Born before the beginning of World War II in a little German village in the Saxon Vogtland and grew up as a citizen of the German Democratic Republic, the East German cosmonaut (or astronaut in the west) was 1978 the first German ever in space.
Was the first and only person ever to be awarded the honorary title "Pilot-Cosmonaut of the German Democratic Republic". As the issuing country was reunited with West Germany in 1990, this title is no longer awarded.