[2][3] He attended primary schools in Pößneck (Thuringia) and in Berlin-Steglitz, and gymnasium in Berlin, Hamburg and Bonn.

[2][1] He first worked as an academic assistant for one year, and from 1960 as a journalist for the Hannoversche Allgemeine newspaper.

[2] From 1964, he was a journalist of interior politics at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), and from 1969 leader of the news at ZDF,[1] where he established the television magazine heute journal.

[3] He became head of the Report department of Bayerischer Rundfunk in the 1970s, and was later responsible for domestic politics.

At the university, he founded a project, Journalisten international, which enabled 200 young journalists from Russia, Ukraine and other countries from Eastern Europe to study in Berlin at the Internationales Journalisten-Kolleg of the FU.