User:Freeosprey/thereallifeguys

Section 1
The Real Life Guys is a German YouTube Channel about Do-it-yourself projects, which was found by the brothers Johannes Mickenbecker (*27th June 1997) and Philipp Mickenbecker (*27th June 1997; † 9th June 2021) in 2016.

Their motto is Do Someting - In Real Life with which they want to encourage young people to start own DIY-projects and experience adventures with their friends outdoors instead of wasting their time in front of digital devices.

Life
Johannes, Philipp and Elisabeth (Elli) grew up in a Christian family and were mainly home schooled by their parents. They only attended public schools in their teenage years in order to do their Abitur in 2016. The twin brothers started to study environmental engineering but discontinued their studies shortly after starting them.

Their sister Elli Mickenbecker was killed in a plane crash just before her 19th birthday on 10th March 2018. Until then she had been part of almost all the activities of her brothers. From March to May 2018 the YouTube channel of the twins paused. The only video that was published during that period was a song by their sister Elli.

On 2nd October 2020 Philipp Mickenbecker told in a video that lymphatic cancer had been diagnosed again. In 2013 the same kind of cancer had been diagnosed for the first time. At the end of 2020 the German television channel ARD shot a documentary about him before he died on July 9th 2021 from the consequences of cancer. He was buried next to his sister in Bickenbach on 17th June 2021.

Johannes Mickenbecker married Lara on Alsbach castle shortly after the death of his brother in July 2021. They had been engaged since Christmas eve 2020.

Purpose and Content of their Activites on YouTube
The Real Life Guys started the YouTube channel with the vision of encouraging young people to go outdoors and experience adventures. The twins inspire their audience to not only spend their time on their phones and laptops but to start own building- or outdoor-projects. That is why they upload their projects in irregular intervals and share their ideas with the community. They gained the technical knowledge for their projects by own experiments and watching YouTube tutorials themselves. Additionally the two started a second YouTube channel called ‘’Life Lion’’ in 2020. On this channel Philipp reported about his health condition and shared his faith in Jesus. Some content was supported by the actor Samuel Koch.

Projects
The brothers did a lot of projects, which were also honored by public media. Their friends always supported their crazy ideas. Oftentimes bathtubs are a crucial material they start with. In the following some projects will be explained.

The bathtub submarine
In 2017 they constructed a manned yellow submarine using bathtubs as their raw material. Included in the interior fittings of their submersible was a diving cylinder to provide oxygen. They dived several times with it to test their construction and to explore a lake. Manned, the submarine dived into a maximum depth of 10 meters. For security reasons, professional divers accompanied the crew at all times while being under water. In a follow-up attempt to find out the maximum dive depth of the submersible, it imploded in 12 meters depth. Looking back The Real Life Guys said that this had been their most dangerous project until then.

Flying Bathtub
In 2018 the brothers constructed a huge drone out of a bathtub and carried out one of the first manned drone-flights in Germany. Amongst other destinations they flew to a bakery with it. In consultation with the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA, "Federal Aviation Office") the maximum flight-hight was limited to 30 meters above ground to avoid extra paperwork for special permission. During the time of construction they cooperated with the drone manufacturer exabotix .The drone has a flight duration of six minutes and is powered by six 20hp-engines. Each engine drives a rotor. All together they are able to transport a maximum weight of 140 kg.

Tree house
The Real Life Guys started to build their "dream-tree-house" in summer 2018. It is situated 7 meters above ground, has three floors and is located in Seeheim-Jugenheim.

Godzilla
On the occasion of the movie release of Godzilla II: King of the Monsters in 2019, The Real Life Guys built an effigy of Godzilla which was 20 meters long and seven meters high. It was then used for a prank of the comedy trio ApeCrime. To realize the prank the Godzilla effigy was scuttled in the Erlensee, a lake near Bickenbach, and surfaced by divers in just the right moment. Upon testing the scuttling and surfacing some issues arose. This is why the behemoth had to be pulled out of the lake by a helicopter. Before the real prank took place the effigy was repaired. The project was supported by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Submersible 2.0
After reaching one million subscribers they started to build a second submersible on the raw material of a gas tank.

Rollercoaster
In a 48 hour project The Real Life Guys built a rollercoaster in an enclosed Hornbach-building-centre, with only the material of the building centre. The only requirement of the building centre was to ensure safety as their highest priority. In the end the roller coaster was 10 meters high, had a looping and ended in a pool. Again, a modified bathtub was used, this time as car on the rollercoaster.

Community Event
In July 2021, shortly after Philipp had passed away, a “Community Event” was hosted at the lake Wechselsee near Biebesheim am Rhein. The aim was to build a huge raft out of doors and bathtubs. The project was supported by the local police and fire brigade and the gathering was attended by about 300 people. Initially the project was planned to be located at the NATO-Rampe in Gernsheim am Rhein, but due to safety concerns the location was changed.

Another Community Event was organised with the organisation Samaritan's Purse at the end of 2021 in succession of the flood in the Ahr valley. This time they helped with cleaning work in the disaster area in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in the federal state Rhineland-Palatinate. The campaign helped to clean up with several hundred people for three days in the area which was most effected by the flood.

Miscellaneous
The Real Life Guys were part of the SWR-report Rollende Raritäten: Schräge Fahrzeuge Marke Eigenbau (engl. Rolling Rarities: weird vehicles DIY). They were accompanied by the television crew while transforming a childrens car into a go-cart with electric drive. The test drive was included as well.

In 2020 and 2021 the Mickenbecker twins were guest in several talk shows (NDR Talk Show, Nachtcafe , Stern TV ). Philipp first spoke about his cancer in public in the NDR talk show deep und deutlich (engl. deep and plainly spoken) in Oktober 2020.

In the German daily news Bild and Der Spiegel articles were published about Philipp Mickenbecker.