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1948 to 1957 high school in Hamburg. 1957 to 1959 studies of history and law at the universities of Tübingen, Munich and Paris. 1959 to 1962 law studies at the University of Hamburg, 1962 to 1965 dissertation on a topic in the field of labor and public law, 1967 to 1968 additional studies at the German Development Institute Berlin.
1968 to 1972 worked at the Federal Ministry for Economic Development in Bonn, 1972 to 1974 research associate at the research center of the Association of German Scientists (VDW) in Hamburg, 1975 to 1982 professor of political science at the one-level law school of the University of Hamburg, 1982 to 2003 professor of public law at the Hamburg School of Economics and Politics.
Member of the "Vereinigung demokratischer Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler" (Association of Democratic Scientists), the "Freundschaftsgesellschaft Vietnam-BRD" (Vietnam-BRD Friendship Society), on the Scientific Advisory Board of the "International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Armement" (IALANA) and "International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), with Attac and in the Auschwitz Committee.
Joined the SPD in 1969; member of the Juso regional executive committee in Hamburg from 1972 to 1973; chairman of the Association of Democratic Lawyers in the FRG from 1977 to 1986; left the SPD in 2001.
Member of the Bundestag since 2005; foreign policy spokesman for the parliamentary group Die Linke.
