Page 12 - spielbox 03/21 - English

Cover Story. Franz Vohwinkel
He‘s Back
Back to the roots. That‘s what Imelda and Franz Vohwinkel wanted after living and working in the USA for about a decade and a half. When they came back, one thing was particularly important to them: They had to be close to the sea; Munich, their former locale, would now be out of the question. So they moved to a town in Schleswig-Holstein, at the coast of the Baltic Sea. A visit to somebody who has returned.
„By ANDREAS BECKER
Do you want to try?“ Franz Vohwin- kel contemplates for a moment, then says yes. The lady explained
the advantages of the little craft distill- ery‘s sales hit, but eventually, the truth is in the glass. So, yes, please, let‘s have a sip of plum with aquavit. Vohwinkel takes a sniff. Smells good. Vohwinkel takes a nip. And nods. Tasty. Very tasty. He buys a small bottle, and another bottle, for the reporter, is put in the bag as well. A nice little discovery on the walk through Eck- ernförde, the new hometown of Imelda and Franz Vohwinkel.
For more than a year now, the couple has been living in Germany again – af- ter 14 years in the USA, all 14 of them in Seattle. ”We simply asked ourselves more and more intensely whether we could imagine growing old in the USA,“ Vohwinkel says. It is a matter of retire- ment pay, and primarily of the health care system in the States. ”The moment you get sick, you are screwed.“ These were the big issues for them. But there were other things as well that bothered them more and more. ”Imelda was very disturbed by the gun laws in the USA.“ In addition, the city of Seattle had changed considerably in the past years. And this might also have made it a bit easier for the couple to return to Germany.
So now it‘s Eckernförde – two people from Munich at the Baltic Sea. They could hardly be further away from southern Germany, but Bavaria was not an option. ”Well, Seattle is situated directly by the sea. We found it really great to live near the water. Therefore, we were looking for another sea town.“ They were thinking of Kiel, of a city, of some urban place. ”Imelda would have preferred to move to Stralsund, but that‘s just too far from ev- erybody.“ A staff member of Amigo, orig- inally from Kiel, finally brought Eckern- förde into play. It was the perfect tip. An idyllically located bungalow at an inland lake, the Windebyer Noor, became the couple‘s first residence, so placid and beautiful and close to nature
that, in the afternoon, deer lie down at the fence and ru- minate.
”We came back to Ger- many in Feb- ruary 2020,“
he says. Back then, the pan- demic was about to start in Seattle. ”So we escaped from the virus over
there just at the right moment.“ But there was no getting away from the virus for good; soon after that, Germany also went into its first lockdown. So their first year in their new old homeland was a very atypical one. At least for Eckernförde, be- cause there were hardly any tourists vis- iting the area. ”In the summer, we hiked and biked a lot, up and down the coast.“
For Franz Vohwinkel, it‘s not a problem that they are not living in a larger town. It doesn‘t actually matter where he takes his work with him – as long as he has an Internet connection in order to exchange data. ”In that sense, nothing much has changed for me,“ he says. His first job
after their return to Germany was making a few illustrations for SPIEL.digital. Besides this, he created the graphic design of Beyond the Sun for Rio Grande Games (see review,
p. 8).
All in all, the time after
their return to Germany has been a bit more re- laxing for him, though. But this will probably
Magic. The Gathering
also is a special pro- ject. Vohwinkel uses
oil paint on canvas to create new cards.
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Photos: Becker, Göldenitz