He was born in Magdeburg (Germany) in 1937. He began his musical studies with the piano as his instrument and, at the age of 18, switched to the bassoon. He studied in West Berlin, where he obtained his diploma in 1960. From 1962 to 1978, he was the principal bassoonist of the North German Radio (NDR) Symphony Orchestra. He was the sole winner of the bassoon section at the German Radio Competition (ARD) in Munich in 1965. He played as a soloist in numerous orchestras and collaborated in the Ensemble Villa Música in Germany.
Between 2008 and 2016 he was Full Professor of the Bassoon Chair at the Reina Sofía School of Music.
He also collaborated for more than 30 years with the oboist Heinz Holliger, with whom he also carried out intense chamber music work. This chamber dedication also led him to play regularly with Andràs Schiff and Gidon Kremer and to be invited by important festivals around the world. For more than 10 years, he was a regular member of the well-known Scharoun-Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic.
He gave master classes in the USA, Japan, Sweden, Austria and at the Encounter of Music and Academy of Santander (Spain), among others. He was a professor at the Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin and, since 2006, a guest artist in the Wind Department of the International Institute of Chamber Music in Madrid.
More than 70 of his students currently hold relevant positions in orchestras in Germany.
He also produced virtually the entire bassoon repertoire on Philips with I Musici di Roma and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, together with Sir Neville Marriner.