Schmidt was born in 1980 to a teacher and a technician. Growing up in the
German Democratic Republic, he was a
Young Pioneer. He adopted the name
Klopfer (English:
Thumper) after the
Bambi character, as both
Christian and
Schmidt are among the most common names in Germany. Since 2016, his pseudonym is officially recognised. After completing his
Abitur in 1999, Schmidt studied
computer science at the
University of Potsdam from 1999 until 2004. At the
Humboldt University of Berlin, he studied
Japanese studies from 2004 until 2005 and
German studies from 2005 until 2010. he opened a personal website which he named
Klopfers Web in 2002. Among other texts, he writes columns for
Klopfers Web, and has released two volumes of collected columns in printed form. For his high degree of communication with his readers through his website, he has been described as an "Author 2.0". Since 2002, Schmidt works for the manga publishers
Egmont Manga & Anime and
Tokyopop. He wrote articles for the magazines '
(2002–2004) and ' (2003–2006) and edits German translations of manga series, among them
Detective Conan,
Inuyasha and
Mirai Nikki. == Selected work ==