About the Author

Brigitte Merz is a photographer who has close ties to the many different regions of North Rhine-Westphalia. Erich Spiegelhalter is a freelance photographer whose work has been featured in numerous illustrated books as well as several photographic reports in journals and magazines. Maja Ueberle-Pfaff is a freelance writer, a literary translator, and an editor who has written various texts on cultural history.