In 1972, after not quite three years, he resigned the editorship of Morgenpost[3] amid recriminations about falling circulation, missed opportunities and ill-considered strategy.
[6][7] It can be seen as the first serious work published in German to deal critically with the military performance of the commander in chief of the Afrika Korps.
In 1973 Heckmann flew alone in a Scheibe Falke (powered glider) from Rotenburg an der Wümme (between Bremen and Hamburg) to Perth in Western Australia.
[8] He later wrote up the adventure in his book "Haie fressen keine Deutschen" ("Sharks don't eat Germans").
The marriage produced one son and one daughter, the singer-composer Inga Heckmann, but ended in divorce in 1988.