Born 1945 in Arendsee (Altmark). Study of physics, doctorate Munich Technical Univ. (1974), scientific research at Forschungszentrum Jülich, habilitation at RWTH Aachen (1982), Professor of Experimental Physics (C4 level) Free Univ. Berlin (1988), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (since 1992), Full Professor University Halle-Wittenberg (1993). Emeritus since 2015.