Hello, my name is Holger, which means fighter (spearman) from the island. I don't know who came up with that name – my father, my mother, or someone else – but that's the name I was given.

I was born in Berlin – right around the corner of the Great Synagoge on Oranienburger Straße, in a kind of a birth house. It was early in the morning – to be more precise at 3:40 a.m. – of the 23rd of May, of the year 1973.

Around that time – maybe a little later – my father started to work for the government of the German Democratic Republic, my mother was doing in books most of her life.

I got a sister – well, actually she got me, being the older one – she was born, almost to the day, four and a half years before me. We got along very well – most of the time, when I wasn't hitting her over the head with a stone or she was scaring me half to death...

The first major change in my life that is still dignifying enough to be shared with the public was the moving of our family to Moscow in Russia in Summer '79. It was there in the U.S.S.R. where I first went to school – the German School Moscow, where I spend the first five years of school. It was there in our Russian appartment, where I had my first acting experience – performing with my sister little shows on special occasions (like Christmas or so) for my parents, playing sketches, dancing, doing tricks and artistry.

We came back in 1985, where I went to a school with extended Russian teaching – the Ernst Wildangel Secondary School. Not having had a great time, I actually spent a lot of my time reading books. It started getting better during the Revolution of '89 (I realize that the people of France may have talked this way too – about two hundred years ealier). I actually became quite active in those days, I mean politically. First at our school. Together with Peter Jung, we even tried to form our own organization, but looking back, I can say now that our program not only lacked focus but even itself, that is, it lacked program. I guess these days became our 60s.

However, kinda representing our school, I went to the foundation congress of the marxist youth organization Marxistischer Jugendverband "Junge Linke" (if anyone can tell me when and where this took place, I'd be happy if you drop me a line). But to put it simply, sitting in front of Carsten Krenz wasn't exactly what I expected. So I left to join another organization - Sozialistischer Jugendverband "Rosa Luxemburg" (to distiguish it from the socialist youth organization "Karl Liebknecht") - where I became responsible for environmental issues. But in all the time nothing ever happened. I got less interested, left again. Met some folks from the PDS youngsters, but with the union of Germany I lost any interest in politics at that time - I was simply disgusted. I remember listening to Van Halen (it wasn't until much later that I started listening to harder stuff, today it would probably be Slayer or, much more appropriate, System Of A Down) when I heard the news of the plebiscite results. Ever since I went to vote maybe twice...

Part II