Thomas Willenberg, now there's an old ghost from the past. In late April, he repeated Kheops assis, 8B+, at Cuvier rempaart, Fontainebleau. In fact, checking his profile on bleau.info, it turns out he's done the only (known) repeat of Sébastien Frigault's Trip-hop, 8C, a couple of years ago. So, who's Thomas?
Actually, I got an email with that question just a week or so back. For now, this is my answer, but I'm going to do some digging, so please email me if you have information, photos etc.!
"I first heard about the man in the late 90s through an Indian contact I had at the time, Krishnan Narayanan (or something similar), who told me about a German mutant who had spent several seasons at Hampi and Badami, putting up cutting edge routes and boulders. He didn't know the guy's full name, only that he was called Thomas. I contacted a German friend of mine, Martin Joisten of Climbing.de. Martin didn't know anything himself, but after making some enquiries he found someone who did, and even though the tale Krishnan had told me was slightly exaggerated, it turned out to be true!
It was always difficult to find information about Thomas however. Once in a while, there was a news report, usually from his, at the time, girlfriend Ines Westenhöfer who, unlike Thomas, could speak some English.
In fact, I think the main reason why Thomas always remained sort of underground/low key was the fact that he didn't speak English.
As far as I know he grew up in East Germany and simply learned Russian instead... About his size, I think he's about 188cm and extremely muscular.
In 2000, he did the FA of Brad pit sds, 8B+. I know there were photos, cause I've seen them, and they reveal the sequence he used. It seems that, starting from the sit, it's impossible to use the Le Menestrel-method, so he had to use Jason Myers' original font 8B jump-method! I've tried both e-mailing and calling, but he hasn't answered, but as far as I can tell, he still out there cranking hard!"
Well, it seems I was right, he still crankin'!