Dieter Gurkasch

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Dieter Gurkasch (* 1961 in Hamburg ) is a German yoga teacher with a criminal past. In 2013 he wrote the autobiography Life Reloaded: How I Discovered Freedom through Yoga in Prison .

Life

Dieter Gurkasch grew up in Hamburg. At the age of 23 he was a drug addict living on the streets of Hamburg and was known to the police. He and a friend committed several robberies. In April 1985, the two robbed a shop in Hamburg with a blank gun . When the 55-year-old employee put up a fight, Gurkasch injured her so badly while intoxicated that she died three weeks later. He and his friend fled with 320 marks . He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the robbery and murder . Back at large, he committed new attacks until he was injured in a gun battle with the police. He was then sentenced to a further twelve years in prison, which he served in the Fuhlsbüttel correctional facility (“Santa Fu”).

He found yoga in prison and founded the first yoga group in a German prison in 2006 with an evangelical pastor. Until his release in 2011, he taught more than 250 inmates. After his release he wrote the book Leben Reloaded: How I discovered freedom through yoga in jail about his transformation from a violent perpetrator and murderer to a yogi. He also founded the non-profit association Yoga and Meditation in Prison (YuMiG), which provides yoga therapy for prison inmates. Gurkasch's life was reported among other things in time and the world . In 2015 he was a star guest at the Yoga Dance Festival in Austria.

Works

  • Life Reloaded: How I discovered freedom through yoga in jail . Kailash Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-424-63084-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kathrin Ludwig: How a murderer became a gentle yoga teacher. In: Welt Online . September 4, 2012, accessed August 11, 2015 .
  2. ^ Franz Mechsner: Can a man become a different person in ten years? In: time knowledge . No. 6 , 2014 ( zeit.de ).
  3. ↑ Saskia Aberle: From murderer to yogi . In: News . No. 31 , August 1, 2015, p. 68-69 .
personal data
SURNAME Gurkasch, Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German yoga teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg