Klaus-Michael Schneider

Klaus-Michael Schneider - Hamburg - Germany

     An explanation of my personal flag is that the three balls surrounding the sword and scales, stand for St. Nicholas, St. Michael, all together my name (am not Catholic). Not only are blue and green my favorite colours, they are also the colours of the Hamburgian St. Nicolas Regiment and the St. Michael Regiment.
     I was born in 1953 in Westphalia, moved to Hamburg at the eve of new millennium in 1999. I was married a second time and we live happily in Hamburg.
     I had my first encounter with flags in 1959, when I smuggled out of the DDR a Neubecker Cigarettes album (my poor mother almost died in fright). Since then flags for me just appeared on flag tables in lexica. In 1985, my ex-mother-in-law donated to me a Whitney Smith book named Zeichen der Menschen und Völker, it was my first real flag book. Since then I have been always interested in flags, but seldom found good books within the library system. My big break through came via the internet and digital photography. Since then I have been an enthusiastic flag spotter. I found FOTW in 2004, and made my first contribution after an India trip in 2005.

Klaus-Michael Schneider, January 2012