Every child knew his name in East Germany, many wanted to be just like him. Schools and streets were named after this national hero. In the Socialist Eastern Bloc dictatorship of the GDR, in which one could only dream of traveling far away, he was by far the most widely traveled citizen. Today, the first German in space has a little bit fallen into oblivion. Born in 1937 before World War II and raised as a citizen of the German Democratic Republic, the distinguished fighter pilot and Major General of the People's Army was chosen to participate in the Soviet Interkosmos program and to fly into space in 1978 with a Soyuz rocket. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, this documentary traces the cosmonaut's most important stages of life with a wealth of archive material.