He was born in 1940 in Berlin and studied sports, art, craft, history, geography, and German. He began as a schoolteacher in Germany and worked for five years at a German school in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1972, he began teaching at Waldorf schools and became one of the founders of the Michael Gemeinschaft, Schweigmatt, the Kaspar Hauser School (a boarding school in the Black Forest), and the Freie Waldorfschule Schopfheim. Michael has lectured at teacher training seminars in Germany and Russia and, since 1975, has been researching Mathias Grünewald and the Isenheim Altar Piece. He has published several dramas, a book on Queen Ishtar, and recently Der Isenheimer Altar: Geschichte-Deutung-Hintergründe (Urachhous, Stuttgart).