Hansjorg Gareis was born in 1926 in Germany the second son of a professional army officer who rose to be Commanding General of a Tank Corps in Hitler's Army. The author joined the German Navy, aged 17, during the Second World War. The Corvette on which he served was sunk by a Russian torpedo in the Baltic Sea.
After the war, he studied Electrical Engineering in Stuttgart. In 1948 he volunteered for full-time service in Moral Re- Armament working with the movement for 20 years on five continents. He then started a career in industry,
was Director of Personnel in a company producing plastic articles, and finally founded and managed a firm
providing jobs for long-term unemployed.
He married Ruth Treib, a Swiss. They have a son KlausMartin, who, with his wife Steffi, lives in Switzerland.