My biographical sketch describes how I became a cultural/cross-cultural developmental scientist as a complete autodidact. During the late 1960s in Germany universities were in a massive process of change which only later resulted in formal institutional structures and curricula. Until then, there was complete freedom for pursuing interests and selecting topics. I was generally interested in other cultures and found opportunities to study children and families abroad. Connecting with evolutionary theory prompted me towards being a universalist. In another direction, meeting great minds in the fields of cultural and cross-cultural psychology helped me find my point of view as a developmental scientist studying children’s developmental pathways in different cultural environments. Together with wonderful colleagues, I studied systematic contextual variations in solving general developmental tasks. My overall conclusion is that culture needs to be consistently introduced into developmental science and all its applications (in policy and practical interventions).