[my collecting curriculum so far ... ]

11/2012: more than 10'000 labels in my collection now

03/2008: jubilee time! 10 years have passed since my web site has been online. it's the oldest one still in existance

though I was busy with this & that since August 2007, collecting and trading continued throughout the months, resulting in more than 8000 labels in my collection now. the latest hundreds of labels still have to be scanned and treated for web presence ...

12/2006: the "4th Banana Label Collectors' Meeting" is taking place on the weekend of December 2nd/3rd in Munich. 17 collectors from Germany, the USA, Spain, Slowenia, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic had big fun in trading labels and sharing each others' experiences with this wicked interest in common. and here are the labels coming along with that event

more than 7000 different labels in my collection. youser! due to a loss of trading records I can't make out a specific donator for label #7000, so it's a huge thank you to all of my trade partners!

02/2006: visiting the 'FruitLogistica' in Berlin, together with Michael Ebnet-Feit and Friedrich-W.Kunze. it rounded up in a short collectors' meeting along with Erich Hinrichs and Thomas Schulz at the Sri Lanka stand. and they even had bananas there, eventually ;-)

01/2006: label number 6000 dropped in. hurray to Captain Spauld... eh: Kato :-)

10/2005: online again, and a lot to catch up with ...

06/2003: crossing the magic 5000 border line

11/2002: offline for a couple of days. trading is almost down to zero. time for some re-works and additions ...

06/2002: starting to work on an exhibition entitled '... ausgerechnet Bananenaufkleber ', which is shown from November 28, 2002 until March 23, 2003 at the Botanical Museum in Berlin-Dahlem. around 2500 labels are exhibited in 28 frames within the context of companies and producing countries, the botanical history of the banana and the procedures of planting, harvesting, labelling, packing, shipping and distributing

03/2002: 4463 labels in my collection, and about 100 trading partners from all around the world

02/2002: everyone's awaiting some labels for the Winter Olympics, so here is one from me ...

12/2001: even the Vatican now has a banana label of it's own ;-)

11/2001: 4150 labels in my collection

09/2001: in the sequel of the September 11 disaster a lot of weird stuff is flooding the web, trying to cope with that madness. my 'tali-bana' label is some of it. predictably, it affects the whole gamut of emotions ...

the "1st Banana Label Collectors' Meeting" takes place in Munich with 19 participants from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and the USA ... these are the commemorating labels

06/2001: 3600 labels in my collection

03/2001: my 'this is not a banana label' stickers are attached onto outgoing snail mail, and I still hope to get some information concerning the 'dubious' section on the 'collection' page

01/2001: 2800 labels in my collection

11/2000: label collecting ain't what it's been before: Elvis Velez just has entered the building ;-)

10/2000: the second, re-edited set of 'personal promos' is out, also containing some 'misprints'

06/2000: 2200 labels in my collection

11/1999: 1800 labels in my collection

09/1999: John A.Kirchner is visiting Germany. after four days in Berlin - and accompanied by Martin Schwember - we meet with Erich Hinrichs at his Hamburg home (the 'Hamburg Summit')

05/1999: 1300 labels in my collection. the first set of Chiquita-slogan-like 'personal promo labels' is used on envelopes for trade partners

01/1999: 1000 labels in my collection

09/1998: meeting with John A.Kirchner in London

05/1998: 600 labels in my collection

03/1998: my very first web site edition is on the web, showing 69 labels, for a start

02/1998: extensive resource search on the web. many successful contacts with generous bananeras, producers & companies are resulting in lots of unique labels

05/1997: my collection of 275 labels is scanned

04/1997: initial trades with Jim Gower, John A.Kirchner, Bob Kraus, Geoff Lipscomb, Gerri Lorenzo, Elinor Miller and Leee Overmann

11/1996: my first online account. there are five pure banana label web sites in existance at that time: Dan Czarnecki's label collection, Jim Gower's 'Bananas On The Web', Larry Hartman's 'Stuck On Bananas', Chuck Lloyd's banana label page and Leee Overmann's 'Super-fine Banana Label Collection'

04/1996: 'Der Spiegel', a weekly German news magazine, has a documentation series about the internet. the fourth and last part is showing a screen shot of Ilkka Havukkala´s 'Banana Labels Of The World' web site. though this site isn't available anymore under the address given, it's starting the thrill of it all ...

05/1995: 65 labels in my collection, sticking on a glass pane in my corridor. more or less 'active' collecting begins

09/1990: taking the labels from that cupboard with me to Berlin

07/1988: adding banana labels to some others already sticking on a cupboard at our students' home in Rosenheim, Bavaria