I was born in post-war Germany in 1948. I received my university training in both psychology and medicine from the RWTH (Technical University) Aachen, Germany. I took my neurology training at the Department of Neurology at the Aachen Medical School under the guidance and leadership of Professor Klaus Poeck, a former vice president of the World Federation of Neurology. I also spend time in Bern, Switzerland, with Professor Marco Mummenthaler. In 1986-1987, I was a visiting professor at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, San Diego, Calif. When I was 38 years old, I was elected chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Heidelberg, a position that I have held since 1987. I have been on the editorial board of several neurology journals including the Journal of Neurological Sciences and European editor of the Journal Stroke for five years. In addition, to highlight the fact that I represent neurology beyond cerebrovascular diseases, I am the sole author of the leading German neurology textbook “Neurologie,” now in its 13th edition, which I took over from my mentor Professor Klaus Poeck 12 years ago. This has kept me in close touch with general neurology.