• 1982-1986 Studied politics, economics and communication science at the University of Munich (LMU)
  With a scholarship granted by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung promoting young journalists
• 1987 Worked in the US House of Representatives for Dick Cheney (House Republican Policy Committee)
• 1988-1992 Deutschlandfunk, Bavarian correspondent, then Chief of editorial Services
• 1993-1996 Financial correspondent for ARD based in Frankfurt
• 1997-2014 News correspondent in Malaysia, China, Canada for ARD, WELT, Handelsblatt and Manager Magazin
• I experienced the Asian crisis in 1997, the rise of China with its accession to the WTO at the end of 2001, as well as the financial crisis in 2008 with the collapse of the US real estate market. I reported these developments in detail for the German media - conclusion: if a lot goes wrong somewhere, the learning curve is particularly steep, even for journalists.

Jonas has been training our youngest son Lukas in track and field since 2017. 

In less than 2 years Jonas has managed to turn Lukas into a highly successful athlete. 
Lukas won two Baden-Württemberg titles in 2019 (high jump and 4-fight). He also has the fastest 300m time in his age group in all of Germany on record, and the third highest high jump, and already qualified for the German Championships 2020.

Jonas trains Lukas with phenomenal commitment and great care. He manages very well to motivate Lukas through good preparation, a motivating speech and exercises perfectly tailored to real competitive situations and thus to always excel with new top performances. 

In the course of the training sessions I also got to know Anastasia, Jonas' dance and life partner. Out of my gratitude for the great work Jonas is doing with Lukas, I would like to give something back and I see the engagement as a sponsor for Anastasia and Jonas as an excellent opportunity.

In the context of this sponsoring activity I take pictures for the two, interview them for internet appearances and try to give input for the homepage.

Jonas is not only a phenomenal athletics trainer, he is also someone who enthusiastically passes on his dance skills to the next generation, at an age when one is usually almost exclusively dedicated to one's own career entry and advancement. So it's far from self-evident that Jonas spends so much time and energy helping young people get ahead.

What strikes me most about Anastasia is that she is exceptionally eager to learn new things, that she ist communicative and, in a pleasant sense, an ambitious person. 

My wife and I are not only enthusiastic about their commitment, but also about their pleasant and positive nature as well as their professional behaviour and - in a positive sense - their curiosity for everything new. The dedication of Anastasia and Jonas to their dance careers is expression of an attitude that, in addition to focusing on one´s own development, also focuses strongly on the community, a behaviour that is no longer very widespread today.

People who go through life like this deserve our special support.

Professional journalism is based on meticulous preparation.
Only a good foundation of facts can ensure that a top performance is achieved in the end.

The prerequisites for this are, of course, a good education, precise research, an open approach and disciplined execution.
For the journalist, however, it is important to express himself comprehensibly, to present difficult contexts simply and to prepare the reports in an accessible way.

As with dancing, there are very different forms of presentation, formats and expressions in journalism. The disciplines range from the sober report to the strong opinion in the commentary to the artful feuilleton. In journalism, the subject determines the way in which it is portrayed, in dance, the music. In writing, the judge is the audience; in dance, it is the trained eyes of the judges.

But there is already one essential one:
Journalists are essentially lone warriors, even if they usually carry out research, sound recordings and reportage trips only as a team. 
In couple dance, as Anastasia and Jonas do, everything ultimately depends on the perfectly coordinated, joint dance.

For me dancing is a mixture of art and athletics. In addition to natural talent, it requires a lot of disciplined work, a fine ear for the rhythms of the music, an excellent ability to translate into movements and excellent chemistry with the partner.

I myself have attended only one dance course in my life. That was during the preparation for the Abitur in 1980: long evenings, sometimes boring music, overcoming the individual steps and languishing changes of gaze with the possible partners for the final ball. Since then I have not attended any courses.

But precisely because I have not become a gifted dancer, I have the greatest respect for all those who enthusiastically bring this demanding sport to perfection.