Sorry for the delay, but we got promoted!

First off: Sorry the newsletter is only coming on the 5th. But dude — Schalke got promoted! Karaman in the 15th minute, 1:0 against Düsseldorf, and after three years we're finally back where we belong.

Bundesliga, here we come. And then on Sunday we even became champions of the 2nd division because Elversberg was nice enough to crush Paderborn 5:1. Double party. I think I haven't really slept through the night since Saturday evening — as a Schalke fan you gotta get your head clear first. You get it, right?

But now I'm sitting here and really need to bring you up to speed. SchalkesOpa has built, written and posted so much online in the last few weeks that today's newsletter is gonna be a bit longer. But you know: stuff's happening here. And I think you should see that.

Get yourselves something to drink. This'll take a while.

This is probably the coolest thing: When you write to me in the lobby, I now write back. Not some standard blah blah — really, with reference to what you wrote to me. I remember you.
SchalkesOpa set this up for me together with the crew. How often I can respond depends on your membership:

At night (between 10 PM and 6:30 AM) I sleep. If you mention Lukas, Tim, Papa, Noah or Marie, I'm happy to join in — they're all part of my life. But I won't talk your ears off.

In the morning and evening I'll send you a little greeting to the lobby, personally to you. And if it's your birthday, I won't forget that either.

Oh yeah, I still have school too, so then it's only during lunch break. Annoying, I know, but what can I do?

Dude, I don't even know how to announce this. SchalkesOpa wrote the sixth book about me — "Max and the Light at the End of the Tunnel". It's been in the shop for a few weeks now.

It's about Noah. About the fight for him. About Papa, Tim and me, giving everything. There's a really nasty villain, there are setbacks, and there are moments where I could barely keep going while reading.

I can't make it easy for you — this book isn't for the faint of heart. But what many of you are writing back really gets to me.

This is what readers are writing about the book:

On Amazon all the stars are at 5 too. "Maxtastic as always," writes Korn Torsten. And LÜ writes: "Please don't make us wait too long for the sequel."
LÜ, don't worry — SchalkesOpa is already writing book 7.

Available as paperback, hardcover and eBook. Members get their usual discount.

Tune Twist Records signed a third artist. JANNIS. — 23 years old, a voice you won't forget easily, English pop ballads.

His debut album officially comes out June 3rd. But here on maxr.one you can already listen to and buy the first six tracks exclusively — five weeks before they land on Spotify, Apple Music or anywhere else:

It's also kind of a statement, I think: I only exist in books, in songs and podcasts. JANNIS. on the other hand is real, just like SchalkesOpa. Check him out — and especially listen. It's worth it.

Musically, a lot else happened in April too:
From SchalkesOpa:

I've got something new too:

And then I also dance on quite a few social media platforms and the music was produced especially for me and is available on Spotify and Co, but also on my homepage:

If you're in the mood for really cool music:

You can pre-order the 2027 calendar. Limited edition, three designs to choose from, and there are bundles if you take two or all three.

On the page you can see directly how many are left. When they're gone, they're gone.

You know what happened at the beginning of March — YouTube just shut down the channel. SchalkesOpa sat down and built up a complete infrastructure of his own.

What you have now:

A bunch of new pictures have landed in the gallery. The newest series is called "Desert Stories" — desert, dunes, campfire under the starry sky, a bit of adventure mood. Check it out if you're in the mood for other worlds.

Overall, many motifs have been added in recent weeks. Worth clicking through again.

Also check out how I rock at surfing...

SchalkesOpa doesn't tell everything through social media anymore. On maxr.one there's a separate news section with posts about music, books, videos, podcasts and everything else that's currently happening.

Five languages, with comment function. You can always find the latest 3 posts on the homepage.

Anyone who's been in the chat has probably already noticed — a lot has happened:

By request from many in the community:

So, that was quite a chunk. But you can see — stuff's really happening here.

Most of this happened because you asked, wished for or just participated. SchalkesOpa builds, I write back to you, and you make this the place it is.

Check it out, click around, write to me in the lobby.