Born in Lindau, he initially worked as a newsreader, editor and foreign correspondent for Radio Lindau, Radio Belcanto in Munich and Klassik Radio. He studied history, art history and law at Marburg and Freiburg im Breisgau. His 1996 dissertation (supervised by Hans Fenske) was on the question of duels in internal conflict in the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, involving research in the Prussian Privy State Archives among previously unpublished letters, diaries and minutes of the Reichstag. They led him to the conclusion that debates on the legality of duels gave a window on the social perceptions of the Reichstag during the First World War. He also researched the Kotze Affair in the same archive, leading him to conclude that the letters which had drawn Leberecht von Kotze into scandal were by Princess Charlotte of Prussia. , Spiegel Online, 27. August 2010.
