- Born on 18 March 1922 in Treffurt an der Werra (D), died on 20 August 2015 in Berlin

- Nationality: German

- Director of the Press and Information Office of the Federal State of Berlin (1960‒1966)

- Ambassador Extraordinary, Under-Secretary and Head of the Policy Planning Staff in the German Federal Foreign Office (1966‒1969)

- State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery (1969‒1972)

- Federal Minister for Special Affairs and Federal Commissioner for Berlin (1972‒1974)

- Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation (1974‒1976)

- Member of the Bundestag (1976‒1990)

- Secretary-General of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) (1976‒1981)

- Chairman of the Bundestag Subcommittee on Disarmament and Arms Control (1980‒1990)

- Adviser to Rainer Eppelmann, Minister for Disarmament and Defence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (1990)

- Director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) at the University of Hamburg (1984‒1994)