Trained as reserve officer in the tank battalion 333 in Celle. Apprenticeship as bank clerk at Sparkasse Celle (savings bank). Degree in law at the University of Hamburg.

Bank employee at Sparkasse Celle. Authorized officer in a medium-sized steel construction company. 

Joined the CDU in 1994, member of the executive committee of the Celle branch of the CDU and chairman of the Bergen town association of the CDU since 1999, deputy chaiman of the district-branch CDU-Nordostniedersachsen since 2007, member of the Young Union (youth section of the CDU/CSU) from 1995 to 2003, sitting on the executive committee of the county branch and the Lower Saxony Council, among other positions. Since 2006 member of the political bureau of the EPP. Member of the Bergen Town Council and the Celle County Council since 1996, serving among other things as deputy County Council District Commissioner and member of the administrative board of the Sparkasse.

Member of the Bundestag since 2005; member of the working group on small and medium-sized enterprises of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, deputy defence policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group

Membership of Bundestag bodies

Member 

o Defence Committee

Substitute member

o Foreign Committee

o Petitions Committee

o Subkommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation