my company, with much success.

My life as the businessman I am today began in March 2006, six years after I founded the later named “baukreativ Inc.” This moment is characterized by the image of a thick Leitz binder landing on the meticulously maintained, expensive wooden floor in the meeting room of my local bank with a loud bang. It was filled with paper, paper, and more paper, certainly weighing at least three and a half kilos. The papers were filled with facts and figures about a prospering company specializing in turnkey shopfitting, each topic neatly organized and divided via colored strips. It showcased the image of an up-and-coming company and its founder, a career development that had only recently been presented as path breaking in the bank’s glossy customer magazine in an article entitled: “The Success Story of a Model Company in our Region!”

As the binder hit the floor, my success story was in danger of reaching its untimely end. The abrupt slap the binder made as it hit the floor still rings in my ears today. With a mere swipe of his hand, the head of the bank’s credit department pushed my file to the floor, without so much as a glance in my direction and coldly stated, “You know Mr. Wolfarth, from this point forward everything that is in that binder is history. That’s it.”

What had happened? Well, I found myself in a situation that many companies have faced who are successful and start to grow rapidly. We had numerous outstanding accounts, had incurred some debt, and needed a fast bridge loan to be able to overcome this liquidity bottleneck and honor our outstanding debts. So, when one finds himself in such a situation, what does one do? Make an appointment at one’s local bank, of course.

Basically, you go to your bank and say, “Listen people, I need 200,000 € as a short-term loan to get through this temporary bottleneck.” The answer you receive, however, is, “No, the risk is much too high. We cannot grant you the loan; moreover, we are forced to cancel the current account credit of 600,000 € that you currently have with us.” At this point you think: “Ok, this is not really happening; this is a nightmare. Wake up.”

But you don’t wake up from the supposed nightmare. You begin to realize: no, this is happening. Slowly I came back to my senses, trying not to show how utterly shaken I was and asked, “You do realize what this means? You are basically telling me that I might as well close my doors tomorrow.”

“We are very sorry, but there is nothing we can do for you,” he replied. Six years. Six years and this is how it ends? I could not believe it. Ever since founding the company, we had grown over 100 percent every year. We started as a one-man-show in my living room, and had grown into a mid-sized company with 45 employees, and 7 million in revenues last year alone. We were still growing with a new branch in Endsee near Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Our address: “Baukreativ Street 1.” Everything would have been hunky-dory if it hadn’t been for this “small” hiccup of a financial bottleneck in which our bank slammed the door in our faces and left us out in the cold.

As luck would have it (although I don’t really believe in luck), the CEO of a large shopfitting company had approached me shortly before and suggested buying my company. So, I had an offer of several million euros lying on my desk, which could solve all my financial problems in one fell swoop. But that would also mean having to remain in the company as an employee for at least another five years — a perspective I didn’t find particularly attractive.

I stood before a critical decision, and did what anyone would have done: I weighed the pros and cons of each option and sought the advice of my wife. It was, after all, not only my decision — it was about our family’s future.

In the end, we decided to reject the offer on the table and push through on our own, which meant I needed to find another way to obtain the much-needed influx of cash.

We decided to make an appointment with another bank and take out a mortgage on our home as collateral. This was our home, we owed nothing on it, and we had built it entirely out of our own funds and with our own two hands. It truly belonged to us. The bank agreed and the next step was to sit down with them and discuss our business plan, which we had worked out to the very last detail. We had managed to scrape together every cent we had and were able to bring 285,000 € of equity capital into the company. In the end, we were even able to dispense with the current account credit, for only three days after the first meeting with the bank, I received a very interesting phone call.

“Mr. Wolfarth, I have a problem,” began the phone call with one of my luxury sector customers. “Oh dear,” I thought to myself, “what a great start to a conversation, and in our critical situation to boot.” At the time, it felt like I was always having such “we have a problem” conversations. Naturally, however, I tried to sound relaxed and not let my anxiety show.

“We would love to help you. What exactly is the problem?”

“We are going to open a new store on the Koenigsallee in Düsseldorf,” he explained. “We have already rented the location and we would like for you to build it for us. The grand opening is planned for August.”

“That sounds great! But what’s the problem?”

“Well, the problem lies in the date of the rental agreement. Our financial year officially starts on May 1, but the contract for the store does not begin until June 1. We cannot obtain it any earlier, which means you cannot begin the construction until June 1 either. However, our problem is we have the money now and need to spend it on the construction in the current financial year, not the coming one.”

“Ok, I understand. And what exactly is your plan?”

“Well I was thinking, perhaps I could transfer 500,000 euros to your bank account based on an advance invoice, you build the store, and we will figure out the final bill afterwards?”

I could hardly believe what I was hearing, but he was serious! The thought crossed my mind: “I really hope he does not want a bank guarantee from me as collateral.” I knew that I would have never received this from the bank at that time.

And, as if he had read my thoughts he said, “Mr. Wolfarth, we have known each other for so long, and I trust everything will go smoothly.”

How amazing! Half a million euros delivered to me on a silver platter — and without any proof of collateral! Nevertheless, I forced myself to not immediately jump at the offer, but to take a breather and sleep on it, because one thing was abundantly clear: if I agreed and took the 500,000 euros, there was no turning back. I needed to turn a profit no matter what. I would use the customer’s money to get myself back in the black, and if I messed this up, I would inevitably drag the customer into it and abuse his trust. This would not only mean the end of my entrepreneurship days, but also the end of being able to face myself in the mirror. Meaning if things went wrong, I might as well crawl in a hole and stay there.

I responded with, “Let me check if we can work with you here; I will let you know tomorrow morning,” and hung up.

It was a sleepless night. There was no one I could turn to, not even my wife, to help me grapple with this decision. The next morning, I had made up my mind. I called my client and told him we had a deal.

Two days later, a half a million euros had been transferred into my corporate account. I had miraculously gotten the much-needed liquid capital to keep the company going. Today, 13 years later, we are better off than ever, and are steadily growing. Was it a coincidence? Was it fate? Was it skill? I believe the universe wanted my company to continue to exist. This is my faith: have trust and stay optimistic.

However, I would not be a real entrepreneur if I simply relied on the help of the universe regarding important decisions. It’s possible that some management or motivation gurus make a very good living off of this, but I make my decisions based on certain criteria which are founded on experience and have unfailingly provided results. It is important to keep in mind, however, that not everything can always be controlled by implementing rationality, not even a company. One must incorporate the heart, one’s intuition, show of appreciation, and above all: love. Love for the people, love for the world around you. Love is the focus of my thoughts and actions and the first key to my success!

My decision-making criteria and leadership methods are unconventional and can’t be found in a textbook. Their effectiveness, however, have been proven by me and the ever-growing success of my company. I walk my own path and not only am I successful professionally, but I am also living an extremely fulfilling life.

When I started writing this book, quite a few people asked me why I felt the need to do this, for there are truly many things I would rather be doing, or at least just as much. Competing in sports is right at the top of that list. I have participated in the Ironman Europe in Roth near Nuremberg three times. This is a long-distance triathlon, which is now called the “Challenge Roth” and with its 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike tour, and 42.2 km marathon, it really pushes each participant to his or her personal limit. And I didn’t merely participate, for each time, I made it to the finish line.

So again, why am I writing this? Wouldn’t I rather be training for my next triathlon, or standing at the Tauber River fishing for trout? Why do I constantly postpone my vacation to New Zealand with my wife? Wouldn’t I rather be spending time with my son on a bike ride, or going window-shopping with my daughter?

Well, the answer is simple. I truly believe that by passing on my life experiences via this book I can inspire my readers and perhaps make our world a happier place, and most importantly a more peaceful one. I believe this is possible because my management and leadership principles are based on mutual respect and ethical values, not on mere profit maximization. At best, profit is a pleasant side effect.

This book aims to convey a very clear message: you can achieve anything, no matter your starting point, no matter your environment, your financial possibilities, or the skills and baggage you have acquired along the way. I am living proof of this — a living example of “best practice,” so to say. Twenty years have passed since the one-man-show Gerold Wolfarth began, and today I am CEO of a company that is the market leader in its sector, operating all over Europe, with more than 200 employees from 33 countries. It takes diligence, courage, consistency, and, most of all, motivated, action-oriented, and loving people who have a common goal in order for such a success story to come true.

At this point you may be asking yourself: “Success stories are a dime a dozen, why write another one? And who the hell is Gerold Wolfarth anyway?”

I will tell you a bit more about who I am in the first chapter, and yes, you are also right that entrepreneur stories are indeed a dime a dozen. I am fascinated by people like Steve Jobs, Ingvar Kamprad, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Bill Gates, and I am amazed at their energy, vision, and creativity. I devoured their biographies. My path, however, is a completely different one.

My approach to corporate management places people at the center of business activities and not merely on paper or in advertising brochures. No, I mean fully, in the day-to-day business. I also don’t mean to say that I only care about my employees’ well-being; I am not that selfless. It is also about me and especially about my wife and my two children. Because I am not only successful and happy in my business, but also in all six areas of life — career, family, finances, health, leisure, and friends. This sounds nice and simple, but on closer inspection it is quite ambitious, because normally if you are particularly successful in one area of your life, other areas suffer for it. You have probably experienced this yourself; if you invest a lot of time and energy at work, you usually lose valuable time for your personal life: your family, friends, health, and sports.

Today I can say with certainty that thanks to my methods, I have managed to find balance in all six areas of life. This book is meant to illustrate how this is possible.

Before we begin, allow me to comment on the important subject of “gender-neutral language.” In order to allow the text to maintain its fluidity, I often use masculine pronouns. However, all personal designations always apply equally to the female and male sex.

Finally, I hope you enjoy this book and can benefit from my methods, both in your professional and private life.

Endsee, Germany, May 2019

Gerold Wolfarth

Certainties

The Ironman has taught me certain life lessons that I would have never learned in any other way. The Ironman challenge incorporates all aspects that are important to obtain success in one’s professional life and to lead a fulfilling life in general. It reduces all of the fundamental aspects to one point, uniting them.

It’s the 22nd km of my run at the 1992 Ironman Europe in Roth. I have already completed the 3.8 km of swimming in the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the 180 km bike ride. Now, I just have to finish the second half of the marathon, another 20 kilometers. Luckily this stretch of the marathon runs alongside the canal and is completely flat.

It is raining and my red and white running shoes are completely soaked through, hanging like bricks on my feet. My gaze is fixed at a point diagonally downward onto the wet street. With every step, water splashes onto my legs.

My gaze wanders to my feet, which are moving, one step after another, and I wonder how this can still be possible. It is as if they don’t belong to me, are not a part of my body. Yet who but me could be controlling them? It cannot possibly be my mind, for it is empty. No, there is not even emptiness left at this point. My body? No, it’s not even my body any longer, there is nothing left of it either. It is strange, crazy even; it feels as if I am no longer in my own body, and as if something else or someone else is moving my feet forward.

If you push yourself to the limit in any sport — and you definitely reach your limit in the Ironman — your mind and body enter a sort of tunnel, your own private universe. Your body has nearly reached the end of its reserves, but you still have 20 kilometers left before reaching the finish line. Apparently, when you reach this point, your body switches into a kind of protective, energy-saving mode. Every ounce of strength that is still left is focused on one goal: make it to the finish line. You are completely at one with your body. You cannot feel anything: no pain, no joy, there is no room left for feeling. Everything that is not part of your body’s survival mechanism is turned off. Thoughts and emotions are dispensable. It’s comparable to an electric car that has nearly run out of battery power. It turns off all unnecessary functions, and every mechanism within the vehicle is focused on one thing — reaching a charging station. All unnecessary display screens are turned off, everything is turned off, and even the speed is kept at a minimum. Given enough pressure, your body seems to run on the same principle: everything is reduced in order to reach the finish. This ultimately leads to the awareness that your feet are moving forward and your brain has seemingly no connection to this action.

I had the same experience again a bit later on a bike trip in Sweden with my colleague, Dominik. After biking 180 kilometers in cold rainy 11-degree-celsius weather, we finally reached our destination, a small town in which we planned to spend the night.

But the relief we felt when we finally arrived quickly gave way to the realization that there was no possibility of finding a place to stay the night. It wasn’t that the accommodations were fully booked out; there simply weren’t any accommodations at all!

“I will try to find someone who can tell us where to go. There must be a place for us to stay the night,” Dominik stated as he began making hectic phone calls, the water still streaming out of his shoes. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.

“It’s no use, we have to keep going!” I said as he finally put his cell phone away in frustration. I continued, “We are soaking wet, and are bodies are starting to cool down completely. We need to bike to the next town; it’s only 18 kilometers away, and we will surely find some accommodations there!”

Dominik agreed and we wearily swung ourselves up onto our bikes. All avid bike riders know that once your clothing is soaked through it is impossible to get warm; your clothes become an icy cold, tight wet wrap around your body.

Only 18 kilometers is no big deal for well-conditioned athletes like us, and normally I would only need a half hour for this distance. The situation we found ourselves in, however, was not normal. My body had cooled down to such an extent that it had switched into a complete energy-saving mode. My gaze was utterly focused; I could no longer look left or right, for the simple movement of my head would have expended too much energy. You are so far into this energy-saving mode that even the mere thought of taking a drink from your water bottle doesn’t enter your mind, for this would have meant taking a hand off of the handlebars and even this would have cost too much energy. This energy-saving mode means: do only that which is absolutely vital to survival. The only thought that remains is “what do I have to do to reach my goal?” All this occurs in a quasi-automatic state of being; it’s a program that is locked away somewhere inside of you and is only turned on when your body realizes it needs to turn it on to survive.

This automatic survival mode has been described by many people who have survived extreme situations. The young Thai soccer team trapped in a cave for two weeks in the summer of 2018 with no assurance that they would ever be found or rescued must have experienced this as well. My situation was not nearly as extreme: I was able to experience this survival mode in relative comfort, because I had chosen to put my body under this kind of pressure doing a sport.

The knowledge that you can keep going, even if your entire body is running on its very last reserves of energy, is indescribable and leaves one with a sense of security and strength for the rest of his life.

The Boy on the Tractor

“Archshofen? Never heard of it.” No wonder. Archshofen, the small village in which I grew up, has a population of just 300 inhabitants. It is located in the German state of Baden-Württemberg in the Main-Tauber district, smack dab on top of the border to Bavaria. In Holdermuehle, a suburb of Archshofen, the border of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg even runs through the middle of a cowshed and there is a saying in Archshofen that goes: “The cows eat in Baden Württemberg, but their crap lands in Bavaria.”

The village is situated directly on the banks of the idyllic Tauber River. To the right and left there are gentle slopes with fruit trees, fields, and meadows. A small, hidden path winds its way to my favorite place from where I can overlook my hometown and the surrounding landscape. From my vantage point, the village below seems to be straight out of a Märklin catalogue: picturesque, elongated houses with dark-red gables, here and there half-timbered facades nestled in the hollow to the right and left of the river. Many of them used to be farmhouses; today there are only a handful of farmers left, and most of these only part-time. One of these former farmhouses is my family home. I was born here, the son of simple farmers.

In the 1920s, my grandparents built the farm and worked hard to feed themselves and their two daughters. The youngest, my mother, remained on the farm while her sister moved away once she was old enough to do so.

When my mother met my father, he was an agricultural mechanic and repaired tractors and agricultural equipment such as hay elevators, sowing machines, ploughs, and mowers. He was from a small village called Schäftersheim, about 20 kilometers away. After the wedding, my father moved to Archshofen with my mother and her family. They had two children — first a girl, and ten years later, in 1970, me. In order for the family to make a living from farming, they needed more land, which my grandparents decided to lease. Nevertheless, it was not enough to feed everyone. Our farm sits on six hectares, which was too small to feed a family even back when I was a child. When my parents took over the farming business, there was a rule of thumb that stated that one needed at least 30 hectares to make a living farming. Today, the benchmark is about 150 hectares.

So, my father became a part-time farmer and worked full-time for a dealer who sold and repaired agricultural machinery.

We owned 5 cows, and every few years we sold a few calves. We also had about 10 hogs which were also sold for slaughter when they were big enough. We also had about 25 chickens, 15 ducks — our farm is directly on the Tauber River — and several hares. And of course, we had cats. Later I even had a real rabbit breeding operation of about 25 animals. I bred them and participated in exhibitions of the small animal breeders’ association. Some of my rabbits were awarded prizes and I also won a few trophies. Those that were not suitable for breeding ended up on the dinner table.

My father and I slaughtered the chickens and the hares together. We chopped off heads, ripped out feathers, cut open bellies, and skinned carcasses; in other words, the full program. I was never asked whether I wanted to do this or not, I had no choice in the matter. It simply was the way it was. I even helped with the slaughter of our hogs, and perhaps this is the reason why I became a vegetarian later in life. My first conscious memory of this event was when I was six years old, in 1976. First you put the cattle gun against the hog’s skull, and then you pull the trigger. Then the body of the animal is pierced so that it bleeds out and the blood does not clot in the body. Next the blood is poured into a large pot and stirred constantly. Later, the blood is used to make blood sausage.

In other words, the animal was shot before my eyes with a cattle gun, cut open, blood pouring out, and the next thing I knew, someone had put the pot of blood in front of me and told me to stir. I was so small I could hardly see over the edge of it, but no one had asked me if I wanted to participate. I had no choice. I wasn’t really shocked, for that was how we lived. At the time, it went without saying that even a young child aged five or six helped out around the farm. The child was always involved, occupied, and no one needed to babysit it for there was always something to do. One of my tasks as a child was to throw hay down from the barn loft to the cows. I also had to ride on the tractor to pick up grass and help harvest potatoes or turnips.

When I was 11 years old, my life changed abruptly. At the age of 49, my father was diagnosed with a very rare type of leukemia and had to undergo lengthy hospital treatment. As a result, I had to grow up quite quickly and take on the role of man of the house. My sister was 10 years older than I and had already moved out, so for all intents and purposes, I was raised as an only child.

The doctors informed us that my father had at most one year left to live, a catastrophe for the entire family. My parents were wringing their hands to find a doctor who was familiar with the disease and they finally found a professor who practiced at the University Hospital of Freiburg. He had treated two patients with the same rare leukemia in the United States and was therefore familiar with the disease.

From this point on, my father regularly traveled more than 300 kilometers from Archshofen to Freiburg for treatment, but the therapy didn’t seem to work. One Friday night, when I was 13 years old, the phone rang; it was the clinic. My father’s condition had deteriorated so much that the nurse’s advised my mother to come immediately if she wanted to say her goodbyes.

My mother immediately called my sister and my aunt, my father’s sister, and we all piled into one car to drive to Freiburg in the middle of the night to say our goodbyes to my father. I will never forget that day.

He was lying in bed in the isolation ward and we had to communicate with him through a glass wall. He was connected to several infusions; he was as white as chalk and had lost at least 10 kilos.

“My body’s full of rat poison,” he said, trying to smile. Obviously, he wasn’t really being pumped full of rat poison, but a cocktail of other aggressive chemicals. The professor’s strategy was: either it will help or it won’t. My father was at severe risk of infection because his entire immune system had been stripped away.

That day at my father’s bedside is one of the defining moments of my life. I saw him lying behind the pane of glass and was constantly reminded that I was seeing him for the last time. He, on the other hand, took this time to lecture us about everything that needed to be done on the farm before his return home: “Don’t you dare lease the fields on the hillside, don’t sell our share of the combined harvester, and please maintain the lush meadows directly on the Tauber River for me!”

My father was terminally ill, but he was a fighter. His will to live was so strong that he simply ignored the prognosis of the doctors. He seemed to say to himself, “I will not give up. I’ll see this thing through to the bitter end.”

He survived. A week later we were back in Freiburg for another visit and it was clear he had made it through the worst. We were even allowed to enter the room and sit at his bedside. The professor could not contain his amazement and told us he had rarely seen a person with such a strong will to fight. For days, his body had fought violently against the poison that flowed through his veins, repeatedly convulsing to such an extent it lifted him clear out of bed. The doctors told us this went on for hours.