family - Carsten Burmeister

hello family …

welcome to my life

this is a personal page

a bit like an autobiography

also a fair bit of family history

my dear children and grand-children

this page is for you

I am from Germany … I was born in Hamburg on 17 May 1947. Originally our family came from Rostock, North/East of Hamburg, then moved to Heide, North of Hamburg.

My brother Thomas, born 1950, his daughter (same age as Rad) and family live near Frankfurt.

When I was six years old my parents moved to Essen, where my dad worked for Coca Cola, as the head purchasing officer for all German speaking countries (including Austria and Luxembourg).

At 19 years old I moved out from home to Düsseldorf, to get my professional education as a photographer.

At 22 I moved for two years to Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Holland). Then in 1972/73 I went on my Big Trip to Asia in my Landrover with my girlfriend Saskia; we travelled overland all the way to Afghanistan, India and Nepal … my other Big Trip was to Bali.

After my return I moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I lived for five years, but half way through I went to visit Bali, where I met Leesa, who came to live with me in Copenhagen.

We married in 1977 and had a baby, Radjin a.k.a Rad, in 1978. When Rad was six months old, we moved to Australia (Copenhagen was too cold) in January 1979.

After Leesa, Radjin and myself arrived in Australia in 1979 I spent most of my time in Sydney … after a stint in Kalang, near Bellingen, where Saskia was born … North-Sydney, Kirribilli, Milsons Point, Cremorne and Balmoral.

I have another page with our ancestry.

Our family history as told in our family album

Carsten Burmeister … born 1947

Carsten with his Mum and Dad in 1947

Wilhelm and Elly Burmeister

When I was little I went on school holidays to visit my aunty – my mom’s sister – at her work place, an estate in Bavaria, South Germany, owner by the aristocrats “von Donner” (count von Thunder) … I learnt how to ride a horse and to drive a Unimog.

These are a couple of pictures of my girlfriends at the time, the 1960s

Those years were also my band days, as a drummer …

… but I soon traded my drum kit for a camera and began my apprenticeship as a photographer … in Düsseldorf.

I also changed my look … truly, it was a rebellion against authority.

As soon as I had finished my apprenticeships (I did two of them, first as an advertising executive in an ad-agency, still in Essen, then to be a photographer in Düsseldorf) I moved to Amsterdam. I lived there for two years and met Saskia Kouwenberg, who – when I met her – was the gorilla keeper in Amsterdam Zoo.

We soon set out on our Big Trip, from Amsterdam/Holland via Belgium, France and Italy to Greece … another big trip was to Bali

… on to the big wide world, lands where we needed the Landrover …

… especially in Afghanistan … where we travelled North, in Winter !!!