Johannes Stek worked in the metal industry. Married then divorced, he is the father of one boy. He suffers from psychosis but has never received treatment except for a few involuntary psychiatric hospital stays. In 1997, for an entire decade, he lived as a recluse in a house with broken windows, without heating, kitchen, or sanitary facilities. Since then, various repairs have provided him with minimal comfort. Stek owns neither a television nor a radio, nor does he wear a watch or read the daily newspaper. He enjoys looking at magazines, which constitute his only link to the outside world. His drawings depict spacecraft from his imagination, whose properties he describes in meticulous detail.