What is so fascinating about real estate for me? How has it shaped my life? And what does owning property, building and renovating houses, and living in and with nature have to do with crises?
The houses of my early childhood introduced me to living in archaic material, in stone and wood. They made me experience nature with light and sun from within windows, doors and terraces, in gardens and forests surrounding us. But they opened my eyes to also see the value of storing and preparing food in the cellars and kitchens. Those were primeval years.
Forced to leave the paradise of my early childhood, I soon learned to renovate the buildings and gardens that belonged to my family at the time and to give them new value.
An enormous architectural stimulus came from the intensive and sometimes daily contact with the almost completely preserved Hohenstaufen architecture (13th century) in Schwäbisch Gmünd and the nearby Lorch Monastery.
In my teen years I started to renovate Art Nouveau houses as a right hand of my father, and I endeavored to technically design a new type of cellular architecture apt for city center buildings. While continuing my own craft work in the areas of building renovation and electronics after postgraduate studies in England, I was responsible for global public relations during the extensive expansion of the Frankfurt Trade Fair Center from 1986 to 1989. This included such renowned buildings as the MesseTurm, the Frankfurt Festhalle, and Hall No.1.
I started working with the State of Hessen Monument Protection Authority in the early 1990s and began my own historic renovation project in 1994. While also opening a real estate agency, in 1997 I was responsible for the opening of both the Congress Center at the Marriott Hotel at the Frankfurt Trade Fair Center and the newly built West Wing of the Nuremberg Exhibition Center.
In the mid-1990s, I had opened a hotel and cultural marketing consulting firm in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, where I supported not only Italian hotels (mainly in Northern Italy) and wine producers, but also the then „Meirotel“ group near Fulda, Germany.
Taking on a responsible position at a German building society on Lake Constance initiated my move to Switzerland. From 2001 (already based in Switzerland) to 2008, I taught for both the German AXA Insurance company and the University of Liechtenstein, specializing in real estate and finance, law and taxes, leadership and organization, and business administration/economics (micro and macroeconomics). In Liechtenstein, I was particularly responsible for the seminar „Liability Law for Financial Service Providers.“
From 2003 to 2008, I was the majority shareholder of a small Swiss/German freight forwarding company, a period in which I – in addition – successfully completed approximately 30 real estate-based consulting projects for German SMEs (mostly in crisis).
After a sabbatical in 2008, I completed a CAS (Certified Building Energy Expert) program (including „GEAK“) in Lucerne in 2009/2010, while also working on renovation projects in Switzerland. This was followed in 2010/2011 by a position as International Marketing Manager for a Swiss real estate company.
In order to keep my professional knowledge up to date I started studies in informational science an mathematics in 2012, resuming additional engagements as a part-time university teacher and financial manager.
In 2019, I began offering professional communications and crisis consulting for SMEs, a practice that continues to this day (separate website: https://nattworks.ch ). Since 2021, I have been working as a project and property developer again, specializing in SME renovations and building analyses.
