Here I would like to tell you a little more about myself and my motivation.

I have always been interested in a wide range of topics, all of which relate to how the world works (physics, astronomy, society), what life means (biology and philosophy), how we think about the world (philosophy), and how we should live (ethics and environmental issues).

Beyond that, I have always loved learning and speaking English.

From 1992 to 1997, I studied civil engineering, specialising in water, transport and the environment, and then worked for the Thuringian state administration, initially as a civil engineer for a short period and later in a non-technical role. As this was only partially satisfying, I studied again (2004-2008) to take the state examination for translators of the English language. My good English skills and my love of the language then allowed me (from 2007 onwards) to teach English to adults at the local adult education centre, and since I enjoy this very much and the students also like my teaching style, I completed (2011/12) an adult education qualification offered by the Thuringian Adult Education Association.

In order to keep my English up to date and to continue learning about the world and life (also to cope with both, which has always been quite a challenge for me), I looked around on the internet. There, in autumn 2016, I found Big History in an edge.org conversation with David Christian, which was the starting point for a now much more structured and methodical learning process about how the world and life work and how we think about them.

Stages of this include: the Big History Project version for lifelong learners, David Christian's course for The Great Courses, the two Big History courses on Coursera and, of course, a series of books on Big History, all of which in English.
All of this inspired me to arrange a visit to the University of Amsterdam in 2018 (funded under the ERASMUS+ programme for adult education course leaders), where I was able to attend Fred Spiers' courses and also Constance van Hall's and Joris Burmeister's Big History course.

As I remained in contact with both Esther and Fred afterwards, I became more and more deeply involved with Big History. In addition to setting up this website in German to provide information about Big History, I also offered a course called ‘Learning English with Big History’ for advanced English learners at my adult education centre, using material from the Big History Project website to get a better idea of what needs to be considered in adult education, which is different from teaching Big History at school and university.
This experience fed into my further studies of Big History in the hope that it could lead to a course concept for Big History that would work well for the audience of an adult education centre in a small town in a rural area in the middle of Germany. So far (2025), I have not yet succeeded in this – and I no longer consider it so urgent – but the topic still preoccupies me, especially since a modern origin story must be constantly rethought if it is to keep pace with the changing demands of the times. And a lot has happened in the time since 1989, when David Christian first offered a course that later became known as Big History, until today (2025).

I think there is a lot to learn from this, especially from a critical look at the foundations and goals of Big History. So far, it has been a journey that has given me many impressions, insights and encounters with people from other parts of Europe and the world. I am very grateful for that.

This website is a work in progress, content will be added and revised. Thus:

Please stop by again. Thank you for your interest!