Nicolai Toop grew up as the youngest of three sons and studied applied Media and Communication Sciences at Ilmenau University of Technology. His interest in political communication, sparked by his bachelor’s thesis with Prof. Wolling, led him to his master’s degree in Organisational Communication in Greifswald. His final theses focused on political communication, including Personalisation in online election campaigns and analysis of the course of political media coverage. His commitment is also evident in his speeches and voluntary counselling of a small party candidate for the 2024 European election campaign.