Born on 22 November 1959 in Oberhausen; married, two children

1966 – 1979
Primary and secondary school

1976 – 1977
Walnut Hill School, Natick, Massachusetts, USA
with an ASSIST scholarship

1979 – 1985
Freelance work for the newspaper "Neue Ruhr Zeitung" and the public broadcasters WDR, ZDF

1979 – 1984
Studied history, political science and publishing. Obtained master’s degree from the Ruhr University, Bochum

1985 – 1999
Trainee, deputy manager of Auslands-Report and as of 1991 parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper "Die Welt" in Bonn

1999 – 2002
Head of the "Bunte" correspondents’ office in Berlin

2002 – 2004
Parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag"

2004 – 2010
Chief correspondent for "Cicero", the German magazine for politics and culture

2010 – 2018
Chief correspondent for the online news magazine "FOCUS Online"

April 2018 – December 2021
Deputy Government Spokesperson