mathematician university professor
He studied mathematics in Göttingen, Munich and Bonn, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in 1966 with "Eine Klasse von 3-dimensionalen Mannigfaltigkeiten" (A class of 3-dimensional manifolds) from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität.
His advisor was Friedrich Hirzebruch
After visits to Princeton University, the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan he moved in 1968 to Kiel, where he habilitated (qualified to assume a professorship). In 1969, he was professor at the Ruhr-Universität before in 1970 becoming a professor of mathematics at the Universität Bielefeld, an appointment he held until his retirement in 2004.
