After studying in
Neuburg an der Donau in 1953, he studied Egyptology,
orientalism, and archaeology at the
University of Munich. He participated in 1955 and 1956 in the excavations of the
sun temple of the
5th Dynasty pharaoh Userkaf at
Abusir. He continued his studies at the
University of Heidelberg, where in 1960 he wrote his
doctoral thesis on the Syrian-Palestinian deities in Egypt. He was a technical assistant in Heidelberg until 1967, after which he became scientific director at the
German Archaeological Institute in
Cairo, where he served from 1989 to 1998. Since 1975, he was honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg. He participated in numerous excavations at
Elephantine,
Thebes, and
Dahshur; at the latter, he explored and wrote about the
Bent Pyramid and the valley temple of King
Sneferu. He also opened a new exhibition at the
Egyptian Museum, Cairo, to celebrate 40 years of archaeological work by the Japanese. ==Selected publications==