Experiences

Civilian Service period:

Originally I planned to do my civilian service in a job related to nature conservancy. There would have been many options: investigations of water, compilation of a tree register, in a breeding station for seals or in an ornithological station. Unfortunately such jobs are low in number (at least at that time) yet in great demand, so the long queue time kept me from doing this.
Searching for alternatives some friends made me think about working as a rescue helper on an Mobile Intensive Care Unit in the rescue service of the German Red Cross. And that is what I actually did. So I was qualified for this job, serving in the disctrict of Bremervörde. The training included a course of four weeks, in which I received the required knowledge about the course of dedication, implement, radio communication and the medical basics, as well as practical course of two weeks in a hospital.
I was employed on the ambulance und MICU in Zeven and (mostly) Sittensen. Of course there's always an unpleasant feeling when a mission starts, because I never knew, what I had to face: horrific sights of badly injured or maybe dead people not to mention their relatives. But one thing's for sure: I would have felt worse if I had done military service instead of this.
Every mission is different, so you never konw what you have to exspect. The duties are multifarious from moving of a sick person to internal emergency and heavy traffic accidents. Today, from a distant view, I'm veriest glad that I decided to do this job as I rarely had this feeling of doing something really useful again. Even though I had to face the limits of medical science from time to time, the good and calming feeling remained, to be able to cope with cases of emergency and situations of extreme stress. And at the end even my character benefited from the experiences that I made during my civilian service

Theater performances:

What's theater got to do with job and business? Two things: First, at school I joined a theater project course. The dramatics were fascinating in such a manner, that I tried to get admission at several drama schools. On the other hand I'm still proud of the performances we made at that time as we did it all on our own without professional help.

Der Weihnachtsmann ist sprachlos: For the sake of completeness I start with this play (in english something like: Santa Claus is tongue-tied) which we played in the primary school on the occasion of a Christmas party in 1978. I barely remember the plot or the author's name, but I do remember - predestinated by my shortness - that I played the role of the dwarf Muz (pronounce: Moots).
After all, the audience liked that play very much, so that we were able to present our perfomance a little later outside school in a kind of hotel. Howsoever, for me this is an aeon long, long time ago.

Zehn kleine Negerlein (orig.: Ten little indians): I joined the theater project of our grammar school when I was 15. I made my debut in 1986 with this famous criminal play by Agatha Christie. The title is according to a cruel nursery rhyme telling a story in which ten "indian" die one by one due to different accidents. In the play this happens to people who are responsible for someone's death but never were punished for what they did. On an remote island they are kill by lynch law one by one according to the burden of their guilt.
The role of the butler Rogers, correct through and through, was a minor but nice part of the play. He together with his wife as measured by the others bears a rather minor guilt having quickend the passing of their former employer to enrich by a bogus will an testament.

Die Alkestiade (orig.: The alcestiad): The following year our working group decided to enact The Alcestiad by Thornton Wilder. This is an adaptation of a greek myth about the king Admetos and Alkestis, who desires to serve as a preistess of the God Apollo. But Admetos courts her and she agrees as she finds out in an epiphany that Apollo is going to live among Admetos' herders for one year. Later on, when Admetos gets seriously injured by one of these herders, Alkestis sacrifices herself so that the king may live.
A heavy story for a school theater project. I didn't really get that much into this play as I though I would, when we had chosen it. The two bit parts as the old and later on the young night-watchman were also not really useful two arouse my interest in the whole.

Die Zoogeschichte (orig.: The zoo-story): After the minor parts in the previous performances I went for something more challenging. Inspired by the performance of my brother Werner (who actually is an actor) I attended to the zoo-story by Edward Albee together with Jörg Kutzner. Directed by Ute Brach we enacted this one-act play in autumn 1987 also in our grammar school.
Peter (myself) is a satisfied well-off publisher, chilling out on a park bench by reading a book and smoking a pipe in the New York Central Park. Unhoped-for Jerry (Jörg), a social maverick, strikes up a conversation confronting Peter with his problems, his circumstances and the mental abysms of people. The plastic depictions discomfit Peter making him scared and finally culminating in a disaster that is to say Jerry's suicide.
To work on the staging surely was straining, but also opened our eyes for more facets of social cooperation, as our school in the province of Zeven ever would have been able to. At the end it was more than worth the trouble due to the certainty that we had come to terms with this demanding play. The performance was such successful that we enacted it again one year later as a guest performance in the grammer school of Tostedt. Many thanks to all, who helped us!

Vorsicht Trinkwasser! (orig.: Don't drink the water): This comedy by Woody Allen broke off a crisis in our working group which was precipitated by dissension about the next chosen project. At the same time we were able to find a teacher (Gaby Reetz) to undertake the task of directing.
I played the role of Walter Hollander, a thoroughly jingoistic american pseudohero who has to take refuge with his wife and his daughter in an american embassy somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. It was pure fun beeing able to play this insubordinate would-be cowboy with the soft heart. Though Allens humour droped away a bit during the time of rehearsels due to the permanent replay, but it returned rapidly with the performance in spring 1988, so at the end we met with success.

Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon: This is a play written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (in english: An angel coming to Babylon). The angel Kurrubi, a just created young innocent and unknowing girl is sent to earth in an older "colleague"'s company to acquaint the earth's beauty, copiousness and perfection. While the older one vanishes more and more in the fascination of creation and nature, the girl despairs of the way human beeings behave.
She ought to be brought to the poorest man, a beggar therefore. But soon she find's out, that not the beggar ist the poorest, but the monarch Nebukadnezar, who is such overambitious and greedy for power and might that he places himself above God and finally commands to built the tower. So, at the end it's the beggar Akki is the one saving Kurrubi from the people.
The beggar Akki was the role I wished for as this was my last one I was able to play during my school time - and I really appreciated that I was allowed to do so. Akki is a fascinating character, a bon vivant and temporiser who debases himself to be a beggar for he knows how to become everyone and whatever he likes from this position.

Pech unterm Dach: I couldn't let it end immediately when I finshed school. Once you've been onstage, you're caught by that experience and you want to do just one more time. Together with Susanne Döhlinger and André Wiesch and a couple of diligent helpers I tried a new project. During summer/autumn 1989 we enacted Pech unterm Dach (in english: Pech underneath the roof) a one-act play which is a part of the trilogy "Life in the solemn house" by Pavel Kohout.
The shy and chary painter Jiri Pech (André) brings home a lady visitor (Susanne). Just when the situation is umcramping and they both are relaxing and calming down, a stranger (myself) appears in the garderobe. He ensnarls in abstruse stories as he tries to explain his presence but after a while he gets unmasked as an agent of the secret police. While first he is trapped he inculpates the painter such long until he feels stalemated leading into a massacre which finally makes him guilty for what he was blamed.
The reason for performing the play of the critical Czech author was our fascination of this psychological study, how to demoralise a spotless citizen only by words and to make him become criminal by affect. I would have liked to enact also the other two plays of this trilogy.

Pantalones Hochzeit: Although life went on and new tasks came up in spring 1991 we were yearning for one more play. Some more alumni of our theater working group joined us and so we decided to enact this commedia dell'arte play by Gerhard Herm (in engl.: Pantalone's wedding), that we once had discussed but rejected in the working group.
A commedia dell'arte play is a genre which once came up in the southeuropean region and was spread by travelling theatres. The plays of this kind are unscripted but work with fixed plot-lines and archetypes like Pantalone, Columbina etc. The one we played, of course, was not unscripted, but it was a performance about a commedia dell'arte play - a play within the play.
Probably it was a real good choice for our very last performance: Slapstick, ballyhoo and profound humor that generously we mixed up with cribbed gags from TV and movies. Playing Mezzetino, the butler of Pantalone, I was able to act out a very last time within the chaos of the play...