The Book
Born 1940 in a poor German village, Heinz Stucke is tormented by his Nazi father at home and teased "tiny Heinz" at school. He believes he's a “poisonous dwarf” and dreams of escape.
In 1958 with a determined spirit but only an 8th-grade education, Heinz pedals away to circle the world on a three-speed bicycle.
He travels through the Soviet Union, India and the Middle East before running out of money in Africa...
But there, 1964 in Cape Town, Stucke figures out a clever way to travel - without returning home or ever getting a job.
Finally free, Stucke continues to travel for the next 50 years and visits every country on the planet while conquering Mount Kilimanjaro, rafting the Amazon, cycling Alaska's icy North Slope, sneaking into forbidden Tibet and pedaling 600,000 kilometers.
But can the poisonous dwarf finally fulfill his dream and return home?
"An irresistible story of
beating the system to embrace the world."
Coming in 2024...
...the first-ever account of
Stucke's triumphs and tragedies.
Is Stucke's quest, to become the most travelled man in history, a magical odyssey?
Or is he a modern-day, delusional Don Quixote, simply a little man afraid to return home anything less than a triumphant hero?
The Author
Since 2022, the journalist Ryan Anders has lived in Germany working with Heinz Stucke, interviewing Stucke's family and childhood friends and digging through German archives.
Thus far Anders has tracked down 290 "eye witnesses" from around the world who met Stucke on his impossible odyssey.
With exclusive access to Stucke's travel diaries, personal letters and photographs, Anders has reconstructed each climb and crash of this unrepeatable adventure.
More about Anders at www.ryananders.de.
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