Born near the Baltic Sea coast in East Germany exactly the year The Beatles occupied the top five of the Billboard Charts Thorsten was early socialised musically by listening to radio RTL on AM on his parents’ valve-powered radio, later taping music off the airwaves late at night and helping his dad building higher and better antennas to improve reception of West Germany’s programs. Behind the iron curtain chasing and swapping records used to be a popular sport among music lovers when virtually everything except communist propaganda came as a limited edition. In the late 1970s, he discovered the harmonica as his always-on instrument and immersed into Blues. Since traveling abroad was restricted and life in the countryside a bit boring he enjoyed hunting for far-away radio stations on AM and the short waves, unknowingly honing his listening skills. 

After earning a degree as a graduate engineer in electronics at the University of Applied Science of Wismar, East Germany, in 1989, he returned to the shipyard in Wolgast to work in the national marine defense program where he once started as an apprentice. 

In the wake of the turmoil that followed the reunion of Germany Thorsten entered the optical disc industry in 1991 by embarking the then start-up optimal Tonträger Produktionsgesellschaft mbH in Röbel / Müritz and joined the team that established the manufacturing of Compact Discs, early on specialising in quality-related topics. 

Over the years he has been engaged in various fields of media manufacturing like pre-mastering, glass mastering, replication, studio work, DVD authoring, patent licensing, anti-piracy work, the implementation of ISO-related standards, process modeling, knowledge management and currently focusses on vinyl, never letting go of the golden thread named quality. 

In those 29 years, it’s never been boring to proudly work for optimal media GmbH which has earned the reputation of being a leading service provider for the media industry.

November 2020