After the end of his wrestling career, Alexander Bedranowsky wrote his autobiography “Meine Kämpfe” (German for “My Battles”). It is the first and, as yet, only autobiography by a German pro wrestler and a ruthlessly honest glimpse into his entire life and his mental state after the life-changing in-ring accident.
Unfortunately, it is only available in German at this time, but it could be the perfect chance to learn the language of poets and thinkers, as German is sometimes called.
Audiobook
The audiobook version has a running time of approximately 5 hours and is narrated by the author himself.
Audio Sample
eBook
The eBook contains 55 additional photos that were not included in the paperback editions.
Reading Sample
Paperback
“Meine Kämpfe” was published as a paperback in several editions, including:
- Ed. Lepidoptera, 2012, 216 pages, ISBN 978-3-941809-12-3
- Ed. Subkultur, 2017, 194 pages plus colour illustrations, ISBN 978-3-943412-78-9
All physical copies have unfortunately sold out and a reprint is currently not planned. Hopefully you can enjoy the eBook and/or audiobook just as much, even though you won’t have them sitting on your shelves.
Reviews
Translated from German.
Martin Hoffmann (sport1.de)
A true account from a dream world that every fan and critic of today’s wrestling should read. As should anyone who wants to understand what it is like to live with a passion as all-consuming as it is dangerous – and what happens when you lose it…
Alexander Mais (sports literature blogger)
Bedranowsky was and is a pioneer. He was one during his ten-year career in the ring and he still is in the years since. He was the first German wrestler to publish an autobiography.
Raphael Wallner (filmmaker)
When I read a story, I practically see a film. The better a story is written, the more alive the film in my head becomes. With “Meine Kämpfe”, I was sitting in the cinema.
Christian Michael Jakobi (former managing director of wXw – Westside Xtreme Wrestling)
Writing an autobiography is a big step; drawing a line under a chapter of your life – or, quite literally, putting a full stop to it – is a far bigger one. As readers, you have the chance to experience both of these deeply personal aspects of the life of Alexander Bedranowsky, whom we all know as TJ, first-hand. I chose the word “experience” quite deliberately, because from chapter 1 onwards, which begins on 2 October 2010 inside a CT scanner, Alex takes the reader on a journey through his life that impresses with its bluntness, its authenticity and its immediacy.
The beginnings, which reminded me a lot of my own first steps in wrestling, the conditions in European wrestling around 2000 that seem laughable in hindsight, but also a look back at the early days of wXw that brings back fond memories … From these origins, Alex takes us along on the path that turned him from a backyarder people smiled at into one of the most unique performers on the European wrestling scene. How did that happen? Why did he do death matches? Every question, even the ones you might never think to ask, is answered in “Meine Kämpfe”.
But while many autobiographies tend to fizzle out or end on the terrace of a quiet suburban home, in its final third the book shifts into what is, for me, a harrowingly open finale. Here, too, Alex lets us take part in a fight – his fight against a broken man who has lost what meant the most to him. The final chapters are an absolutely impressive tour de force in which we learn what really happened in Alexander Bedranowsky’s life between the injury and the Hall of Fame induction.
After Tassilo Jung, Alex is the second figure in recent wrestling history to publish a book. And while Tassilo’s book is a very entertaining and light read, TJ has written an emotionally gripping work that opens a window into the soul of a man we have all come to know, more or less closely, at the shows. “Meine Kämpfe” is Alex’s reckoning with himself, but at the same time a declaration of love for wrestling and, above all, for life itself.
Wrestling is a phenomenon that accompanies all of us through our lives. “Meine Kämpfe” is a contribution to the wrestling debate that deserves to be read – by fans, by detractors and by the curious. And – perhaps the highest praise I can give – in my view it is gripping enough to have an impact even on people who don’t know what wrestling is.
Author of the foreword for Oliver Hurley’s “Wrestling’s 101 Strangest Matches”
Alex got to write the foreword to Oliver Hurley’s “Wrestling’s 101 Strangest Matches”.
