"I'm still here!", it shouts from the rotten sunflower field. The little marigold doesn't give up! It shines on a cold and misty November morning, as if it were the most beautiful summer day! 🙄🌻

The monument to my great-grandfather Werner Hilpert (1897-1957) in the Dr.-Werner-Hilpert-Siedlung (Dr. Werner Hilpert settlement), east of the former Camp King in Oberursel, Germany.

He was a politician who took his humanist ideals very seriously. That's why he's a very important example for me. If you ask me if I'm a better person because of my great-grandfather, then I can only affirm that. It's my responsibility to keep the memory alive.

In 1932 he became President of the Center Party in Saxony until the dissolution in 1933. He lost all functions. From 1932 to 1937 he was President of the Catholic Action in Saxony and was in open opposition to National Socialism.

In collaboration with Carl Goerdeler he was adviser and authorised representative of Jewish citizens in "Aryanization". The resisters saved the lives of many Jewish families.

He worked as a syndic in a Jewish business building, trying to keep working conditions as human as possible. His office also burnt down during Kristallnacht in 1938.

In September 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo. He spent the next 5 1/2 years in Buchenwald concentration camp as a political prisoner.

He was member of the Buchenwald Resistance and the Buchenwald Popular Front Committee. They not only campaigned for the prisoners, but also considered how Germany should continue after National Socialism.

In 1945, after Germany was freed from the Nazis, he took part in founding the CDU party in Hesse and was elected President of the CDU Hesse.

The second picture shows an election poster for the state election of Hesse in 1946. [License by CDU, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.de]

Dakota snaking around, analyzing everything!🐍💕 The world outside the box is strange and frightening. Just one look and then quickly back to the hide! 😅

What's your favourite flower? 🙄🌻

Dakota in the dark!☻
The hide and seek game must be possible!🙄 The more safety a terrarium suggests to the animal, the freer it moves.😉 Don't force it to be openly on display. Let it make its own decisions.🐍 That's how it gets really interesting. My corn snake Dakota feels safe between branches and foliage. My leopard geckos also have some thin branches vertically in the terrarium, in addition to roots on the ground and caves in the back wall.

Tasmanian Tigers (2010, oil on paper)

Hardly any other animal has inspired my imagination as much as the Tasmanian tiger.
Other than their appearance suggests, they're more closely related to kangaroos than to wolves and tigers. They're considered extinct since 1936. I wish there's still a secret refuge somewhere.❤

This is one of three oil paintings I've done so far. Maybe even the first, but I don't remember that exactly.🙈 The painting doesn't exactly match this picture. I had to hire a spy to get a photo of it. It was a gift to a person I later broke with. So I had to work out the reflections before I could publish it.📸🕵

Nocturnal creatures 🌌

I've painted this picture for the last two days. It's pure fantasy. I just wanted to paint a beautiful landscape. In the sky hovers a cloud formation that reminds me of a huge condor. But you could also see a big hand moving across the sky (thx @liluchen945 for your inspiration!). Maybe this condor stands for a messenger, between imagination and reality? Aren't our hands exactly that? There is a way to the mountains, where the fog opens like a door. Maybe you have to cross the jungle and climb some mountains if you want to get to the clouds, where your imagination meets reality. The way is both, therefore only half represented. A giant would certainly make easy progress following this path. But only with imagination. Give the giant a chance! I call the painting "Open Door For Giants". The motive itself is about 10x7 cm, gouache on laid paper.

I just felt like changing the sky.

Happy Halloween!👿 A good time to be creative! This video was made entirely from still images. I chopped them up, put them together again and breathed life into them. And sent them to my neighbourhood! My lame laptop took 13 hours to generate the video. Unfortunately, not everything went exactly as planned. Can't be corrected before Halloween is over. But I'm pretty proud of the sounds I created! 😅