The night was short. My new cellmate is too simple-minded for the kind of deep conversations I had with Jürgen and his boys. At some point we started talking about music.

Udo Lindenberg's "Jonny Controlletti" comes to mind and I start singing quietly:

"Neulich war ich mal wieder in Amerika(Recently I was in America again) /Und da traf ich einen Herrn von der Mafia … (And there I met a gent from the Mafia...)"

Andi is stunned.

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Actually, his name is the same as my brother Andi's. But he reminds me more of my favourite cousin Lutz, who was always there for me when I visited him in Teutschenthal.

Which is not to be taken for granted when you are five years older and have a pretty girlfriend.

He had the hottest tape recording system in the world. We listened to the Stones, Thin Lizzy and The Who for hours on end.

Lutz was not a thug looking for trouble. But he didn't shy away from a fight either. His problem was that he was enviably good-looking.

This made him desirable to one of the prettiest girls in the area, which was always a reason for trouble in the village discos.

Once there were five or more of thugs lying in wait for him. He could have handled two of them, but against three more he had no chance.

They kicked him so badly that he had to go to hospital and was only able to drink liquid food for weeks. That changed him.

It could have been a lot worse. At school we had a brutal thug called Thilo the Fast who liked to brawl up someone at least once a week.

One day it was supposed to be my turn.

But because of a conspicuously large anti-nuclear symbol on my military school bag, which was stolen from army stores, we got to talking.

Later we even became something like friends.

Despite his primitive nature, he had a philosophical streak that allowed us to connect. Without the anti-nuclear symbol it would have been different.

Andi's character is somewhere between Lutz and Thilo. Too ugly for Lutz and completely tone deaf. Not evil enough for Thilo. This could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

What he doesn't know is that I can sing dozens of Udo Lindenberg songs for over an hour. And if need be, Frank Schöbel, who I secretly love to listen to.

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