After the legal preparatory service at the regional court Dortmund and a short activity, quit by myself, with a municipal central association I began my lawyer activity. In the next years I acquired my specialist licenses for family law and for administrative law.
Since 1996 I have published articles on legal topics and lectured at universities and technical colleges. In addition, based on my practical guidebook 'Business Mediation‛ published in 2013, I offer professional out-of-court conflict resolution between and within companies as a mediator and also lecture on this topic. As a lecturer at the IKK Academy, I lead seminars lasting several days for insurance employees on questions of administrative procedure and appeals procedure for statutory health insurance funds, and give lectures on business law topics as well as advanced training seminars at the Hamm and Celle Bar Associations. Furthermore, I hold – since 2013 – on behalf of the IFK (Federal Association of Physiotherapists in Bochum) legal seminars for physiotherapists who want to further train as a sectoral alternative practitioner.
What does my career as a lawyer have to do with my writing?? In a way, it is its foundation, because legal work trains the eye for detail and linguistic precision. And quite incidentally it creates contacts to the most different people and (often deep) insight into sometimes also dazzling characters. All these experiences form the basis from which I can create characters and stories. The desire to write was already awakened in school. German has always been my favorite subject. The interest in literature and language has remained a hobby and has become a sideline in the meantime.
I owe this to the Gmeiner Verlag in Meßkirch (and here beside the publisher especially his editor Claudia Senghaas), in which I publish since 2006 regularly novels, which are assigned to the subject 'crime novel', but follow within this branch an independent way beyond the mainstream. Content-wise, the interface to my main profession as a lawyer is quickly found:
As a lawyer, I solve the cases that are brought to me; as a writer, I create the cases myself, which "my" lawyer Stephan Knobel solves together with his girlfriend Marie. That the reality of my life as a lawyer influences the novels is obvious, although in principle none of the novels reflect or even approximate actual cases or characters (the first exception to this principle is the 2018 novel The Doubt ). Nevertheless, the knowledge of the process reality is indispensable idea generator also for the novel world. Who writes about this profession, should know the matter and master it. Therefore, the novels are also coherent in detail. The stories live from their surprising yet logical twists and turns, embedded and spiced by multifaceted background and accompanying storylines.
2019 appeared – under the pseudonym Philipp Dalgamoni – my novel "flood and death". In daily life – and especially in professional leadership positions – one often encounters people with a narcissistic personality. This was the reason for me to write about a woman who tries to free herself from the clutches of her narcissistic husband. Behind his elegant and eloquent facade hides a coldness of feeling and a lust for power that has drained his wife over the years and brought her to her limits. – An intense novel about the struggle of a woman against her love, which almost broke her.
I am the father of a daughter born in 2011. You and my wife Anja are not only my life's happiness: My wife is a tireless source of ideas and critics for me, and my hope is that my daughter will be in the same way when she is older (at least she does not lack wordiness…) It is a great luck to be allowed to accompany the own child on the way into the life.
In my spare time I like to pick up oil paints and canvas. Oil paintings stink for a long time after they are finished, for this they reward with a color intensity that other colors can not create. Landscapes are my favorite motifs. I like to experience them up close in their colors and shapes and "breathe" them in with pleasure. A good opportunity for this enjoyment are long (especially several days) bicycle tours, which I have been taking regularly for more than 30 years now. Recently I cycled along the Loire with my wife. As always a trip without pre-booking! It is nice not to know in which place and in which boarding house the day will end and to be surprised a bit by chance! Not to mention the wonderful option of staying where you like at the moment. This is also a lust for life!
In my head are still diverse and multifaceted impressions of the country and its people beyond the river, which broadly and quietly takes its way to the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe – no, I am even sure! – the next novel is set in this region. Sancerre, Blois, Tours: all these places have romantic corners where unusual stories can develop – and they seem more interesting for this purpose than the many castles. As I said, it's nice to be outside the mainstream.
I love a colorful life, cultivate my long-standing and new friendships, enjoy every exchange with others, new thoughts and perspectives – best embedded in long summer evenings with a good glass of wine (or two). Out of the enjoyment of life arise beautiful stories…