Biography
Born in 1961 in the city of Itzehoe (Schleswig-Holstein), I came from a family of (occasionally not 100% trust-worthy) storytellers, and was always led to believe that Johann Philipp Palm was amongst my ancestors – he was executed on Napoleon’s orders because for writing and publishing inflammatory pamphlets. When I finished school at the Kreisgymnasium (today Sophie-Scholl-Gymnasium), barely scratching through the Abitur in 1980, one of my long-suffering teachers declared that „this boy must become a journalist!“ No doubt inspired by my work on the (controversial, but successful) student magazine „Der kleine Knecht“.
So I decided to follow Frau Ruhtz‘ advice, albeit on a winding road – after finishing my studies in German and English literature as well as history at the universities of Frankfurt, Strathclyde and Stuttgart with the degree of Magister Artium I stumbled onward as a local journalist for the Fellbacher Zeitung or the Norddeutsche Rundschau, as a magazine writer for publications like „Rettungsdienst“, as an author of books … with slight detours via paying work as an emergency medical technician, soldier, janitor, fireman, guttering installer, care assistant, IT specialist, insurance salesman, printer technician, teacher, truck driver, and agent as well as manager in call centres.
During the late 1990s I moved permanently to Ireland, since then the „Emerald Isle“ has been very much the focus of my writing. Amongst the fruits of this labour are the travel guides „Stefan Loose Travel Handbuch Irland“, „DuMont Reise-Handbuch Irland“, „DuMont Direkt Dublin“ and „DuMont Direkt Irland (the latter two also translated into Dutch). Between 2006 and 2017 I also wrote and edited the website About.com Ireland Travel, now part of TripSavvy.
And how would I see, define myself?
Generally I do abhor strict categories, mainly because grandiose titles and fluffy job descriptions always tend to amuse or annoy me. So I like to call myself a „writer“. Or, in the immortal words of a local fire officer at an incident, „some kind of journalist“.
Most of the time, I just guide folks towards my writing, and my published images, to get a picture for themselves …
Bibliography
Books
- “Luftrettung – Geschichte, Technik, Organisation“, Edewecht (Verlagsgesellschaft Stumpf & Kossendey) 1994
- “Rettungsdienst in Großbritannien“, Edewecht (Verlagsgesellschaft Stumpf & Kossendey) 1995
- “Helfer unter Hitler – Das Rote Kreuz im Dritten Reich“, Reinbek (Kindler) 2000
- “Irland – Stefan Loose Travel Handbücher“, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2011
- “Irland – Stefan Loose Travel Handbücher“, 2. aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2014
- “Irland – Stefan Loose Travel Handbücher“, 3. aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2016
- “Dublin – DuMont Direkt“, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2017
- “Dublin – ANWB Extra“ (ins Niederländische übersetzte Ausgabe des DuMont Direkt Dublin), Den Haag (ANWB) 2017
- “Irland – DuMont Reise-Handbuch“, 4. aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2017
- “Irland – DuMont Direkt“, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2018
- “Irland – Stefan Loose Travel Handbücher“, 4. aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2018
- “Ierland – ANWB Extra“ (ins Niederländische übersetzte Ausgabe des DuMont Direkt Irland), Den Haag (ANWB) 2018
- “Dublin – DuMont Direkt“, 2. aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2019
- “Irland und Isle of Man – Stefan Loose Travel Handbücher“, 5. erweiterte, aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Ostfildern (DuMont Reiseverlag) 2020
Other published writing …
- as journalist for the „Fellbacher Zeitung“ and the „Norddeutschen Rundschau“;
- in the magazines AWO Sozialprisma, blaulicht fahrzeug magazin, Blickpunkt Freiberg, cq-dl, Der Lebensretter, Feuerwehr Magazin, London Firefighter, Luftwaffen-Forum, LVA-Mitteilungen, Rettungsdienst, Rotor, SEG – Zeitschrift für Schnelleinsatzgruppen, Wargames Illustrated;
- as author and editor of the website „Ireland Travel“ at About.com (New York) between 2006 and 2017;
- as author for the website „irish-net.de“.