Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger, here simply referred to as Lichtinger, was born on 21 July 1961 in Stuttgart, West Germany, the fifth of six sons. His father was a paediatrician, his mother a nurse. The household was strict, life serious from an early age. Ten different schools meant constantly new faces, new teachers, new friends – and the early need to repeatedly prove himself.

Lichtinger worked in many different professions, including in a brewery, as a parcel delivery driver and in a photo laboratory. He later completed a skilled trade apprenticeship as a mechanical engineering technician. These years shaped his view of practical relationships, responsibility and the often invisible work behind functioning systems.

After completing his training, Lichtinger travelled the world and eventually ended up imprisoned in the former GDR. Because he refused forced labour and declined to cooperate with the state security service, he spent repeated periods of weeks in solitary confinement and darkness. On Friday, 13 November 1987 – two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall – he was expelled from the GDR to West Germany. This experience permanently changed his understanding of freedom, dignity and inner independence.

After his imprisonment, Lichtinger began to bring his own inventions into reality, among them the idea of a horizontal, sarcophagus-like vibration sauna for use in the living room, intended to support physical and nervous system regeneration. He later developed a specialised thermometer for green tea that emitted a short signal when the optimal brewing temperature was reached. In addition, he envisioned a warning system for people wearing headphones in traffic, designed to alert them acoustically to approaching trams or electric vehicles before it was too late. Economic constraints, high protection costs and dominant providers, however, set clear limits.

From 1988 onwards, Lichtinger worked autodidactically as a freelance collaborator for a successful architect, until he founded his own property development company in 1995. The business grew over many years until the financial crisis of 2008 left its mark. In the years that followed, he lost almost everything: apartments, savings and financial security. He managed to save his old villa from the bank through a strategic manoeuvre. As he was obliged by the bank to complete two unfinished construction projects without pay, he additionally worked as a lifeguard and at times as a taxi driver to support his family.

Afterwards, Lichtinger was employed by the Stuttgart-based real estate agent Steffen W., who sought to benefit from Lichtinger’s many years of experience as a developer. When Lichtinger succeeded in brokering a large development site to an investor, Steffen W. had the office lock replaced and took over the project himself – thereby depriving Lichtinger of his commission.
This experience once again sharpened Lichtinger’s understanding of power structures, loyalty and the fine line between trust and exploitation.

After renovating and selling his villa, Lichtinger settled matters with his former wife and eventually followed a past great love to New Zealand – driven by the willingness to begin once more entirely from scratch. There he found stillness, vastness and a new inner rhythm.

Today, Lichtinger lives on New Zealand’s North Island, accompanied by Rosie, his loyal dog. She reminds him daily that trust requires no words and that true presence arises in silence. Before long, the two may move on again – possibly to Asia – in search of new spaces, new experiences and inspiration for future books.

Lichtinger does not write from theory, but from lived experience. His texts combine observation, psychology and inner development – clear, calm and without pathos. He writes for people who are not seeking quick answers, but who wish to understand more deeply what moves us, wounds us and heals us.