After an apprenticeship at the Deutsche Reichsbahn, he worked from 1964 as signal box master and dispatcher at the Rostock port railway. After his protest in 1968 against the invasion of Warsaw contract troops in Prague, he was no longer allowed to work at the Warnemünde border station for political reasons. From 1969 to 1974 he studied Protestant-Lutheran theology at the University of Rostock and then became parish priest in Oybin and student priest in Zittau until 1990. His parsonage was a meeting point for many in the GDR who had problems with the political system. During this time, up to 67 persons of the State Security Service were assigned to spy on him.