In the 1980s, he studied Romance languages, German and Translation at the University of Vienna. He also worked for a literary group and a magazine for literature in Vienna. Afterwards he worked as a translator, language teacher and IT project manager. In the 1990s, he published articles and books about software and computer networks; these books were in German, but he also wrote articles in English. In 2001 he wrote a university paper about islamism in Europe, which has been published later in Germany.