| 1935 | Born in Plau, Mecklenburg, Germany (March 16) |
| 1954 - 1958 | Student of chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
| 1958 - 1961 | Doctoral fellow in Professor Egon Wiberg's group at the University of Munich |
| 1961 - 1966 | Postdoctoral research, Habilitation |
| 1966 - 1968 | Lecturer of Inorganic Chemistry at the Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München |
| 1968 - 2000 | Chair of Inorganic Chemistry and Director of Institut für Anorganische Chemie of Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen |
| 2000 - | Professor emeritus |
| Married, four children |