In his own words
My interest in mineral collecting was awakened in 1981 on a family holiday in Bramberg. On mountain walks in the Tauern we found our first small rock crystals. On a hike along the Erfurter Weg in the Rauris valley we met two “Stoasucher” (Bavarian for stone hunters) coming from the north face of the Sonnblick with rucksacks full of quartz specimens. They gave each of the children a rock crystal of five to eight centimetres. We also found our first anatase in the cleft sand of the many open clefts along the Erfurter Weg.
I looked for someone who could help a beginner and got to know the Salzburg micromounter Alois Bader. As he had no car of his own, he was glad to be able to go on collecting trips with someone. What interested us most at that time were the Hopffeldboden, the Gastein valley, Rauris and the Lammer valley.
From then on I was infected with the “virus” of mineral collecting. My previous hobby, model railways, was given up, and the railway cellar became a mineral cellar. Bit by bit, literature and the necessary equipment were acquired: microscope, cold-light lamp, splitter, UV lamp and assorted chisels and hammers.
At the beginning I collected everything at random. By now I restrict myself to Germany and Austria. My main collecting areas are Leogang, Brixlegg, the Tauern valleys, Bavaria, the Lahn-Dill region and the Siegerland. As I set more store by aesthetically beautiful specimens than by completeness, I am not a systematic collector.