Michael Koeckritz

Michael Koeckritz (Köckritz)

Michael Koeckritz was born on 8 September 1954 in the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen, West Germany.
At about age 12, he made sure not to miss the TV space series ORION which made him so excited that he paced through the living room, driving his mother crazy, while trying to devise a way how to built a HN4 Laser gun. Needless to say that a fully developed HN4 never saw fruition, except for a full scale wooden model with a retractable, spring-loaded, Laser focal-diffuser at the tip of the model made of plastic.

Not much later, he was attracted to the Perry Rhodan, First Edition, Novel # 154 "Der Gehetzte von Aralon" (The fugitive of Aralon), which he had seen in a tobacco store, selling Science Fiction, Western and Romance novels. Buying it (at a whopping price of 70 or 80 Pfennig) was more or less a spontaneous decision. "I had to borrow the money against my weekly allowance of 2 Marks," said Michael. "I made absolutely sure, the tobacco store owner reserved the Heft for me, because I had to go home and get the money from my mother, who wasn't really excited at all that I wanted to spend that money on 'Schundliteratur' (trash literature), as she put it!"

He devoured the novel in record time and needed to know how it all started. This opened the floodgates. Since money was tight, he collected soda bottles, old news papers, copper and what else was there that promised a quick D-Mark. Time was of the essence, since these novels usually flew of the shelves. Then a friend told him about a Heft trader store where it was possible to get all kinds of novels for only! 30 Pfennig per Heft!!! Michael obtained the address, jumped on his bicycle and raced like a maniac to the Langemark Strasse in Bremen Neustadt.

"I entered the store and thought I was in Heaven," he remembers. "Perry Rhodans, Terra Astra, GF Unger Westerns, Jerry Cotton, Kommissar X, Bessy, Nick and Akim Comics galore! I was lucky, the store owner had all the missing Perries and more. They were used, but in very good condition. Since I only had enough money on me for 15 episodes, I needed to secure the remaining 139 issues. Luckily, the store owner understood and he put the remaining episodes aside for me so I could pick them up whenever I had some Geld. The rest is history."

to be continued ...