School education in Munich, Cologne, Paris, and Bonn

1999 Abitur (school graduation), joining up to the German Armed Forces as officer cadet

10/2000 - 02/2004 Studies of history at German Federal Armed Forces University, 2nd major: Social sciences with emphasis on political science, minors: sociology, human resources management, international law

08-09/2001 Research at Universidade Pedagogica de Maputo, Mozambique

2001 - 2003 Student reseach assistant with Univ.-Prof. Lutz R. Reuter on educational developmental aid of the former GDR with funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2002 Admission to the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes)

2002 Studies abroad at Northwestern University, Chicago/Evanston, Illinois (USA), postgraduate "Program of African Studies"

2004 Master of Arts (Magister Artium), Master Thesis on the ideological instrumentalization of Africa-Images in curricula and schoolbooks of the former GDR: Zwischen proletarischem Internationalismus und Sicherheitsdenken: Afrikabilder in den Lehrplänen und Schulbüchern der DDR

2004 - 2005 Military training in Germany and the USA, employment as platoon leader

2006 - 2009 Doctorate stipend of the German National Academic Foundation (research at Helmut Schmidt University - German Federal Armed Forces University Hamburg, Univ.- Prof. Dr. iur. Lutz R. Reuter)
Topic of the doctoral thesis: The public diplomacy of the GDR: self-portraits and manipulation in the Third World / »Bewusstseinsbildende Massenarbeit«: Über die kulturpolitische Selbstdarstellung der DDR in der Dritten Welt