Hartmut has studied English Literature and Language, German Literature and Language, Drama, Communications, Information Science, Media Studies, History, and Political Sciences at University of Tübingen, Goldsmiths’ College, London, and Freie Universität Berlin.
He holds an MA in Information Science, German Literature, and Political Sciences from Freie Universität Berlin. He also obtained a qualification in media research and media pedagogics from the same university.
At Georgia Institute of Technology he was PhD student in the Digital Media program with Janet Murray, Jay Bolter, and Celia Pearce. His PhD thesis "Reframing Interactive Digital Narrative: An Inclusive Open-Ended Iterative Process for Research And Practice" is on theory and practice of Interactive Digital Narrative.
Currently, he is working as a researcher at Georgia Tech teaching Interactive Narrative; additionally he is reponsible for the Video Lab at the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture.
Previously, he worked as a journalist, lecturer, tech lead, book author, trainer, programmer, administrator and technical consultant.
He presented his research at several conferences and has organized several academic workshops.
He wrote over 150 articles on digital technology and published two computer books.
He taught over 40 courses on topics ranging from introduction to basic computer usage to video production and interactive narrative at FU Berlin, Tübingen University, and Georgia Tech.
His list of clients as a consultant on media-related projects include Stanford University in Berlin, ekuinteractive, Virtual College Berlin, and the Institute for Museum Research in Berlin.
He was the technical director and lead programmer
for the startup company designnet.de.