studied engineering and subsequently spatial planning at the University of Dortmund. He wrote his PhD on the subject of “Music Industries and City Development”. From 1978-1991 he was senior researcher at the IRPUD research institute in Dortmund and worked for a number of urban and regional development studies. From 1985 onwards he was in charge of several projects concerned with a nexus of issues concerned with culture, economics and urban and regional development. In 1990, with Ralf Ebert, he founded STADTart, a privately run planning consultancy focusing on cultural industries development and cultural development in the context of urban and regional development.

Its main studies to date have been eleven culture industries reports for the German federal states North Rhine-Westphalia (5), Thuringia (2), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony, Bremen/Lower Saxony (all in co-operation with other researchers). Within the last culture industries report, published in Thuringia 2009, he focused on the synergistic effects of public culture and culture and creative industries. In the last years he was also involved in projects with cluster management strategies and regional strategies to strengthen the creative industries.