Tuchel was born in
Hamburg. Between 1977 and 1981 he studied
political science at
University of Hamburg and at the
Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin) where in 1989 he received his doctorate in political science. His dissertation
Concentration Camps: Organisational and Operational History of the Concentration Camp Inspectorate 1934-1938 () formed the basis for what became a standard work on
concentration camps in
Nazi Germany. While preparing to submit his dissertation, Tuchel worked as a research assistant at the GDW from 1983 to 1987. Between 1988 and 1991 he was employed on memorial presentation by the
Berlin senate. From 1991 to 2025 he headed up the GDW. As both an author and an editor-compiler, Tuchel has published various books and other contributions on the
resistance to National Socialism and the Nazi concentration camp network. ==References==