How individual characteristics affect the acquisition of knowledge in teacher education has been widely unexplored thus far. The "Teacher Education and Development Study--Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M)" provides a database for examining this research question across countries. Based on the Taiwanese and German sample of TEDS-M, the relationship between future lower secondary mathematics teachers' knowledge and their affective, cognitive and socio-demographic characteristics was examined using multilevel modelling whilst controlling for the teachers' opportunities to learn. The results reveal that in Germany, teacher knowledge is more strongly affected by future teachers' individual characteristics than teacher knowledge in Taiwan. These results are interpreted against the background of cultural differences between "the West" and "the East" or "individualism" and "collectivism", respectively.