My name is Thomas Christaller, living in Germany and since 1985 in Bonn where I was born in 1949. I started with Aikido in 1972. My direct teacher was Klaus Broscheit, since 1977 this was the late Norbert van Soest. Up to now I received my graduations from Katsuaki Asai sensei from whom I learned a lot and much more. During my first visit of Japan in 1986 I attended a class of Nobuyuki Watanabe sensei. He impressed me very much. I couldn't believe what I saw. For years I tried very hard to understand this. But only when I managed to attend his regular workshops in Birach, Germany, I was able not only to understand but also to experience what he is teaching. There are some video clips on YouTube of demonstrations he gave at several Embus, where you can see some so-called no-touch throws. Interesting are most of the comments whose authors claim to understand Aikido. Unfortunately they never had a chance to take a class given by Watanabe sensei at Honbu Dojo (Saturday afternoon) to figure out what is really going on at these spectecular movements. Having seen many different Aikido sensei and practicing in many different dojo I regard his Aikido and underlying philosophy as one of the profoundest and deepest approaches I experienced up to now.
In my non-Aikido life I am heading a research institute of the Fraunhofer Society and being a Professor in computer science. My special research area is Embodied Artificial intelligence, which means building robots.
Here you can find some more information (both in German but you may find some photos and videos):
http://www.lebenskunst-bonn.de
http://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/
