I was born in 1942 in Hillersleben. After WWII, my family moved to Hannover. After the high school diploma I studied mathematics and finished with a degree that would today be something like a masters degree in mathematics. Afterwards, I worked in the computer center of what is now the Leibniz University Hannover, in the end mostly for the high-performance computing facility HLRN.

In the 1970s I began collecting old playing cards, and since around 1990 I have done research in that field and published books and articles. I have been the Editor of the Journal of the International Playing Card Society The Playing-Card for 17 years, but I have now resigned from that job.

I am living in Hannover.