Hey
Glad you stopped by. I'm Matze — senior web dev from Hamburg, knee-deep in bits and pixels for 20+ years.
I build interfaces, wire up backends, and happily dig through the 10,000 LOC we'd all love to shove in a drawer and forget about forever.
Fancy the Grand Harbour Tour? Just scroll all the way down. Hit "+" for a quick directory of all the sights worth seeing.
For the short harbour tour, I'd recommend the next section "Matze ... who?" and the "Past-O-Rama" halfway down the page.
PIXEL
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Here's what your captain has on the programme:
Read Matze ... who? and you'll get a sense of who you're dealing with.
Bread & Butter (& Fish) tells you about my craft, my pet projects, and my experience.
Hand-picked exhibits of my work can be found in Roadside Picnic.
Past-O-Rama traces my adventurous journey from small-town IT support (population 600, "DOS, Win 3.11 — hands up if any of that rings a bell?") via aircraft mechanic to web dev.
In Hello? I lay out what I'm looking for.
Enough from me — more about me ;): Under They all say that! others get to have their say.
And if you still want more and like it a bit more personal, the final section Like / don't is for you.
Currently on the lookout — preferably permanent, remote or on-site. Ideally with interesting people I can still learn from.
My pair-programming agent goes by Claudia.
Enjoy the scroll!
Matz(ekowski)
Matzekowski. I design, develop, and untangle. I don't nudge pixels and bits into position (and motion) — I kick them. Been at it since 2006.
20+ years of web development, primarily frontend and JavaScript, but always with one foot in the backend: a generous splash of node.js, a handful of PHP, — for a bit of spice — Lisp / Clojure, and a pinch of Python here and there. I love walking the tightrope between frontend and design — I shape and I tinker, equally at home in both languages.
I'm blessed with a curiosity that finds something fascinating everywhere. Change is a welcome permanent state. The quote "Anyone who doesn't reinvent themselves every day is dead" gives me goosebumps.
Some might call my career path bumpy — I've always followed my nose, and the web is where I got tangled up. Seen a lot, done a lot, always with plenty of passion and joy.
Claud<e|ia>, when asked about my qualities, produced the following testimonial:
Hands-on mentality and systems thinking from another world.
I still can't stop laughing. Maybe it does capture me pretty well — but that's for others to decide.
How I work
- Clear, unambiguous communication, short paths: preferably in person, second-best by phone, third-best by email.
- Iterative, not Big-Bang. First a working draft, then refine.
- The trickiest problems don't get solved at the screen.
- Pair programming and code review are not a chore.
- Several years of hands-on experience with Scrum and Kanban.
- I'm convinced that not every problem is a nail.
- Rubber-ducking works (and has enormous entertainment value).
- YAGNI, DRY, KISS, SOLID, DTSTTCPW, RTFM, SoC, TMTOWTDI, Boy Scout Rule
- with joy.
This is where I dig deepest, where the rubber meets the road, where the magic happens. This list is not exhaustive.
Frontend Engineering & JavaScript
Lean, explicit architectures, no framework overhead. Component-based UIs. Clean data flows. Reliable, transparent state management. Complex single-page applications with API integration. Testing (unit, E2E). Performance monitoring and optimisation. Preferably functional style.
AI-assisted development
~2 years of daily practice with coding assistants (mainly Claude Code). Pair programming. No prompt roulette. No vibe coding.
Frontend & design intersection
Active design involvement. UI/UX conception and prototyping. Responsive design. Animation and interaction as more than mere decoration. An eye for typography, layout, whitespace, and colour. Form follows function.
Node.js & backend JavaScript
REST APIs. Server-side rendering. Authentication and user management. Build tooling and CI/CD. Containerisation with Docker and Vagrant. Self-hosting including DNS, SSL, and deployment.
Legacy migration & refactoring
Analysis of organically grown systems. Untangling dependencies. Modernisation in production.
Shopify & WordPress
Custom themes and plugins. Gutenberg blocks. Headless architectures. Tailwind in the WordPress context.
The — non-exhaustive — list of alien artifacts illegally smuggled out of the Zone — or, as mentioned, a hand-picked selection of my work to date:
Franke und Bornberg / fb research
Conception, design, and implementation of complex single-page applications (rule engine editor, form editor, voting editor). Lean Hyperapp stack. Frontend consulting.
Joblift
All frontend tasks. Node.js and frontend engineering. Conception, planning, and implementation of components. Comprehensive redesign. A/B testing. User management. Sentry implementation and error monitoring. WordPress blog theme. Conception and implementation of the admin/backoffice area.
frontlineshop
All frontend tasks. Conception, planning, and reimplementation of the frontend architecture (modular, build, CI/CD). novomind shop. Mobile version. Comprehensive tracking solution. Performance and error monitoring. Unit/E2E testing.
[ NDA client ]
WordPress themes and plugins. Gutenberg blocks. Timber. Styled with Tailwind, developed in a workflow with Claude Code. Partially headless. Details on request.
schön & wohl website
Ongoing, since May 2026. Refactoring legacy Next.js 6 / React 16 stack to current React, TypeScript, Next.js, Tailwind. Headless commerce: Shopify as backend via the Storefront API (GraphQL). AI features (FAQ bot, treatment advisor) conceived and planned.
Joocom
Two community systems plus approx. 20 white-label communities. PHP/Smarty. Frontend implementation: chat, video chat, coin-based payment system. Conception and implementation of component-based frontend.
(Insights into other projects on request)
The unlikely and adventurous journey from local IT support through aircraft mechanics to web dev. The story so far. For more details, take a look here.
to be continued.
…
schön & wohl Website
Refactoring and headless commerce.
mylys (Hamburg)
IT consulting & administration. Freelance.
NDA client
WordPress development. Freelance.
Franke und Bornberg (Hannover)
Frontend Engineer. Insurance industry. Freelance.
Joblift (Hamburg)
Node.js & Frontend Engineer. Job portal.
frontlineshop (Hamburg)
Frontend Engineer. E-commerce.
schön & wohl (Hamburg)
Co-owner & IT lead.
Various clients (Hamburg, Hannover)
Freelance full-stack development.
Joocom (Hannover)
Frontend Engineer.
Missed the beginning? No worries, here's the short version:
World trip & Freelance (Remote)
Scan Media, Flensburg.
FH Flensburg
Mechanical engineering studies (dropped out). Freelancing as a full-stack web dev on the side.
Airbus (Toulouse)
Aircraft mechanic.
Airbus (Hamburg)
Aircraft mechanic apprenticeship (completed).
Sometime before 2002
- Civil service as paramedic
- Local IT support for a 600-soul village
- Design, development, and hosting of websites for local businesses and clubs
If I had three wishes, I'd wish for nine. Open to permanent or freelance. Currently preferring permanent. Always fearless. Always focused. Always fluffy.
Teams
Friendly colleagues and teams I can learn from.
Meaningful work
Work I can stand behind. No greenwashing, no dark patterns, no users getting ripped off.
Substance
Products that are actually needed — not another dashboard for the drawer.
passive active
Grinding through tickets is fine, but nothing but chocolate is too much chocolate: I like to think along, from architecture to interface.
Quality
Clean code, honest timelines, sustainable solutions.
Location
Remote, on-site, somewhere in between (Tahiti, for example).
Hours
Flexible, with a bit of wiggle room. Anything before eight is the dead of night to me. Nobody should be out on the streets at that hour.
Challenge
Yes please, lots of it.
A new washing machine
... whisper-quiet, with working balance compensation, and watertight.
They all say so, seriously. n=3, confidence interval unknown, sample not randomised. But: p(everyone's lying) < 0.01. That'll have to do.
Working with Matze was a real pleasure. He didn't just deliver excellent frontend work — he always thought holistically and noticeably improved our product ideas through his perspective. As the driving force behind the Frontlineshop online store frontend, he took on significant responsibility and demonstrated how to build products that are maintainable and easy to evolve in the long run.
Every promising idea was roughly handed off to Matze, and you could be sure he'd work it out down to the last detail — even optimise it, or tear it apart beyond repair :-) The inspiration he radiates is only surpassed by his healthy perfectionism, and he's a guarantee for progress. Thanks, Matze!
Everyone needs a Matze in their company. He's one of the most structured and patient people I know. When everything's on fire, the general pulse in the room drops noticeably — he rarely lets anything ruffle him. With humor, foresight, reliability, strong principles, and technical expertise, he enriches every collaboration on both a professional and a personal level.
Want to know more about me? Don't ask what I can do — ask what I like. And what I don't.
I like: Dieter Rams. Bauhaus. The idea behind "Alla Prima". Musicians who lose themselves in the sound during live performances. Artistic signatures. Gabriel García Márquez. Marlen Haushofer. Haruki Murakami. "Silk" by Alessandro Baricco. Making things yourself. Salty skin from swimming in the sea. Ballet by John Neumeier. Shakshuka. Dogs. Velvet Underground. Red poppies. Denmark. Generosity. Cooking with sharp knives. Witty skepticism. People who know the names of things (trees, planes, stars …). Almost all films by Paolo Sorrentino. "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. Doing nothing and working. The thought that the tree still falls even when nobody's watching. The absurd and the irreverent. Elaborate pranks. White Burgundy. Talent. Going barefoot. Hamburg. Science fiction. Lingering over a meal. Rain. The calm after a good day's work. Notes. Diving into new things with joy. Spending time with my wife. Living hand to mouth. South Tyrol. Hiking maps. Empty cinemas. My backpack. Lego. Traveling light. Preserving things. Pixies. Ralph Steadman.
I don't like: Grease stains on wine glasses. TVs in pubs (exception: sports bars). Superficiality. Too much perfume. Missionary work (regardless of who and in what context). Fake old stuff. Personality cults. Self-mythologizing. Nudism. The success-obsessed. Forgetting the names of people I know. German slapstick. German cinema (with few exceptions). Big parties. Rudeness. Too much pink. Pompousness. Fatalism. Colonial style. Asphalt. Leaf blowers. People who, when asked about their vacation, immediately complain about the prices. The German word "Portion". Fairgrounds. Superlatives. Buffets. Disrespect toward older people. Comfortable immaturity. The obligation to be obligated. Knee-jerk measures. Cars. Filling up the tank. Moral outrage. Aggressive drivers. AutoPlay. Public swimming pools. The desperate need to be special. Wine spritzers. Accumulating possessions.