Born 1 December 1946 - a Sunday-child
Star sign: Sagittarius

Axel has been diving since 1966 and in the meantime has completed more than 10,000 dives. He started off in the Starnbergersee (near Munich, Germany) and other lakes of the area. There were many fresh water dives including dives in mountain lakes, rivers, and ice diving. Small excursion by car and with a compressor led him south of the Alps. On to: Elba, Gilio, Gianutri, Sicily, Calabria, Corsica, Sardinia, and the south of France. Moving right along to Mallorca and the Canary Islands. Then to Egypt, the Sudan and finally to the Maldives.

Afterwards he was the dive manager on the island of Kuredu on the Laviyani Atoll. At that time there were 8 bungalows on Kuredu (today about 380). There were no non-stop flights to Male. All flights went through Sri Lanka. You had to change to smaller planes and hope that your luggage would also make it on board. The crossing to Kuredu lasted 15 hours and was a real adventure trip. Occasionally the transfer boat would make it to the most northerly point of the Male Atoll and then have to turn around again because the waves were so high that the boat could not possibly go on. The bungalows were very simple indeed: sand floor, 50 cm high walls built from corals, walls and ceiling were made out of woven palm mats, bed with mosquito net, fan, toilette, shower and that was it. Electricity was available from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Breakfast consisted of toast, salted butter and jam and sometimes turtle eggs. The slices of toast got smaller with every day since the mold had to be cut off. Lunch consisted of fish and rice, dinner of rice and fish, and banana. Beer and coke were always warm since the fridge could only run for 4 hours and never managed to cool the drinks properly. The diving however was first class.

The next station was Vilingili, directly across from Male. This island was a lot more comfortable and the food was significantly better. Diving unlimited. On Friday the 13th of February the „Maldives Victory” went aground directly in front of the airport. Axel was one of the first to reach the still virginal wreck. The freighter was laden with everything one needs for the daily survival and nothing was damaged either, beverages high in alcohol content, wine, champagne, cigarettes, milk powder etc. Axel was the first to feed the grey riff sharks at Lions Head and in the Wadu Channel.

A few miles further south in the southern Male Atoll, Sub Aqua got a new dive base on Vilivaru. Axel received the assignment to turn the former leprosy station into a diving base. New diving sites were discovered, action dives in the Guraidhoo and Cocoa Channel. Gary Weyner, base manager of Bodhu Finolhu was killed in the Guraidhoo Channel during a deep dive becaus of a decompression accident. The next station was Embudu Village. At first a 50% partnership till 1984 (the "wild" years before the Aids era) from then on sole owner till the end of 1989.

An old friend, Wolfgang Brak, present dive base owner of Embudu, Summer Island and co-owner of Diverland Equator Village, took over the base from Axel in 1989.

On February 10 1990, actually already on his way to the Seychelles, Axel received a phone call from Georg Krose, Sub Aqua, in Munich, Germany, asking him to become base manager on Ellaidhoo in the Ari Atoll. On 13. February 1990 the new adventure Ellaidhoo started and lasted till April 2001, after all. On Ellaidhoo diving milestones were set, thanks to the excellent teamwork with Georg Krose and Robert Brylla. Axel performed real pioneer work here (he had been a sapper after all) regarding Nitrox-, technical-, SCR-, and CCR diving with everything that comes with this territory. At first Semi closed with the Atlantis, after that the installation of the first Nitrox Membrane facility on the Maldives (for all other basis Nitrox was still an exotic gas). 1998 a further milestone: Martin Parker, the owner of Ambient pressure diving and John Bantin, a Journalist for "Diver Magazine", UK, test the first CCR-closed circuit re-breather "Buddy Inspiration" under tropical conditions. After a couple of beers Martin can be talked into leaving the two pieces of equipment on Ellaidhoo. 2 more are added and also an oxygen booster pump and helium. The technical era begins on the Maldives.

May 2001: Relocating to Bandos in the Male Atoll. Fine-tuning the technical concentration of closed circuit equipment. Introducing the course "Solo Diving" in connection with ANDI.

March 2005: We have come full circle: Axel returns to Diverland on GAN in the Addu Atoll. Here emerges a diving center of the very highest standard for the demanding diver, including all the possibilities that technical diving has to offer. The sites are untouched; there are no other diving basis in the Addu Atoll. Mantas all year around, magnificent drop-offs, a dream of every diver, whether beginner or full fledged professional, here everybody finds their dream site.

Axel is diving instructor and trainer of the following organizations:

PADI MSDT
VIT/CMAS **
ANDI (American Nitrox Divers International) Instructor Trainer Nitrox/CCR Buddy Inspiration/Trimix, Solo diver and President ANDI Maldives
IANTD Instructor Trainer Nitrox/CCR Buddy Inspiration
NAUI Instructor
SSI Platin Instructor