Starting out and years of travel

A Westphalian born under the sign of Aries, a Protestant in an ultra-Catholic region, a war child with the DNA of a civil servant and an artist… If you assume that every single person represents a unique dish made up of such varied ingredients as their origin, living circumstances and innate talents and characteristics – then the young Dirk G. Kronsbein was probably a pretty exciting mix.
But he had a mind of his own nonetheless. When his well-meaning grandparents advised him to take up an apprenticeship at the local savings bank, he took flight. Even before he had taken his school-leaving exam at the Graf-Adolf-Oberschule, Dirk G. Kronsbein absconded to England, where his mother had built herself a new existence. Dirk left school with A-levels and started an engineering degree at Loughborough University, later switching to a marketing course at Ashford College in Kent.

In 1961 his student days came to an end almost before they had begun. Dirk G. Kronsbein became a father. He married his girlfriend Maureen, took up an internship with Unilever, and combined this with part-time jobs as a bouncer, taxi driver and photographer to feed his young family. After a brief time at the present-day Chloride Group, his appointment to the Hymatic Engineering Company in Redditch formed the starting point of Dirk G. Kronsbein’s career.

Life stages