Smoke, Mirrors, Braaivleis & Sauerkraut

By Wolfgang Riebe

A 'MAGICAL' AUTOBIOGRAPHY, PLUS AN INSPIRATIONAL BOOK!

Millions of views on YouTube with 1000+ self produced videos
More than a million people have seen him live in 165+ countries
Thousands of global students have taken his online e-learning courses
180+ TV shows including multiple prime time TV series
35+ Books &multiple & best selling author
TedX Speaker
Known as the German with a South African accent

Magician, Professional Speaker, Author, Global Adventurer and Cruise Director, Wolfgang Riebe shares his life story from growing up in humble beginnings in a country where everything was against him to reaching his dreams.

Not only will magicians find it fascinating, but the public will also be inspired by a story of a man that dared to believe in himself and created 'real' magic in the world. It is a story of hope, self belief and passion where life threw curveballs along the journey, yet against all odds Wolfgang achieved his dreams and so much more, inspiring millions fo people along the way!

This book is as real as it gets! From writing about his youth and parents in Germany and the effects of WW2, to growing up in South Africa and returning to Europe to seek fame and fortune. Life at sea on the cruise liners to becoming a global corporate events speaker/entertainer and TV celebrity for many years.

Real people, family values, magic, turning negative into positive and so much more! This book is a roller-coaster of emotions and experiences. Sharing the initial draft copy with a few select colleagues, reviews have included:"He's been to more places than David Attenborough!" and "They should make a motion picture about your life!"

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the many photos and size limitation of Smashwords files, plus performance considerations of your e-reader, ALL photos have been omitted. HOWEVER, you receive a FREE DOWNLOAD link for the full PDF E-Book with photos in this Smashwords edition!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wolfgang Riebe
• Release date: Aug 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005117221

Wolfgang Riebe

Wolfgang began his career as a magician on British television on BBC & ITV, later traveling around the world as a headline act on cruise liners before tackling expeditions throughout the Arctic & Antarctic where he performed world-class illusions to thousands of international passengers. In later years he relocated to Cape Town from where he focused on the EMEA market combining strategically planned illusions with speaking in order to reinforce corporate messaging throughout Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He completed a thesis in Complexity Thinking and its affect on Innovation amongst leadership in multi-national organisations at the York St John university in the UK. In 2012 the National Speakers Association (NSA) awarded Wolfgang the CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation, which is the highest award given to any professional speaker in the speaking world. This designation is currently only held by less than 800 professional speakers globally. His passion is to share life truths and connect people through logical thinking and fun, as can be validated through his You Tube channel (inspiringtheworld) with over 1000 videos. In 2015 he appeared as a TEDx speaker and is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland where he focuses on the English Speaking meetings & events market and has performed in over 165 countries during the last 30 years. From symposiums, conferences, strategic planning sessions, cruise liners, television to expeditions, his vast variety of incredible life experiences make him the perfect host as your Keynote Speaker, Master of Ceremonies and Celebrity Comedy Entertainer, turning your whole event into an unforgettable sophisticated experience where creates Memorable Magical Moments for everyone.

Book preview

SMOKE, MIRRORS, BRAAIVLEIS & SAUERKRAUT

By Wolfgang Riebe

Published by Mind Power Publications at Smashwords

This book is available at

www.mindpowerpublications.com

Copyright © 2021 by Wolfgang Riebe

www.wolfgangriebe.com

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This E-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This E-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

DISCLAIMER

I have tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from my memories. Some names (not all) and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals. Furthermore, this book was solely written by me, Wolfgang Riebe in my personal capacity and all opinions and views expressed within these pages are my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else, or any organisation.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

This is the Smashwords version of this book and the layout has been adjusted for your e-reader. This means that due to the various layout and technical restrictions and Smashwords limitations, we have adjusted the photos in this version as there is a limit to e-reader document file sizes.

Should you want the proper layout with photos in the exact right places, then the only solution is to offer you the actual PDF E-Book version of the hard copy as a FREE DOWNLOAD in addition to this Smashwords copy. Simply copy & paste this link into your computer browser, or click on this link to download your PDF E-Book version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5k2thbvguw2v917/Smoke%2C%20Mirrors%2C%20Braaivleis%20%26%20Sauerkraut%20Wolfgang%20Riebe%20E-BOOK.pdf?dl=0

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DEDICATION

Firstly the idea and purpose of this book was to leave a history for my daughters, Sabrina and Alexis so that they can one day understand what made their dad ‘tick’.

Secondly it is dedicated to everyone who believes in equality, love and respect for each other, and who abhors entitlement and self centered individuals whose only interest is serving their own greedy needs.

Finally, this book has been written for those people who need that little extra push to follow their passion and to reach their dreams.

*****

CHAPTERS

PROLOGUE

PRE-THOUGHTS

MY FATHER

MY MOTHER

MY AUNT

MY YOUTH

THE SOUTH AFRICAN NAVY

BUILDING MY BRAND

ENGLAND, HERE I COME

THE CRUISE SHIPS

BACK TO CAPE TOWN

TV CELEBRITY

ACKNOWLEDGING FELLOW SA MAGICIANS

THE MAGIC MANOR

TURNING NEGATIVE INTO POSITIVE!

FINAL THOUGHTS… FOR NOW!

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PROLOGUE

A life story coupled with an inspirational book!

I was born in 1964 in the St Georges hospital in South Africa in the windy city of Port Elizabeth and spent pretty much most of my life in the country. A person cannot choose our country of birth, nor our parents; imagine we could! So here I was, a white South African born to German refugee parents in a country that offered hope to war-torn Europeans in the 60’s. Little did I know that years later, in my generation things would change radically for me as a white man and apartheid plus the strict national government of the time would limit my possibilities as well; not only for black, coloured and Indian people! My father always said, There are always 3 sides to a story... yours, mine and the truth!

This is my story; a story of struggle and success. An autobiography of a man that chose a pretty weird life path of ‘magic’ in an oppressed country; yet still made a success of life. Not because of ‘privilege’ as I was brought up in a lower middle class family and pretty much fought for myself and bought my first bicycle as a teenager doing extra jobs on the side. Nothing came easy; yet this didn't stop me from living my dream. I believe that had I been born and grown up in the USA or Europe, I would be a world personality today, but didn’t. Looking back at my life, I still did extremely well, even though the cards were stacked against me. I’m not that Hollywood 'A' list celebrity I dreamt of being as a kid, but when I look back at my life now, it would appear I have possibly led a more authentic and grounded life than if I had achieved said Hollywood fame; while still being able to put myself into an extremely small group of people on this globe that can actually say that they have lived their dream. This book is aimed at those of you who believe you didn't have a chance, or who had their cards stacked against them. Hell, I wasn't supposed to be successful, but it had little to do with politics, religion, or socio-cultural circumstances; it had to do with self-belief and the desire to succeed.

How would I describe this book? Foremost an autobiography, coupled with a different view of the South Africa people may have grown up with in the press. Political correctness will not form part of any narrative, instead real truths, opinions and realities that existed in my life will be openly shared. For entitled individuals who may have a chip on their shoulder, I guess this book may well rub them up the wrong way.

For the grounded individuals that feel everyone has a story to tell from which they could possibly learn a few lessons, then this book may be what those people are looking for. Whether one agrees, or not with my stories and views, the bottom line is that I survived and fulfilled my dreams; not because I was white and privileged (in fact this all stood against me), but because I respected and treated everyone equally and believed in myself! This book is aimed not only at those people who have dreams, but also those that have doubts.

I wrote this book to clearly demonstrate that no matter the odds, we can ALL live our dreams!

*****

PRE-THOUGHTS

I have an issue with corrupt, criminal governments and politicians brainwashing the masses into accepting guilt for what their forefathers did, or didn’t do. Illogically, apologising for the sins of your parents seems to be the norm! Let me put it differently; apologising for the sins of the ‘previous’ corrupt government with whom you, nor your past family had ZERO relationship, or any affinity at all seems to be enough reason for the current government to impose discriminatory restrictions on you! Does anything sound familiar in your country? WTF!

So let me start controversially and pose my first annoyance in the world today that I feel the majority of people need to understand, deal with and move on. If humanity remains stuck in the past, then it doesn't matter what is written in this book, nobody will move on and grow within as human beings.

Let me clarify this with an example; two countries fight with each other and the 'innocent brainwashed' masses go to war for the elite. The losers never write history, only the winners (and their version of it). The remaining population left within the losing country has to pay for the sins of their fathers; even if they had nothing to do with the atrocities of the past. Wars have aways existed and countries have shot the crap out of each other for thousands of years. Black people were not the only, nor the first race exposed to slavery. Atrocious stories can be traced back to the Irish, native Indians and Asians, to name a few. All Germans are not Nazi's and Jew haters. Yes, they lost the war, but did the US and England not commit any war crimes either? Strange my dad as a child recalls parachutes being dropped in Hamburg with toys for kids; actually bombs that exploded as the children caught them. Weird how the allies never talk about this?

Children watching their mothers raped and shot in front of them with scars that exist today, strange how the winners never wrote about these atrocities? The world goes nuts when a US white policeman is caught on camera mishandling a black man, but when black people in South Africa brutally hack white farmers and their families to death in the most horrific manner, a blind eye is turned. Did the families of the politicians behind these wars take part in the fights, or only the tax payers and normal mortals? Terrorists that have killed, tortured and bombed in the name of peace, either get caught and are tried, or win their cause and are suddenly labelled 'Freedom Fighters’. They're both killers; what’s the difference? All this hatred and fighting is caused by a ruling few arrogant elites and when new politicians take over, who gets the blame for the past... the masses!

The problem is that we allow ourselves to be brainwashed, manipulated and trodden on by a ruling elite with their own agenda’s and we have done so throughout the ages. Warren Buffet talking about finances once said, We learn from history that we don't learn from history. I think we can relate his quote to life today in general. And yes, that is the core problem and the sole reason I believe that people and especially society today cannot move ahead. They are living in the past and just too brainwashed to see through the darkness and realise someone else and not them, has switched off the light and created that very darkness. All you have to do is look for the switch and turn on the light again. How? By doing research, asking questions, listening to other opinions and not always believing only one side of a story. I sincerely hope this book does that for you! To find the light switch you need to realise that you and you alone are in control of your thoughts and emotions. Not the politicians, preachers, friends and family that are caught in the darkness. You need to open your eyes and realise that it's not only governments with their own agendas, or religions creating guilt complexes about being a sinner, or family members and friends not guiding you correctly because of their failures that are creating who you are today; it is YOU! You are allowing this!

We are not born with hatred; we learn it from others! We are also not born with guilt; again we learn it from others. I merely want to make humanity aware that they are being manipulated to think the way they do and I need to 'de-brief' everyone to think normally again! Only then can one’s life move forward! Everything we feel, see and hear is from OUR own perspective and experiences in life that has been influenced by those around us. We now need to look within and start sifting through these lessons and experiences and throw all the negative ones away. I know that the above is a harsh example, yet I do believe it to be a realistic ‘reality’ of the world that we live in. All of us need to rise above this and begin thinking for ourselves. So without further ado I'm going to share what I believe are positive messages within the story of my life so that you can change your life for the better too.

*****

MY FATHER

My dad was born (Helmuth Riebe) in March 1935 in Prussia (today the west of Poland; Alt-Sarnow, KR - Cammin, Pommern) on a large farm with a big home where 2 generations lived together and built up a good rural business. He had an older sister that was 4-years old than him when World War II began. He shared one childhood memory he had from his farm when the Russians arrived and gave his family 1 hour to clear the land. He clearly recalled that everyone ran around collected only potatoes from the field, before everyone was forcibly removed from their property.

If I compare this to today, I don't think people have changed that much. What would you do? During any wars the biggest scarcity will be food, no matter how much money, or precious possessions you have, if there is no food, no money on earth is going to satisfy your hunger. The wise old grandmother knew that food would be scarce and that they could live a number of days on the potatoes, that she could also carry in your pockets.

My father further shared with me how the family still questioned the old lady as they left their farm behind, but soon realised that her wisdom had given them a few days head start in terms of their stomachs being filled. Would that have crossed our minds today? Take COVID-19 which is the first time the world has been faced with something similar in terms of 'essential services' closing down and supermarket shelves being empty. Did we stock up on food during the days before it happened? In South Africa they even banned all alcohol and cigarette sales for 2 months! The black market flourished and prices rose by 3 to 400% if you were lucky enough to find any alcohol and cigarettes. Those that were prepared were the ones that were smiling.

Back to my dad… imagine if you can, between the ages of 4 and 10, supposedly your formative years as a child, when you should enjoy fairy tales, live in a fantasy world and have fun, but instead you live through a war. What did my dad and his sister who was 4 years older than him experience? Death, horror, hunger, hate, rape, greed, watching family members mutilated and killed in front of them. The majority of people today cannot relate to this!

My dad was always distant when I was a child. Not really a hugger, or emotional person; I never understood why? Only very much later in life when my wife and I had kids and in my fifties when I had the opportunity to spend some months alone with him did he open up and share these personal experiences with me. Suddenly it all made sense! They didn't have psychologists that saw them once a week? No one cared! Not the winning, nor losing governments! These scars stayed with him well into his 80's. I could never sleep in the same room, or the room next to him, because he still woke up in the middle of the night screaming; 80 years later! Yes, he moved back to Germany, but did Merkel's CDU government offer any help, or apologise to its own citizens, or give them any compensation for family and land lost in the past? Not a fuck! Instead they allowed millions of refugees into the country... housed, fed and gave them money, ignoring their own elderly war survivors who lived with unimaginable memories and struggled to survive on the pathetic excuse of a monthly pension they were given. This is why I visited him often, as I wanted to help where I could.

I recall taking him to Hamburg where I had an interview with a cruise line whose offices were on the Reeperbahn. If you have not heard of the Reeperbahn, it’s pretty much like Walletjes Straat in Amsterdam and the most famous red light area in Germany. My dad loved Hamburg as during the war an aunt took him in as a youngster after his mother was killed, and this pretty much was his home town. The red light and harbour area was where he grew up. In January 2016 when I had the opportunity to take him along and book a great hotel with a view over the beautiful harbour and the new concert hall still being built, I immediately grabbed the opportunity to do so. Seeing his face as his childhood memories came back was very touching.

This book is also about sharing emotional experiences of mine, and making myself vulnerable to you. I believe that only through open authentic discourse can I really share. For certain people the next experience may not resonate with you so much; maybe it does, but regardless, it was one of my most touching memories with my dad. I took him to dinner on the Reeperbahn, as this is also the theatre district of Hamburg. Afterwards as we walked past the Polizeiwache (Police Station) my dad suddenly had a naughty grin on his face (something I had never seen before) asked me if I knew what was around the corner? Hello, I had explored the Reeperbahn as a young man; of course I knew! It was Herbert Strasse, the famous street where the 'ladies of the night' pose in the windows offering their services.

I asked my dad if he wanted to take a walk through the 100 metre private road; of course he did! So here I was, entering a street with an 84-year old man who had prostate cancer for over 14 years. Did he smile! At the second window, the one lady shouted to him in German, Hey Opi, für €1 darfst du fühlen! (Hey opa, for €1 I let you have a feel!) For a moment I think he seriously considered it! About half way down we saw this really old and ‘experienced’ lady and my dad piped up. Das nennt man, in den sauren Apfel beißen (to bite the bullet). Directly translated it means, To bite into the sour apple, in other words, to do something you're not that keen on. It’s a common German idiom and whenever he said it after that day, we both always laughed.

It took us about 10 mins to walk from one end to the other and my dad came out the other side with a huge smile on his face, looked at me and for the first time in my life gave me a huge long embrace and said that this was going to be one of the most precious memories he will have of the two of us for the rest of his life.

Why was this moment so special to him and me? Remember, I mentioned that the war had made him distant and unattached? This was the first time my dad had actually hugged me and held me and shown real emotion. He had tears in his eyes. This moment meant so much to him. From that day on, our relationship was suddenly on a different level. From that day on my dad always hugged me when we saw each other and when we parted. It was not a manly, distanced hug, but one of oneness and love. I felt for the first time in over 50 years that I had eventually connected with my dad.

Thankfully it didn’t stop there; we started talking and walked back to the hotel through the streets and parks just above the harbour. Suddenly he burst out crying. He didn’t just shed a tear, he was sobbing. Another first! All this in one night! Jeez it was even an emotional roller coaster for me!

I had never seen this side of him. It took me a while to calm him down. Eventually after about ten minutes he looked at me with eyes I will never forget and told me that this specific area where we were walking at that very moment was where he spent time as a child at the age of 9, and that in this exact area his mother was raped and shot in front of him. He had to bury her himself close by! At the age of 9! Let that sink in for a while!

I find it hypocritical how Jewish people will never let the world forget the evils of the Nazi’s regime, yet forget to include the evils of the Americans, the English and the Russians! We forget that war is horrific on both sides, especially for the children. Today I walk around Germany and am not allowed to mention my dad’s story, then I’m considered a trouble maker, or even a Nazi! Huh, how and why? Just because I have German roots and the German lost the war I am not allowed to mention the suffering that my parents went through? WTF!

Imagine this had happened to you? I was speechless and in shock! His whole life he had carried this memory and never shared it with anyone. Can you imagine that? Now my life made sense! I suddenly understood why I had had a father that was always distanced and that would shy away from conflict and aggression. For both of us this was one hell of a night!

I could easily be like the many ‘sheeples’ (my term for people that let themselves be controlled and brainwashed like sheep) and lay the blame on everyone in the war saying that I never had the loving childhood I deserved, nor the opportunities other Europeans had because of what happened to my dad during the war and the resultant decisions he made in his youth because of this. Or I could just be grateful that even in my youth, even though my dad was emotionally damaged, I always knew he loved me in his way, and be even more grateful that he actually got to share his most inner secrets and feelings with me.Today I look around at friends and colleagues and have asked a number of them, How many of you connected emotionally with you parents before they died? Sadly very few did! Yes, I can blame the fact on being from the ‘baby boomer’ generation and that our parents grew up under difficult and very different circumstances. But not everyone suffered like my parents did in the war, so why do these individuals have communication and emotional attachment issues with their parents? I firmly believe I am one of a small group of people that actually managed to let go of any issues I had with my dad and that in the last few years built such a great friendship with him. Having personally done this and knowing the feeling, regardless of his youth and terrible childhood experiences makes me so wish that each and everyone can hold their parents in their arms and connect on a deep, open level so that one day when they are gone there are no regrets and no misunderstandings of who they were.

If your parents are still alive, when last did you say, I love you, or Thank You? My dad’s father was at sea and at the age of 14 when my dad eventually saw his dad again, they were strangers. In fact my dad clearly told me how he asked his father to sign a document, giving him permission to go to sea in the merchant navy at the age of 14, as you had to be 16 by law at the time and hence he needed his father’s permission. At the time he figured he had no connection to anyone on land anymore, the country was in ruins and thus he had nothing to lose. The only option, in his opinion, was to travel the world and seek greener pastures because he could see no future in Germany. He spent the next few years at sea and still managed to share this picture with me from 1951 when he was 16 and sailing the seven seas. Maybe that’s where my wonder lust came from to also travel the world and spend so many years at sea!

In fact my dad’s sister had been raped and abused by the soldiers so often, she never married and spent her whole life looking after abused girls. She later became like a second mother to me and also taught me so many things about life, but more about her later.

After a few years at sea, my dad eventually saw an advert for strong men needed in the mines in Johannesburg and out of hundreds of applicants, he was one of a handful of young men selected to start a new life in South Africa; the new land of opportunity!

He spent a number of years in the mines, completed his blasting certificate which he often showed me with pride in his later years. Here he met my mother through a friend of his at a party, as her parents had also left Germany and started a new life in South Africa. As a young man who was never able to finish school, my dad began evening home studies to become an accountant and tax consultant that he did for the rest of his life.

He was pretty much a workaholic and did everything in his power to try give my mom and I a good life. My mother meant everything to him and I think was the only person he really ever opened up to emotionally. Sadly she suffered a lot of sickness in her life and my dad spent everything he earned on medical expenses trying to sort her out (more about that in the chapter on my mother). Sadly according to my dad, due to unfortunate circumstances she had to fly back to Germany often from the 70’s for medical treatment not available in South Africa.

Sadly by then he had been out of Germany too long and his South African qualifications were not ‘good enough’ for the arrogant new Germans that had built up their country after the war. Hence he worked hard to get my mom over to the German doctors as much as possible, then come back to South Africa and immediately started working to save for the next trip.

Around 2005 and at the age of 71 my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in Cape Town. The urologist told my dad that he had less than a few months to live and to get his things in order. My dad was a survivor and this was definitely the wrong thing to say to him. He was only human and hence it had a huge initial effect on him, selling the little he had he made some bad decisions that resulted in him having nothing left for his old age. I would still like to personally slap that urologist, but then karma is a bitch (We’ll talk a lot about karma later).

My dad was a survivor; he had to be since childhood. When he got his head around the whole cancer story it was a sign to him that in all the years, according to him, the medical fraternity had not been good to them in South Africa, and within 2 weeks sold up and moved back to Germany. Luckily he had taken any spare money and was able to back pay into the social system in Germany a few years before, so that he and my mother would qualify for the bare minimum pension. 15 Years later I recall enjoying a good single malt with my dad who had just had his PSA levels checked again when he said to me, Well, I have been given another 3 months. If there is a repetitive message in this book, it is ‘attitude’. Something I learnt from my dad as a youngster; your attitude is everything! Your attitude controls your mind and with a positive attitude you can create magic.

He wasn’t a religious man; not after the war and horrors he experienced as a child, but he was spiritual and well-read on the mind and the meaning of life. He showed the urologist the finger and thought to himself, Screw you, you don’t tell me how long I can live, I will show you. He did his own research and followed an alternative path with a German medical product called Iscador (www.iscador.de). I add the site as I firmly believe that this herbal mistletoe medicine had a positive influence. It is natural and doesn’t poison your body like chemotherapy.

My dad’s sister (more about her later) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and literally given 2 weeks to live. On Iscador she lasted 6 months before passing on; sadly it had been diagnosed too late. I have mentioned the product to friends and it has helped. You may have been diagnosed with cancer and are searching for alternatives, maybe this is the sole reason you picked up this book? I know that should I get cancer, this will be the first treatment I opt for.

Regardless, 15 years later my dad was still alive. In his late 70’s he had to have a spine operation at the Bonn University hospital. It went extremely well, but they said he would not walk again. They discharged him in a wheelchair, gave him a zimmer frame and he applied for a handicapped pass so that whoever drove him in his little Nissan Micra, could at least park in the handicapped parking bays. Six months later he was walking and driving himself! He never used the zimmer frame! I recall driving him to the shop and always avoiding these handicapped parking spots saying to him that when he gets out of the car, he doesn’t look handicapped!

This man went through so many hardships; life wasn’t kind to him. In my later life I had so many people contact me, inquiring after my dad because he had left such a positive imprint on their lives. He had helped them, always had time for them and given so much of himself for their benefit. He literally saved hundreds of people thousands in taxes, simply because he cared for and respected those around him, and above all hated unfairness. If there was anyone that would challenge the taxman and fight for the rights of tax payer, it was my dad. This was really touching for me