After passing his Abitur in 1959 at the Stiftisches Humanistisches Gymnasium Mönchengladbach [de], he studied medicine in Tübingen, Vienna, Berlin and Münster.
He has been a member of the teaching staff of the Hannover Medical School since 1977, and from 1983 to 2004 he was also a lecturer for internal medicine at the University of Münster.
He studiedenzyme diagnostics of liver and bile duct diseases and the further development of endoscopic procedures in adults and children.
Using biochemical methods, he contributed to the characterisation of the New Zealand obese mouse, showing analogies to the human metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes in this polygenic model.
Internal diseases during pregnancy is a further focus of his work, about which he has published He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific journal and book articles and has written or edited nine monographs.