Siegfried J. Schmidt, born 1940 in Jülich, studied philosophy, German, linguistics, history and art history in Freiburg, Göttingen and Münster. 1971 Professor of Text Theory at Bielefeld University, 1973 Professor of Theory of Literature there. 1979-97 Professor of German Studies/General Literary Studies at the University of Siegen and 1984-97 Director of the Institute for Empirical Literature and Media Research (LUMIS) at the University of Siegen. 1997-2006 Professor of Communication Theory and Media Culture at the Institute for Communication Studies at the University of Münster. 2001-06 also director of the study programme 'Applied Cultural Studies/Culture, Communication and Management'. Numerous book publications. Retired in February 2006.