(Nuremberg, 07-18-1942 / 08-26-2017)

He studied German Studies, History, Philosophy, Ethnology and Sports Pedagogy at the University of Würzburg (1963-1969), and worked as an assistant professor in the Chair of German Studies and Ethnology at the same University. From 1971 to 1977 he held the position of Lecturer in German at the University of Oviedo (Asturias) and, from 1979 to 2007, he held the position of director of the Niederrheinsches Museum für Volkskunde und Kulturgeschichte in Kevelaer (Lower Rhineland).

From 2008 to 2013 he worked as a teaching professor for Franconian History (Chair of Medieval History) at the University of Würzburg and participated in many summer courses and congresses in Europe and the USA.

Already in 1985 he was part of the scientific committee that organized the exhibition “Santiago de Compostela. Mil ans de pèlerinage euopéen”, and during the following years he participated in the commission that formulated, at the request of the Council of Europe, the Declaration of Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. Likewise, from 1992, and for 25 years, he was a very active and absolutely decisive member of the Xunta de Galicia International Committee of Experts on the Camino de Santiago.

He has numerous publications on the history of culture and popular traditions, but above all studies on pilgrims and pilgrimages. We also owe him countless articles, papers and reference works, among which it is worth highlighting Caminaron a Santiago. Stories of pilgrimage to the "end of the world". In this work, written jointly with Klaus Herbers, both authors offer us the keys and milestones of Compostela Odeporic literature from Künig von Vach to Arnold von Harff, from Leo de Rozmital to Nicola Albani.

He was president of the Deutsche St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft for 25 years (1987-2012) and, in 1999, he received the Gold Medal of the City of Santiago de Compostela; in 2002, the Silver Medal of the Xunta de Galicia; and in 2004, the German Cross of Merit.