Garbha

“Mach dein Ding!” (Do your thing!)

by his brother Stephan

Dear Garbha’s friends!

Garbha, also called Thomas, Aladin or Wolf Richter, died on 14.12.22. I guess that many of you know him better than I did. My older brother was always travelling and busy with living his adventurous life. I remember some of the places; starting with Petra, and Pune of course, Oregon, many years on Bali, and than back to Germany, Cologne, Niederbachem, Sylt and finally Waddeweitz in Wendland. I often visited him at the Osho Center in Bonn.

For many years Garbha worked creatively with his camera and built an extensive body of work which you can see on his (now archived) website www.art-richter.de

I remember my brother for his lack of compromise and his radical views on social trends. We often discussed issues like changing the society, where I would tend towards activism whilst Garbha went for development of consciousness. I told him that we don’t have the time for this kind of development….

I admire his skill of accepting life as it is and his non-moralizing attitude towards all kinds of people. He was full of understanding which he combined with a non-compromising attitude for everything that was important to him, in German we would say: “Mach dein Ding!” So, it seems logical that he wouldn’t have children or build a traditional family.

These last ten years he lived alone (with his dog, Lulu) in a cabin in the Wendland woods, close to nature and far away from cities, always working with art. There he changed his name to “Wolf”…

Garbha wasn’t fond of much blabla, so I will stop here.

Be welcome to share your stories and pictures if you like.

With deep respect for my brother and how he lived his life,

Stephan (sterichter@hotmail.com)

“My pictures say more than 1001 words”

by Bhagawati

An excerpt from an article I wrote a while ago for Viha Connection (September/October 2009) when Garbha and his then girlfriend, Naveen, visited Anatto and me on Bali.

“You might remember Aladin from his days as a rickshaw driver in Vrindavan… Nowadays he is a successful designer, photographer, and filmmaker in Germany, spending part of the year on the North Sea island of Sylt and part in a village close to Cologne. Asked about his life he said, “My pictures say more than 1001 words,” and here you can see one of his images taken on Sylt.

“Meanwhile, both might be moving soon to a village in Wendland, a sparsely populated area in Lower Saxony close to the border of former East Germany. Now that this border has disappeared, this region is a dream for people who enjoy unspoiled fields, fruit groves, and forests. The land there has not been polluted by chemicals and humans acting unconsciously. “It is a large, old house in very good shape, with several solid barns – perfect to expand into some apartments if we feel like doing that. The idea is to have a sort of retirement place for like-minded people…”

“Aladin’s name comes from the time he spent on the island of Sulawesi (Indonesia) where he was video-documenting the building of a Pinisi boat, the traditional sailboat of the region. The design of this kind of boat dates back to the 16th century when the Goa kingdom was at the height of power. Having nothing much to do in the evening in the remote fishing village where he stayed, he would show the locals what he had filmed during the day. Impressed, they named him Aladin (as in the guy with the lamp); he loved the name and has used it since.”

Related article

• Aladin: A slightly atypical view of things – Read how Garbha became Aladin and photography his passion and watch the slideshow of his stunning photographs, by Bhagawati (January 2011)

More Tributes

Standing next to you in the Darshan line, fresh faced and freshly washed, we were ready! Like the pictures you made, I sensed the stillness in you and it calmed me. Thank you and isn’t it funny what we remember most almost 45 years later.
Anand Yuri

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote by writing to web@oshonews.com (pls add ‘Garbha’ in the subject field).