Schneider was born in Pankow, East Berlin, East Germany. He has one sister, who is two years younger than him. Schneider left high school at age 16 and went to work as a telecommunications assistant. In 1984, he served his national service with the East German Army; He is the only one who has served in the army out of all the Rammstein members Schneider's parents wanted him to learn an instrument, so they sent him to a special school connected to a pioneering Socialist orchestra, where he was offered the choice between trumpet, clarinet and trombone, out of which he chose the first because it was the easiest to play. He describes himself as very talented at playing the trumpet, and after a year He got into the orchestra and played concerts. It was here he became interested in playing the drums: he was impressed by the equipment and kept looking over his shoulder at the drum set while playing. He told his parents he wanted to learn to play the drums, but they weren't supportive of the idea because "they were both from the classical world". He would go home and practice with sticks and built his own drum set with tin cans and buckets. He bought his first drum kit at age 14, after which is parents had to accept it and let him rehearse and take lessons.Schneider values his privacy, so little is known about his private life. He is married to Regina Gizatulina from Russia. The nickname "Doom" comes from the video game of the same name. Schneider needed a name for the German copyright agency, but found there were too many Christoph Schneiders already. Paul Landers suggested the name "Doom" because they liked the game. Schneider has said that if he knew that name would be on every record he played on he would have chosen a different one