About me

The idea is to also translate my whole story into English and likewise the Vitae, my tabular life history.
For now you’ll find only the recent development to understand my situation.

My name is Wolfgang Dieckmann and as one of the first German sommeliers I founded VinoPlan® in the 1980s and run it actively for about 10 years.

After a long periode as hotel manager I let it awaken again and rebuilt it into an exclusive event agency specialized in German wine.

Due to Corona, I, like many other colleagues in Germany, had to put my business on hold since March 2020 during the long lockdown periods. We were happy that it should finally start again.

Great orders were on the books as of August 2021. An exclusive contract for three pillars of a customer loyalty program of a large German hotel chain was agreed. Presentations during the DWI‘s WeinEntdeckerWochen (Wine Discovery Weeks) in September are currently being marketed nationwide – or my own open Premium Wine Walks in the Ahr Valley. All exclusive, high-quality and well-founded.

Then came the night of Wednesday, July 14, to Thursday, July 15, 2021, with the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley. More than 60 bridges were destroyed, the railroad line from Remagen to Ahrbrück no longer exists, and roads sank away in the floods, as did entire houses or large parts of hotels. Ruptured and leaking fuel oil tanks have contaminated the landscape. The vines in the valley locations must be torn out and the soil there excavated to a depth of 90 cm and removed.

It will take years to rebuild an inviting tourist infrastructure.

The Ahr wine and the associated tourism were the economic mainstays of the Ahr Valley. Only four winegrowers have escaped unscathed, about 60 wineries have been hit at least partially, in most cases even completely.

As one of only 18 tested and certified German Wine Professional in the D/A/CH countries, I have focused on the pillars of wine and tourism and have aligned my event agency VinoPlan® to them.

The flood hit our house full on. My office and my apartment are on the Ahruferstrasse in Walporzheim, just 500 meters past the narrowest point of the entire Ahr valley, called the Bunte Kuh. The Josephsbrücke, built in 1910 after the last flood of the century and only 100 meters away from our house, is gone.

The water was up to just below the ceiling of the 1st floor in our case. The basement and the 1st floor were flooded and left a sticky, stinking mud mass of about 30 cm on each floor. The raging water took with it what was just floating and what was left of my life’s work was covered in mud. The valuable library of reference books on wines and nature, the climate cabinet including high-quality wines, certificates and medals, the furniture in general … simply gone, on mountains of debris and mud.

Now the house needs to be completely renovated on these levels, floors out, tiles and plaster off ceilings and walls etc.

Three kilometers away I had rented a garage as storage for my event equipment and wine supplies. This is also completely flooded, most of it is just junk. My car, along with more than 4,000 others, was also destroyed.

Unfortunately, I had no homeowner’s insurance for my inventory with the inclusion of natural hazards. Thus I stand today before the absolute new beginning, quasi with nothing. After such a long absence of sales due to Corona, now this. This is definitely not economically viable and why I am demanding donations.

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Categorized as Infos