| 1954 | -58 Read Law in Bonn and Berlin |
| 1958 | First State Law Examination |
| 1959 | -64 Legal Training in Duesseldorf |
| 1964 | Second State Law Examination, LLD |
| -65 Lawyer at Duesseldorf District Court |
| 1965 | -67 Foreign Service Training in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bonn, Germany |
| 1967 | -68 Federal Foreign Office, Bonn |
| 1968 | -72 Consulate General, Hong Kong |
| 1972 | -75 Embassy, Belgrade, Yugoslavia |
| 1975 | -79 Embassy, Beijing, China |
| 1979 | -83 Federal Foreign Office, Bonn, Deputy Head of Section, Political Directorate General |
| 1983 | -84 Fellow, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA |
| 1984 | -86 Ambassador, Hanoi, Vietnam |
| 1986 | -91 Federal Foreign Office, Bonn, Head of Section, Political Directorate General |
| 1991 | Head of German contingent, European Community Monitor Mission, Zagreb, Croatia |
| -92 Ambassador at Large, Conference on Yugoslavia, The Hague, Netherlands |
| 1992 | -96 Ambassador at Large, International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, Geneva, Switzerland |
| 1996 | Federal Foreign Office, Bonn, Director for Asian Affairs, Political Directorate General |
| -99 Ambassador, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia |
| 1999 | Special Envoy of the European Presidency to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia |
| 1999-2002 | OSCE Presence in Albania, Head of Presence |
| 2002 | -03 Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., USA |
| 2003 | Senior Fellow, Center for European Integration Studies, Bonn, Germany |
| | Studium der Philosophie, Psychologie, Theaterwissenschaft, Germanistik, Soziologie und Politikwissenschaft in Bamberg, München und Cleveland, Ohio (USA) |
| | Promotion in München 1955 |
| 1955-1959 | tätig in der Europäischen Bewegung |
| 1959-1962 | Dozent und Stellvertreter des Direktors, Akademie für politische Bildung, Tutzing |
| 1963-1968 | Prof. für Politische Wissenschaft in Hannover (Nachfolge Wilhelm Hennis) |
| 1968-1971 | Inhaber der Lehrkanzel für Philosophie der Politik und Ideologiekritik, Universität Wien |
| 1971-1991 | Ordinarius für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Wien |
| 1995 | /96 Inhaber des Jacques-Delors-Lehrstuhls für Europapolitik des Universitätenbundes "ALMA" (Aachen, Lüttich, Maastricht), Wahrnehmung der Lehr- und Forschungstätigkeit in Aachen |
| 1996-2001 | Gastprofessor an der Donau-Universität Krems (Internationale Politik) |
| | Langjährige Lehrtätigkeit auch an der Landesverteidigungsakademie (Sicherheitspolitik) |
