Who We Are

Who - or what - is behind www.pinguballon.de? Here you can get to know the two balloon-crazy soft toy tamers who have been addicted to model ballooning for almost twenty years now.

In 2006, we have extended our team: Since then, Bastian can also often be seen walking the Penguin - and latterly his Sheep of course.

Matthias Schlegel

Born on/in: October 12, 1979 / Pforzheim (Germany)
Lives in: Munich
Occupation: Graduate Engineer (Mech. Engineering)
Likes: ballooning, Anno 1503, Eire, Lord of the Dance, renaissance faires, winters with lots of snow, warm summer nights, sailing, ...
Dislikes: stress, superstition, colds, radio interferences, empty batteries, malfunctioning computers
Hobbies: going to balloon meetings, visiting renaissance faires, cycling, computer (homepage, Anno 1503, internet, ...), going out with friends
At www.pinguballon.de he is: pilot of the Penguin, event schedule planner, webmaster, moving spirit :-)

Werner Schlegel

Born on/in: March 9, 1949 / Ulm (Germany)
Lives in: Pforzheim
Occupation: Graduate Engineer (Communications Engineering)
Likes: Music: Mozart, Beethoven, Enya, M. Knopfler, Celtic Spirit
Dislikes: German Soccer League, car fetishists, rap, hiphop
Hobbies: hiking, cycling, hang gliding, paragliging, model planes, model balloons, photographing, filming, digital video editing
At www.pinguballon.de he is: pilot of the Cat, special shape designer, cameraman and director

Bastian Schwarz

Born on/in: May 22nd, 1984 / Wiesbaden (Germany)
Lives in: Buch am Erlbach (near Landshut)
Occupation: IT specialist
Likes: ballooning, music festivals, cinema, rock music, black humour, fire
Dislikes: money oriented model balloonists, traffic jams
Hobbies: going to balloon meetings, cinema, youth work, computer
At www.pinguballon.de he is: pilot with the most wood landing experience, wheat beer glass supplier, flight mechanic, chaos brother

More in the background are mother Bärbel, who, after all, thinks that ballooning is quite fun (and taught us how to use the sewing machine), and Kristina, who can't do anything with the hobby of her father and brother... and here you can see the whole family together:

Kristina, Werner, Bärbel and Matthias (Christmas 2004)