After studies in literary theory and philosophy in Paris and Freiburg/Brsg. Stefan Gradmann received a PhD from Freiburg university in 1988 after a dissertation on Stifter and Kafka.
Subsequently, he worked as scientific librarian in Hamburg before becoming director of a large union cataloguing network (GBV, 1993-1997). From 1997 to 2000, Gradmann was product manger for the library automation company Pica in the Netherlands.
Since 2000, he is head of Hamburg University's Information Management unit, which is located at the computing center and whose mission include e-publication services and providing access to electronic information resources.