Detlev Henschel

Henschel grew up in a tiny village on the north coast of Germany, where the streets still consisted of sand; -with plenty of farms in the neighborhood, meadows with orchids, many cows, forests with abundant wildlife and a lot of fish in rivers and the sea - and the customary law of the jungle for survival among the kids. His normal all-day life could therefore safely be compared to the ‘New Wave’ of the today's ‘Die Hards’ of the outdoor and survival scene, since there was no Internet, Facebook, iPhone, WhatsApp or Netflix etc. The only thing they had was the nature to play with.

When Henschel visited the high school in the nearest town, the discovery of Asian martial arts in the early seventies of the last century altered his life completely. Not only that shows like Sesame Street or Dallas were not important for him ... but this fact alone denounced him as a nerd.

Back then –to be a ‘Good Görman’- you had to do service (2 yrs. Army/Air Force) and in addition an apprentice before you go to the University. After this unedifying experience, especially that of the banking industry, Henschel preferred to follow a different path in which he studied science of different faculties in various countries in order to search answers about nature, society and the martial arts that his very life now represented. He finished the University with BSc, MSc and Dr. of Science.

After a few years of work experience in a managerial position, he lost interest to spend most of the day with people who held positions, because they wanted to have it and not because they possessed the qualifications for it. This perception did not change during a guest professorship and so he resisted offers from different Universities and dropped out. His path was another, as he claimed.

It was not the theory, but the practice - the acid test - that appealed to him. Nothing is more fascinating than to experience nature in nature: My ‘Applied Philosophy’, he called it. His first book about edible Plants became a bestseller.

Dr. Henschel wrote his first article in 1982 after a 10,000-kilometer trip hitchhiking across the US in his quest for Jack Kerouac's America. Anyone who knows Jack Kerouac, knows why Henschel then had to go his way. He lives with his long-time partner Katrin alternately in different countries - but always close to the sea.