My oldest hobbies are dogs (as a child Collie Tramp) and photography. At primary school, I started with an Agfa Isola (photo Dirk Böhling), a simple camera for roll film sizes 6x6, which at that time was about 40 DM.

Later, as a high school student, I acquired a Pentina E, the only affordable for me reflex camera (bought in 1965 by Quelle). When I became a student, I unfortunately could not get interchangeable lenses for it, so I traded them in for a used Edixa with the then-standard  M42 connector. As a teacher I then made me an Olympus OM 2, the first camera that could regulate a TTL flash. When Olympus ceased production of SLR, I switched to Canon and currently own a 650D with which I am very satisfied.

With the change from the elementary school to the high school was added another hobby of football. How can you spend your free time in a boys boarding else? During my studies the enthusiasm for football flatttend and gradually flared up again only when my wife our son René filed at SC Viktoria 04 Rheydt. I then played several years with the old masters, was on the board and Youth Board operates and managed for many years as a coach the team in which my son played. After the second cruciate ligament tore the active time was over, I will limit myself since then on to look at my son playing football and looking after the home of his club, SV Helpenstein.

The time was now ripe for another hobby, sailing. Even in my first year at "Gymnasium an der Gartenstrasse" took me a 7th grade with sailing in touch when they invited me during the Easter holidays for a day trip to Loosdrecht. Then I launched 1982 our school's first course trip with a flatboat (and establishing a tradition that is maintained to this day). After the second cruciate ligament tore I made the necessary certificates to the Yachtmaster Coastal and acquired a small cabin cruiser, a Leisure 17 SL. Unfortunately, G8 and my move to Wildenrath meant that the boat is not used for several years.

Until 1990, my wife had resisted holding a dog, because she was a little afraid of dogs. But then we came in contact with a couple who had a collie female that should get impregnated once. My wife was at once excited by the idea of having a small collie. Unfortunately, the female dog got sick, but the idea remained. So we found a Collie from a private breeder. Astor was a proud, beautiful collie dog, which, especially in our holiday country France,  had many fans - mostly female. On Astor, who died much too early for a Collie in the age of 11, due to a congenital heart defect, followed Teddy, a Bernese mountain dog we found shortly after Astor's death visiting my sister in the Eifel. Teddy accompanied us for about 12 years, very much for a Bernese mountain dog. Now Dexter, a Golden Retreiver bred by Cornelia Grabe, makes our house a home.

The last hobby that has to be mentioned is dancing. For decades I had deaf ears when my wife wanted to visit a dance class with me. When I was almost 60, I left convert me. And I found it fun, almost more than my wife. We dance Ballroom and Latin, since the end of 2014 in the dance school Tanzschule Theissen (Geilenkirchen). In addition, however, we also love to dance disco fox with Marcel and Annette within the Boogie Woogie clubs Tigerfeet. I myself would like to keep Boogie Woogie dance, but my wife's body strikes. What a pity.