FAQ

Because I consider social media pretty problematic. The way I see it, it contributes to a coarsening of society and doesn’t exactly make us smarter in the long run either. On top of that there’s bullying, isolation and the constant showcasing of perfect lives and worlds that don’t actually exist and that in the end only make you feel worse about yourself. And don’t even get me started on all the data protection issues. The only place you’ll find me is LinkedIn. But honestly, that annoys me too.

It felt like a natural path for me. Early in my childhood I was already sitting in front of my father’s Atari, playing Pac-Man and Ballerburg. Later I built my first own PCs to game on them and to go to LAN parties with my nerd buddies. Tinkering with software and building websites is what eventually got me into programming and then into studying computer science.

Hehe, good question. Definitely not riding roller coasters. Like probably many people in senior roles, I write relatively little code and sit in a lot of meetings. In between, I try to support my team with all kinds of topics. Above all, of course, people and organisational matters, bringing about technical and strategic decisions, or sometimes simply listening to what’s worrying my people. I know that’s a very general answer, but that’s usually exactly what it is.

Not as often as I’d like, but that’s just the way things go. And that’s okay. These days the “agent” does the programming anyway ;)

I think Europa-Park has always had a competitive advantage through software developed in-house. Back in the 80s and 90s there was no other choice, but that also created processes that our guests benefit from directly and that can’t always be implemented well with standard software. Europa-Park is like a small city. This isn’t the metal industry or an automotive supplier. We have everything. From two-Michelin-star dining and roller coasters and acrobatics shows all the way to elaborate VR installations, our business is as heterogeneous as it gets. Standard software usually fails pretty quickly there. But that’s also what makes it so exciting :)

It’s the central sign-in service for most (and in the future hopefully for all ;)) digital offerings of the Europa-Park Erlebnis-Resort, and it was the first “project” I got to deliver at Europa-Park. Even before my current team was founded :)

Ecki is currently our internal AI assistant, which we are developing together with a service provider and developers from my team. For this we built our own AI platform on which future “gen AI” use cases can be developed, and we are building the know-how this requires right here with our own people. Of course AI has changed a lot in our development work as well. We experiment with different agents such as Claude Code, Codex or open-source alternatives like OpenCode. Today we use many skills and workflows we developed ourselves so that we can sensibly evolve our codebase with AI agents, and we also use agents in quality assurance.

Good question! We are Europa-Park, so it was important to us to support a European company like STACKIT in its efforts to build a sovereign cloud. We use Google Cloud for various systems that simply grew before STACKIT did.

Every now and then in life you’re annoyed by something, can’t be bothered with something, or are maybe even frustrated by it. To me those are perfectly legitimate states, but in the end it always comes down to rolling up your sleeves and tackling it, because if you do nothing, it’s guaranteed that nothing gets better. In the end I always manage to motivate myself not to give up and to step on the gas! In Japanese there are two words, or sayings, for this (I don’t speak Japanese :D) that say pretty much exactly what matters to me: “Ganbaro” -> “Let’s do our best!” & “Shoganai” -> “It can’t be helped”. It’s not meant in the negative sense of “It can’t be helped, so I’ll just accept it and turn away”. It has a positive connotation, along the lines of: “I can’t change this right now because it’s not in my power, but I have other levers I can pull, and I want to do that as well as I possibly can”.

Above all, the mindset and attitude people bring with them. I’m looking for doers who are keen to change something and are willing to put in the work for it. You can learn the craft of software engineering, and we can give you the tools you need, but if your mindset doesn’t fit, you will never be successful, and if the employee isn’t successful, neither is the company.

In principle I’m always open to anything, but I also love what I’m currently doing ;) Still, I’m happy about every request.

With Claude Code, and because I simply felt like it. I wanted a platform of my own where I can write about the things that move me, and since I don’t like social media, I chose this classic route :)

Through my earlier passion for lighting and laser technology, I worked as a student employee during my studies at Medialas in Balingen, a company that built show laser projectors. My boss at the time had a Williams Demolition Man (great machine!) in the showroom there, which I then always played after work.

Phew. Back then I had bought my first pinball machine (a Judge Dredd) and restored it too. But my girlfriend at the time wanted to go on holiday, and as a student I had no money, so the machine had to go and I sold it. And somehow, with various job changes and focusing on my career, it all kind of fizzled out. The fascination never went away, though. Buying a machine of my own again was just somehow never on the table, and during Covid the prices went through the roof. And still it got me again, and funnily enough my current girlfriend and fiancée only has herself to blame, because she gave me an advent calendar where you had to build a pinball machine out of cardboard over 24 days ;) For Christmas I then got myself a Johnny Mnemonic and restored that one as well :)

Currently 2 real ones (a Barrels of Fun “Dune” and a Stern “John Wick” Premium) and my self-built VPIN. In addition, a Sega “Starship Troopers” and a Williams “Johnny Mnemonic” are at the pinball museum in Eschbach, but they belong to me. A High Speed is currently being restored as well… Oh dear… That somehow became a lot very quickly….

Dune and Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd certainly because it was the first machine I ever owned, and Dune is simply, just like the film, an absolute audiovisual knockout. I would even go so far as to say that for me Dune has become the best pinball machine of all time. The theme is implemented perfectly, it’s just a huge amount of fun to play and it doesn’t get boring.

The Flippermuseum in Eschbach is a club of other crazy people who are wired the way I am. Strangely enough, I’m one of the youngest there, hehe :D I’m a member, some of my machines are there, and I simply love tinkering with the machines there, repairing and modding them, and chatting with like-minded people.

Quite clearly: real pinball. You can do a lot with virtual pinball machines these days, but unfortunately they can’t replace the real feeling, including real physics.

So far nobody has ever asked :D As a rule, though, it’s hard to make it work financially for the potential “customer”. But I have done things like the playfield of an Eight Ball Deluxe for the pinball museum. If you have a project or need help, just get in touch. I’m sure we can talk about a lot of things.

Oof…. Pinball machines are very expensive. Even the old ones, and there’s a lot of cheating and lying going on… As with all expensive toys. I’d recommend coming by our pinball museum (or a similar place near you) and talking to people who know their stuff and have been in the hobby for a while. The Flippermarkt forum is certainly always a good starting point for getting a taste of the hobby, too. If you want to buy a new machine and have the necessary cash, go to a dealer like Freddy’s Pinball Paradise, Pinball Universe or RS-Pinball and play as many machines as possible to find out which one you like.

There are various specialist shops online such as Pinwitch, PU-Parts, Freddy’s Pinball Paradise and so on, or there’s the Flippermarkt forum.

I use FreeCAD and have a Bambu Lab P1S.

Yes, when it makes sense I upload them to Thingiverse (e.g. my Stern apron lighting). Otherwise just ask and I’ll happily make everything available (and then upload it).

Simply another hobby of mine. Admittedly, that was before my pinball days. It has gone very quiet at the moment, but in general I enjoyed building and flying the copters.

Hehe, good question. Let’s put it this way: it has something to do with my girlfriend. She often tells me I look like an iguana. I somehow found that charming as a logo.