Vendor Spotlight: Karl-Heinz Wendicke (BISS, Germany)

Karl-Heinz Wendicke. Photo courtesy of BISS

"In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more poor people, mainly older women.  Indeed there are 5 or 6 people here who eat out of rubbish bins.  This really vexes me as it does not have to be this way; scavenging for food in rubbish bins isn't a life!  These people only need to go to one of the many soup kitchens in the area.

I was also homeless, over 30 years ago.  But I had work most of the time.  My employers knew that I was homeless as well as some of my colleagues.  I once worked behind the cash desk in the department store which was previously located at Marienplatz; now the Galeria Kaufhof.

You always had to be behind the desk which meant that you had to be clean and freshly shaven every day.  I used to shave at the train station where I also had a locker.

Karl-Heinz moved into his first ever flat at the age of 51 in 1998: "It was the first flat I ever had.  I made the flat nice and comfortable.  I even had flowers on the balcony and then I brought my dog to stay.

Up until then, I only saw my dog at weekends as he lived with his foster-mother in the countryside - after all, a dog needs a home.

As a homeless person, I often wished for a house, mainly at the weekend if I was squatting in some solitary construction site, lying in my sleeping bag and I could see in the windows of other people's houses.

I thought about everything then.  Even now as I'm getting older, I often ask myself: "What on earth have you lived for?  You have no children..."

At the end of 2008, 3 days before Christmas, my leg had to be amputated as a result of an infection.  Nevertheless, I still do everything for myself."

Translated from German into English by Hayley Anne Ross