Studies of German and Spanish literature and history of geography and history of discovery and travel in Bonn and Zurich.
1991 – 2002 scientific employee of the foundation of Upper Silesia in Ratingen
2000 habilitation at the university of Cologne, then teaching in Cologne until 2007.
2007 – 2018 scientifical employee at the federal institute of German culture and history in Eastern Europe in Oldenburg.
2009 – 2018 teaching at the institute of German literature of the Carl von Ossietzky university Oldenburg
until 1997 member of the board of the Humboldt society for culture and sciences
until 2002 Member of the board of the Eichendorff-society
2013 – 2018 chairman of the society of libraries in Oldenburg
from 2017 president of the middleeuropean association of German literature
Publications concerning travel literature and travel history, Engelbert Kaempfer, Ulrich Jasper Seetzen and other travelers, German literature of baroque, romanticism, realism and 1950s, literature of the history of knowledge in Eastern Europe, history of books and printing.