Our Team
Claudia
Claudia was born in January 1965 in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. In 1967, her parents emigrated to Australia by ship with her and her younger sister. When they returned to Switzerland on a passenger ship three years later, Claudia was not quite six years old and had already travelled around the globe – from France via South Africa to Australia and then from Australia through the Panama Canal back to France. During the first 10 years after her return to Switzerland, Claudia had to experience further changes of residence and school due to her parents’ restlessness at the time. Later in return, she could travel a lot during he holidays and was able to see and visit many European countries and cities and even Australia again. After a long time at school, and as a passionate reader strongly influenced by many hundreds of book worlds she had lived through, Claudia had some idealistic dreams, but otherwise she didn’t know what she specifically wanted in her future life. However, she was sure what she definitely didn’t want, namely to lead a normal ‘mainstream’ life, but she didn’t really know how to go about it. So she first went to the University of Zurich to study history and German literature. Everything went quite normally – until in 1987, in the fourth semester of her studies, while looking for a minor subject, Claudia had the crazy idea of attending a proseminar on philosophy – and there, in July, shortly before the semester break, she met Thomas, as if by chance.
Thomas
Thomas was born in Zurich in August 1966, the Chinese Year of the Fire Horse. He quite enjoyed going to school, but he was actually only a compulsory pupil. He was a true passionate and enthusiastic member of the scout movement – but music, contact with nature and the spiritual world were also as important to him from an early age as oxygen for his lungs. From an early age, he was a mystery to himself and those around him – he couldn’t be categorised and that was unsettling. Not only did he not have an answer to the question of what he wanted to be – he didn’t even have a naive idea of what he wanted to be. As he couldn’t or couldn’t yet find his own, he led a fairly free life after his A-levels – like a guest musician who plays in different places in different projects – endeavouring to do his best wherever and with whomever he was. He was involved in many places, but never really belonged anywhere, constantly searching for more knowledge, holistic life experience and the soul mate with whom he wanted to live and create together. He lived with his parents, but was financially independent with two part-time jobs. He was on the way a lot, was rarely at home and went his own special way. At the University of Zurich, he studied freestyle, with no intention of doing a final diploma, philosophy, anthropological psychology and everything else that interested and fascinated him. Even as a scout he liked independent co-operation, as an organiser, participant and especially as a cook in camps and courses. When, in July 1987, Thomas suddenly and unintentionally struck up a conversation with Claudia, he had no idea that only three months later, with a loving heart, he would give up his easy-going life for a challenging life together with her.