Andreas Landwehr was born in Düsseldorf. He attended the Alexander von Humboldt Gymnasium (secondary school) in nearby Neuss. Between 1978 and 1983 he studied Chinese at Tapei and Bonn, where he received his degree. He joined the &lt;a href="Deutsche%20Presse-Agentur"&gt;German Press Agency ("Deutsche Presse-Agentur" / dpa)&lt;/a&gt; in 1984. Between 1985 and 1990 he worked at the dpa head office in Hamburg, West Germany, where as "domestic affairs editor" ("Inlandsredakteur") he reported, from the west, on the unfolding changes that would lead to reunification. By the time reunification took place, however, he had been posted to Washington, D.C. from where, as a foreign correspondent, he reported in the Gulf War and, two years later, on Bill Clinton's successful bid for the presidency.