About me
Hi, I'm Achim Grothkopp — born in 1965, originally trained as a typesetter, and at home in IT for over 30 years. What started as a jump from typesetting into the early days of the web has grown over the years into a broad mix of development, consulting, training and product ownership.
My background
I've worked both self-employed (running my own web agency and hosting business) and in-house — most recently for four years at Buchner Gruppe / Starke Software GmbH in Kiel, first as an account manager and online trainer in the medical/therapeutic space, then as Product Owner for the shop platform (Adobe Magento).
Earlier stations include IT manager at Psyma AG, IT specialist at bk-documents, IT coach in adult education, and lecturer for smartphone and tablet courses for seniors at OSCAR Kiel. Larger projects I contributed to include the nationwide Youth Migration Services portal (German Federal Ministry), a remote maintenance solution for hot rolling mill 1 at ThyssenKrupp Technologies, and the public transport schedule service scout-sh.de for DB ZugBus / Autokraft.
Where I am right now
After Buchner was sold and my department dissolved, I deliberately took a sabbatical year and traveled. Since mid-December 2025 I'm back — refocused, rested, and curious about what comes next. This site is part of that: a place for the small, personal tools I actually use every day — backups, Usenet, song lyrics on my phone. Whatever works ends up here and openly on GitHub.
What I bring
- Programming: Python, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS
- Databases: MySQL, MariaDB
- Systems: Linux and Windows administration, Apache, server setup, hosting
- E-commerce: Adobe Magento (shop maintenance, concept, performance, KPIs)
- Training & coaching: Certified trainer (AEVO, IHK Lübeck, 2016), experience in adult education and remote training
- Languages: German (native), English (fluent, written and spoken)
What colleagues and clients have fed back over the years — and what I care about: explaining complex technical topics in plain terms, working independently and systematically, and delivering reliably both in a team and on my own.
Contact
- GitHub: @achimgrothkopp-ux
- Email: achimgrothkopp@gmail.com
- Based in: Alterkülz in the Hunsrück region, Germany