Born 1943 in Celle/Hanover Professor of Public Law and Eastern European Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hamburg; Director of the Department for Eastern European Law Research (in existence since 1953). Studied law and political science, Slavonic studies and Eastern European history in Freiburg/Br., Bonn and Cologne; 1974 Doctorate in law (University of Cologne - Prof. Dr. Boris Meissner)
1975 2nd State Examination in Law, Assessor jur. (Düsseldorf);
1975-1990 research assistant at the Institute for Eastern Law, University of Cologne, with research focus on the Soviet Union (regional), human rights, systems of rule (party and state), administrative law;
1986 habilitation (Cologne); professor since 1991.
1987/88 Secretary of the Commission to Investigate the Human Rights Situation in the Warsaw Pact States (at the Federal Ministry of Justice);
1989/90 research stay of several months in Moscow (Institute for State and Law);
Since 1991, assignments in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Slovakia to provide constitutional advice on behalf of various political foundations, the IRZ Foundation/Bonn and the Council of Europe; since 1995, head of the GTZ project "Reform of the Economic Legislation of the Republic of Armenia".
1997 - 1999 Head of the Public Law Department in the TACIS project "Ukrainian-European Policy and Legal Advice Centre" (UEPLAC), Kiev; since 1999 member of the TACIS project on administrative reform in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Research focus since 1991, inter alia, on Russian constitutional and administrative law with special reference to its federal system. Since 2003 member of the board of the German-Russian Lawyers' Association, Hamburg.