 The same year, he co-founded the Christian arts group Das Rad (The Wheel) in Wetzlar, together with about 50 other Christians also working in the arts.He is married to a doctor, Christine Siebald (née Stossberg), and they have a son, Benjamin, born in 1984.In 2008, President Horst Köhler awarded him and his wife the Federal Cross of Merit for their tireless charity work both at home and abroad.