Born in Berlin on November 11th, 1949 from the famous artist Carl-Heinz Kliemann (Berlin, 1924-2016), he completed his university studies first in Berlin and then in Heidelberg in 1976, with a dissertation entitled "Politische und Humanistische Ideen der Medici in der Villa Poggio a Caiano.

He subsequently obtained numerous research assignments at Villa I Tatti (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), at the universities of Munich and Mönster, at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, spending a period as Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in California.

He was professor at the Universities of Heidelberg and Mönster.

He died at the age of 65 on July 6th, 2015.