Since I was a child, I have wanted to become a doctor so that I can help people. In high school in Seelow , Brandenburg, my interest in the microscope was sparked in a biology course. I was very fascinated by the structure of plants under high magnification. After my pre-practical year in 1989 on the acute cardiac ward at the Charité in Berlin, I studied medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In my doctoral thesis, I analyzed almost 7,500 autopsy cases. Here I compared the diagnoses made by the clinically active doctors, such as causes of death, with the results of the autopsy for the purpose of quality control. In the following years I worked as an assistant doctor in clinical pathology at the Oskar Ziethen Hospital in Lichtenberg and passed the specialist examination in pathology in 2004. The microscope became my daily companion.