His 1968 birth year meant that his university-level education straddled the events that led to German reunification in the second half of 1990.
He successfully completed his schooling in Dresden at the "Friedrich Engels Extended Secondary School (EOS) - Dresden south" in 1987 and then, in 1987/88, worked for VEB Robotron, a large electronics manufacturing operation.
He then returned to academe, studying History, German Language, Culture and Linguistics and Education, initially at Dresden's Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander Pedagogical Academy and then at the Dresden University of Technology.
[1] His work has focused on the History of the "Weimar Republic", of the Third Reich, of the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ / Sowjetische Besatzungszone) in what had previously been Germany, and on the formative years of the German Democratic Republic which grew out of it.
He has also undertaken extensive historical research into nineteenth and twentieth century Parliamentary structures, Youth movements and left-wing Totalitarianism.