I have dedicated the last decade of my life to helping my kids despite the surprising challenges of being a father (and a foreigner) in a small city in Germany. I challenged the system that produces the surprising statistic in the intro and reached the limits of my resources, so I recently returned to the US and my career there as a data scientist so that I would have the resources to solve my children's problems.

The result was the severest challenge from that system, blocking all contact (even phone calls) with Kai and Phoebe, in total disregard of the the court orders I fought hard to win for my family and in total disregard of the laws that are routinely disregarded in Germany family courts.

But now I have secured the services of Germany's most successful family lawyer at the German Supreme Court (and EU Court and UN Court) who has been instrumental in getting laws unfair to fathers declared unconstitutional, forcing the government to changing the law. He not only says we have a very good chance at the Supreme Court to win vs. the latest court actions, but also have a good chance at overturning a decades old unfair law that allows arbitrary, biased and incompetent family court judges to make emergency rulings that cannot be appealed. As our main cases go through the lower courts, we expect to have more unfair rulings that he can then take again to the Supreme Court to get precedent setting rulings / get family laws declared unconstitutional.

While he focuses on Supreme Court (or higher) cases for us, I have also just secured the services of Germany's most famous family lawyer for her successful fights against judges and officials who abuse the system to protect their gender and anti-foreigner/racial biases. These biases have been and currently are, the most serious problem Kai, Phoebe and I face.

All this is not to say that the Kai and Phoebe's mothers have no part in keeping the family apart. Without their actions, none of this would have occurred to Kai and Phoebe, including their near estrangement from each other, despite Kai and Phoebe being each other's best friends and living in the same city.

I have some understanding, as the moms' very poor choices now are guided in part by their tragic histories from before I met them. But if the system in Germany were not so bad, it would have quickly corrected everything instead of ignoring the fact that Kai, Phoebe and myself are suddenly blocked from contact after so many years of intense, loving and happy experiences (see photos at the end).

Returning to the system's problems, because of the extreme judicial independence (and nontransparency) in Germany, we will also use the media to shine a glaring spotlight on the misdeeds of the officials in the system.

But all this costs a lot of money.

Back again in my hometown, I make a good living and am therefore able to spend thousands per month on this.

But it is not enough. Not enough to reunite me and my kids before the trauma of separation is too great.

And certainly not enough to hire the legal talent and get the media spotlight, that will turn our pain, into the gain of thousands (likely millions) of children and fathers in similar situations now and in the future unless this unjust system is changed.

We need your help.

Your donations will have immediate impact because German appeals have very short filing deadlines and my 7 and 8 year old kids don't have the patience to wait months or years to endure the trauma of the contact blackout we now have.

We may be able to help you and us.

If you have similar situations with children in Germany, contact me in English or German at Jeff.Winchell@Alumni.Northwestern.Edu. At the least, I can provide moral support and some tips from my years learning German family law and case law that I used in dozens of cases about my kids. In the best case scenario, we find something in your case that can be used for your kid(s) to set landmark precedents overturning unfair/illegal practices/laws that will also help thousands.

Thank you for your support.

Jeff Winchell

Videos / Photos of happier times before:

I have 136 of GB pictures and videos of Kai and Phoebe. I have assembled some into short videos set to great music. Enjoy learning more about them from birth to last year.