JANUARY 1973: Finally I have sex. First with a woman, and two months later with a man.

SEPTEMBER 1973: I start a university course. I see Arizona State University as the "promised land".

OCTOBER 1973: Once my sixth child has been born, I think: "I can’t just keep on having children" and train as a child and adolescent psychotherapist.

NOVEMBER 1973: My father dies of complications following an operation. When we say goodbye to him I hardly recognize him – his struggle with death has changed him so much.

DECEMBER 1973: I pick up our one week old adopted son Björn from Munich and fly with him to Cologne.