Hans-Hinrich Taeger, who has died after a long illness, was a German astrologer and Buddhist teacher who adopted Donegal’s Fanad peninsula as his home.
Taeger was born in 1944 in the Silesian city of Görlitz, elder of two sons to Heinz Taeger, an engineer and building contractor, and his wife Helga, a ballet teacher.
The upheavals of war and the partition of Germany led the family to relocate to west Berlin. As well as upheaval, he experienced tragedy early in life when his younger brother, and only sibling, Nicolaus died in 1951.
Taeger studied for eight years at the universities of Berlin and Munster. He specialised in film history, but also undertook courses in literature, art history, psychology, sociology and media. These studies were combined with working as a journalist, including publishing Pro These magazine.
He particularly immersed himself in the then vibrant counter-cultural scene, organising love-ins and happenings.
This melting pot of experience brought him to an increasing interest in Buddhism and astrology. From the mid-1970s he sought ways to combine Tibetan Buddhism, the western tradition of astrology, New Age spirituality and science.
Buddhist retreat
In 1983 he moved to Donegal, and fell in love with Fanad. There, he became well-known. His home, Glenview House at Portsalon, was a Buddhist retreat centre. It attracted a constant stream of visitors seeking spiritual peace and enlightenment.
Taeger was above all unafraid to be his own man. He frequently walked round Fanad in red and white robes, wearing a red hat topped with a black tassel. This attracted some attention, but was accepted as being part of what Taeger was.
He is survived by his cousin Frank in Hamburg.