At the DFG Graduate school he worked on a "Codification of violence in the changing media" ("Codierung von Gewalt im medialen Wandel"), and was an academic researcher at the Institute for German Literature ("Institut für deutsche Literatur").

In 2002 he became Humboldt University's first Junior Professor for Modern German Literature, to be succeeded in 2006 by Andrea Polaschegg [de].

In 2007 he succeeded Heinrich Detering as professor for Modern German literature at the University of Kiel.

Since 2010 he has occupied a newly created professorship for Modern German literature (eighteenth century to contemporary) at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

His biography of the Brothers Grimm appeared in 2009 and was nominated for the 2010 Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the "Non-fiction/essay" category.