After graduating high school in 1954, he began studying law and art history at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg.
In 1956, he left the university to do an internship at Hein Stünke's gallery, Der Spiegel, in Cologne, after a visit to documenta 1, which had impressed him greatly and "converted" him to modern art.
Later, in 1959, he was appointed Secretary General of documenta 2 in Kassel by Arnold Bode, a position "...which opened up the international art world to him.
"[2] Together with his wife Ursula Reppin, a trained artist and graphic design expert, he opened his first gallery in Essen in 1959.
[3] He exhibited works by artists such as Karel Appel, Konrad Klapheck, Jesús Rafael Soto and Takis (1961) and Cy Twombly.
In the same year, he co-founded the Cologne Art Market, which opened in September 1967 in the large hall of Gürzenich.
He curated the major exhibition Deutschlandbilder with Eckhart Gillen at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.