I think I can safely say that Creative Weblogging has been a pioneer of sorts in the German blogosphere.

The Creative Weblogging blog network launched in early 2004 by Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging, and a German native, soon had some German-language blogs, along with English-language and French blogs (and more recently Chinese). This was even at a time when the German blogosphere -- especially that part of it focusing on business and technology topics -- was tiny.

Torsten had the foresight to see that the German blogosphere would pick up speed eventually, and was able to get in early while the opportunity was still wide open. He also had the faith to invest in it even though the outcome was far from clear at that time.

For reasons you will see below, Germans have been slower to take up blogging in large numbers.

The good news is that the German blogosphere is growing steadily -- and I am happy to report that Creative Weblogging's presence in the German blogosphere is growing right along with it.

Key to the company's growth in Germany are our talented Editors, who are subject matter experts and experienced journalists, who work hard to build a loyal following.

One of them, Wolfgang Mueller, has been the Editor of the CIO Weblog since October of 2005. Recently he also was appointed the Regional Executive Editor -- Germany, of Creative Weblogging.

Last week I had the chance to hold a GMail exchange with Wolfgang, to learn a little more about him. Here are the results of that interview:

Q: Where are you from?

Wolfgang: Wuppertal in Germany.

Q: Where did you go to school?

Wolfgang: I went to school in Offenbach - it's near Frankfurt, Germany.

Q: Where have you worked and what occupation(s) have you had?

Wolfgang: First I worked as a laboratory assistant in a chemistry plant, later as journalist at a daily newspaper. Since 1990 I am a freelance journalist.

Q: What do you see as the challenges for a blog network like Creative Weblogging, in Germany?

Wolfgang: Some traditional newspaper publishers are starting their own blog-networks (for example http://germanblogs.de/). So it will be stiffer competition in the future.

Q: What are the opportunities in Germany? How do you view the climate towards blogs?

Wolfgang: With 80 million people, Germany is Europe's largest country and usually pretty advanced in technology. But the total number of blogs in Germany -- consumer, business, public & private -- is only about 100,000 - 150,000. Germans probably lag for cultural reasons. They are not inclined to share what's on their mind the way the Americans, Chinese and French do, or even the Spanish and Italians. Growth of blogs remains slow in Germany -- but this maybe is a good opportunity for a network like Creative Weblogging. Because we can offer people a "ready to blog" platform, where they can earn a little money for blogging.

Q: What convinced you to take on the responsibility for this new role as Regional Executive Editor?

Wolfgang: As part of the (small) blogosphere in Germany I read every day a lot of interesting things in the blogs, that we can use to optimise the CW-Blogs in Germany. For example, search engine optimization, aggregation or linking. I will try to help our bloggers to do a better job, increase traffic, etc.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

Wolfgang: There are now 12 Creative Weblogging blogs in Germany. I hope that we can double this number in the next months.

Q: Thank you, Wolfgang, and congratulations on your new role.

Wolfgang: Thank you.

Editor's Note: For those who wish to read some remarks by Wolfgang in his native German language, please read: Regional Executive Editors in China und Deutschland.