Born 1952 in Friedberg (Hessen). Study of physics and mathematics at the Technical University Karlsruhe, doctorate at Karlsruhe University (1978), fellow and staff member at CERN, Geneva (1979-1986), German Habilitation at Heidelberg University (1983), Associate Professor at Karlsruhe University (1986), Full Professor at Hamburg University, Director emeritus and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Honorary Professor at the Humboldt University Berlin (since 1999) and at Hannover University (since 2005).