Psychological thriller former archivist from Maastricht: ‘I w…

No, Rolf Hackeng (69) is not someone who suddenly thought after his retirement: let me start writing a book. Because the Maastricht historian has actually been writing all his life. Hackeng, who until two years ago worked as an archivist at the Historical Center Limburg, already has a whole pile of publications to his name. Non-fiction books and articles about the history of Maastricht and the surrounding area.

At a certain point it started to itch, he says. “I got a bit tired of all that factual, detached research and finally wanted to write a personal story, with a head and an end.” That was It’s time, a biography of a fictional person, in which elements from his own life were entrusted to paper. He included travel reports, diary fragments from his student days, notes from his mother’s diaries and letters from his grandparents in that book. It became a multi-year project: Hackeng started it in 2008 and completed the book in 2021.

Thriller

His new book, In the shepherd’s shelter, flowed from his pen a lot faster. “Now that I’m retired, I have a lot more time. And, when I’m in a flow, I can continue writing late into the night without having to worry about whether I’ll be fit the next morning. I really like that freedom.”

It has become a psychological thriller in which a certain Wim Verheeg plays the leading role. A strange figure, who devours books by Karl May, and who – in search of excitement and adventure – is sent as a blue helmet to Bosnia. After returning from that mission, he starts working as an archivist and turns out to be a kind of detective who tries to solve cold cases. And that creates dangerous situations. The reader is repeatedly misled and the denouement is surprising.

Hackeng came up with the storyline when he once took a walk alone from his home in De Heeg to the Savelsbos. “That is also where the hut that is on the cover of the book comes from. It is located near Gronsveld.”

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Course

Rolf Hackeng grew up in the Sint Pieter district of Maastricht, studied history in Nijmegen and then trained at the State Archives School in The Hague. He started working at the municipal archives in his hometown and eventually ended up at the Historical Center Limburg. He is still active there a few half days a week, now as a volunteer. “I do things there that they don’t really get around to: making old Maastricht archives accessible and translating medieval charters from Latin.”

In his new bookthe Maastricht author again processed experiences and adventures from his own life. For example, the main character, like Hackeng, is a divorced father, works as an archivist and is a fan of Karl May’s stories about Old Shatterhand and Winnetou. “But that’s pretty much where the comparison ends,” the writer explains. “Actually, Wim Verheeg is my negative. I was a conscientious objector, he joined the army and was sent to Bosnia. And so he is the opposite of me in even more ways.”

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In the shepherd’s shelter was, like Hackeng’s previous book, written under the pseudonym Gerlach Fonk. Why actually? “In the past I have made historical books. But what I do now is something completely different. To avoid confusion, I have chosen to write my fictional work under a different name. I mixed up all the letters of my real name and that is how Gerlach Fonk was created.”

After his two fictional stories, Hackeng has acquired a taste for it, he says. Is he already brooding over a new story? “I did write down some ideas in my notebook. And perhaps there will be a sequel to this book. After all, the story ends in such a way that a part two could well be possible.”

Gerlach Fonk – In the shepherd’s shelter, publisher Mosae Libro, 89 pages, 22.50 euros.