My studies of Eastern European history, political science and German language and literature at the universities of Tübingen and Bonn were followed by twenty years of professional experience as a program and department head in various institutions in the field of education and development cooperation with a focus on Eastern Europe.  The end of the East-West conflict enabled many new forms of international project cooperation, which have strongly influenced my life and continue to motivate my work today: It is a lot of fun to create space for exchange and learning opportunities for people of different origins and diverse cultural imprints, which open up perspectives for personal development and provide impulses for solving the problems of the future.