Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger, here simply called Lichtinger, was born on 21 July 1961 in Stuttgart, West Germany 🇩🇪, as the fifth of six sons. His father was a paediatrician, his mother a nurse 👨‍⚕️👩‍⚕️, the home strict and life serious from early on. Ten different schools meant always new faces, new teachers, new friends – and the feeling of constantly having to prove himself anew.

Lichtinger worked in many different professions – among them in the local brewery 🍺, as a parcel delivery worker 📦 and in a photo laboratory 📸. Later he completed a manual apprenticeship as a mechanical engineering technician.

After his training, Lichtinger travelled around the world 🌍 and eventually ended up in the GDR in a labour camp. Because Lichtinger refused forced labour and did not cooperate with the state security, he spent several periods of weeks in solitary confinement 🚪. On Friday, 13 November 1987 – two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall – Lichtinger was deported from the GDR to West Germany. This experience changed his view of freedom and dignity forever 🕊️.

In 1995, Lichtinger founded a property development company which grew for more than thirteen years – until the financial crisis of 2008 changed everything 📉. In the following years he lost almost everything: condominiums, savings, security. Only his old villa could be saved by Lichtinger through a ruse against the bank. Because the bank obliged him to complete two construction projects already started without salary, Lichtinger worked additionally as a pool attendant 🏊‍♂️ and temporarily as a taxi driver 🚕 during this period in order to support his family.

Afterwards, Lichtinger was hired by the Stuttgart estate agent Steffen W., who wanted to benefit from Lichtinger’s years of experience as a property developer. When Lichtinger managed to broker a large building plot to an investor, however, Steffen W. had the office lock cylinder changed without warning and took over the project himself – in order to deprive him of his commission 🔐.

Later, Lichtinger renovated his old villa, sold it, paid his ex-wife and eventually followed his former great love Suzanne to New Zealand 🇳🇿 – carried by hope and the willingness to begin once again from the very beginning. There, Lichtinger found silence, vastness and the freedom to reorder himself 🌿.

Today, Lichtinger lives on New Zealand’s North Island, accompanied by Rosie, his loyal dog 🐕, who reminds him every day that trust needs no words and true presence arises in silence. Soon, however, the two will move on – probably to Asia 🌏, in search of new adventures, a home and inspiration for the next books ✨.

Lichtinger does not write from theory, but from lived experience: clear, sincere and without pathos. His books combine observation, psychology and inner development 🧠 – for people who want to understand more deeply what moves us, hurts us and heals us 💫.