My first coffee-table book was meticulously produced by Christoph Hofbauer and his team and published by the in-house Anacon publishing house. The photographs were the culmination of my many journeys through the Sahara and stood out beautifully thanks to the black background and selective spot varnishing. The book represented the then state of the art in printing technology.

The widely acclaimed illustrated book with accompanying text is a portrait of East Africa. It was once again produced by Christoph Hofbauer and published by Marino Verlag. The publishing house belonged to Ilija Trojanow, who also wrote the text for this book. Today, Ilija Trojanow is considered one of the most renowned authors in the German-speaking world. The book included a CD from Virgin Records featuring music from Africa. The foreword was written by Peter Gabriel. The combination of fine art paper and kraft paper gave the book a distinctive character.

The illustrated book with accompanying text, published by the then well-known and highly respected Kajo Publishing House, is based on my travels in Africa up to that point. In the truest sense of the word, it bears the unmistakable personal touch of the publisher, Karl Johaentges, whose trademark was handwritten photo captions. The book was once again produced by Christoph Hofbauer.

The book, published together with Kay Maeritz, is the result of several joint trips to Namibia. This classic country portrait presents the nation in all its diversity, placing particular emphasis on northern Namibia’s Black African regions rather than on the traces of the German colonial era.

This was my first book with Frederking & Thaler Publishers, whose publishers and owners, Monika Thaler and Gerd Frederking, I would go on to work with successfully and in mutual trust for the next twenty years. Co-authored with Ilija Trojanow, the book was a combination of a country portrait and a travel guide.

This small gift book combines my photographs of Africa with texts by Léopold Senghor, the great writer and long-serving president of Senegal. The book was published by Peter Hammer Verlag, a publishing house specializing in Africa.

This illustrated book was published alongside my presentation of the same title and follows the course of the Nile from its mouth in Egypt to its sources in Ethiopia and Central Africa. The book was published by Rosenheimer Verlag.

This illustrated book portrays the countries of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa and was published by Rosenheimer Verlag.

This large-format, comprehensive illustrated book portrays Black Africa and was published by the French publisher Vilo. The co-authors were Katja Kreder and Daniela Schetar.

English edition of Afrique Noire

For the first time, I was completely satisfied with a book I had published. This was due in part to my publishers, Monika Thaler and Gert Frederking, who were willing to produce the book to a high standard and ensured excellent distribution. They also succeeded in arranging an international co-publication, allowing the book to be released worldwide. The designers Kay Maeritz and Doris Jausly also made a major contribution to its success, as did the master lithographer Dieter Kirchner, whose Novaspace lithographic process provided vibrant colors and outstanding print quality.

American edition of Die Wüsten Afrikas

My photographs of Africa have been combined in this book with the travel reports of the well-known author Andreas Altmann.

This 378-page large-format illustrated volume is regarded as a standard geographical reference work on the deserts of the Earth. My geographically oriented texts were complemented by specialist contributions from renowned scientists. The book was published simultaneously, with the same cover image, in many countries around the world.

The small but page-rich illustrated book presents a special image for every day of the year, accompanied by a detailed caption. The book was the official companion book of the UNCCD for the UN Year of Deserts and Desertification 2006.

The illustrated book was my last book with the Frederking & Thaler publishing house, after my long-time publishers had sold their company. The book is a journey through time spanning three decades of travel. Many personal photographs, documents, and both long and short texts document my adventures between Upper Bavaria and Timbuktu, between Afghanistan and Australia. The book was similarly successful to the presentation of the same name, which I presented many hundreds of times between 2009 and 2015.

The paperback edition published by National Geographic contains almost all the images from the illustrated book and was supplemented by a conversation with the renowned book critic Denis Scheck.

The paperback brings together the best travel stories of my companions and friends, each of which I introduced.

Alongside The Deserts of the Earth and TERRA, personally one of my three masterpieces. For the first time ever, it compares the dry deserts of the Earth with the cold and ice deserts of the polar regions. However, the focus of the 448-page book, which weighs almost 5 kilograms, is on the images. It was published by Knesebeck Verlag. This marked the beginning of the successful collaboration with Antonia Bürger and her team, which continues to this day.

American und British edition of Planet Wüste

French edition of Planet Wüste

An entertaining and fact-rich book for all desert lovers. In numerous short stories, the desert is presented as a natural and cultural landscape.

The book marked the beginning of the collaboration with Ludwig Verlag, which continues to this day and which belongs to the world’s largest publishing group, Penguin Random House. It was translated into four languages. For the first time, I worked with the co-author Sabine Wünsch, who subsequently also supported me in writing the texts for TERRA.

A comprehensive portrait of our Earth in words and images.

The work on my largest project to date began with the Corona lockdown in March 2020. I wrote geographically challenging texts on the history of the Earth, the Earth system, and the major questions of humanity. At the same time, I began selecting from 400,000 images that I had taken between 2017 and March 2020.

Design, lithography, as well as printing and binding meet the highest standards; the result is my personal masterpiece.

My first children’s book, for 9- to 12-year-olds. I travel with them from the North Pole through the Arctic, Asia, and Arabia to Africa. The young readers learn a great deal about the geography of these regions and about the nature of the Earth.

This book marked the beginning of my collaboration with the children’s and young adult publisher Loewe and with children’s book author Anna Taube. She succeeded in explaining complex geographical facts in a way suitable for children.

The best stories and images from 30 years of motorcycle journeys around the Earth.

After more than 30 books, it was time for a motorcycle book. Together with my co-author Sabine Wünsch, I tell the stories of my most beautiful motorcycle journeys in Africa, North and South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. The texts are illustrated with 200 images. The book was published by Ludwig Verlag.

In my second children’s book, I travel with the children from Europe to the Sahara and onward to the Amazon Basin. From there, the journey continues along the Pacific Ring of Fire to North America and Asia and into the South Pacific. Finally, the world journey leads to Australia and Antarctica, ending at the South Pole.

Like the first volume, Our Wonderful Earth, this book combines regional geography, geographical phenomena, and travel adventures.