Fritz Pleitgen

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Fritz Pleitgen (2019)

Fritz Ferdinand Pleitgen (born March 21, 1938 in Duisburg-Meiderich ) is a German journalist . From 1995 to the end of March 2007 he was director of Westdeutscher Rundfunk , and from 2001 to 2002 chairman of ARD . He was also President of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) from October 1, 2006 to the end of 2008 . From April 1, 2007 to the end of 2011, Pleitgen was chairman of the management board of RUHR.2010 GmbH.

Professional background

Already at the age of 14 Pleitgen worked as a freelancer for sports and court reporting for the local edition Bünde of the Free Press Bielefeld . Here he started a two-year traineeship in 1959 . In 1963 he then moved to the West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR) in Cologne . As a supporter of Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik , he joined the SPD .

Pleitgen was initially employed in the editorial department of the Tagesschau and as a special reporter, dealing with the areas of politics and science .

Foreign correspondent

Just one year later, in 1964, Pleitgen began reporting on EEC and NATO meetings in Brussels and Paris as a foreign correspondent . In addition, Pleitgen provided information on the Cyprus War in 1964 and on the Six Day War in 1967 .

From 1970 to 1977 Pleitgen worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow. Here he was the first Western journalist to conduct an interview with Leonid Brezhnev, then the Soviet General Secretary of the CPSU .

The diplomatic skills he demonstrated in Moscow (Pleitgen had very good contacts both with the government and with dissidents ) qualified him in 1977 for the post of correspondent in East Berlin . His predecessor there, Lothar Loewe , had been expelled from the country due to his blunt anti-communist reporting, which was not feared by ARD in the case of bankruptcy. He stayed at this post for a total of five years.

Another move followed in July 1982: from East Berlin to Washington, which was probably the largest possible politically during the Cold War. Pleitgen found himself exposed to criticism of "anti-American undertones" while working as a correspondent in the USA , as he was rather critical of the policy of then President Ronald Reagan . The reason for this critical reporting was Pleitgens' conviction that Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik was the right way to go.

Pleitgen moved to the same post at the ARD studio in New York in 1987 after five years as head of the Washington ARD studio . However, Friedrich Nowottny , whom Pleitgen already knew from mutual traineeships at the Bielefelder Free Press, called him back to Cologne a short time later.

Political Editor-in-Chief

Jürgen Engert and Fritz Pleitgen as moderators of the ARD election program for the 1990 Volkskammer election

In the parent Pleitgen took from 1988 the position of chief editor of the TV program area " politics and current affairs". Despite the additional administrative tasks, Pleitgen continued to work as a journalist.

In connection with German reunification and the collapse of the Soviet Union, he directed numerous programs in the Brennpunkt series and several other special programs . When the Wall came down , he reported from Berlin and urged colleagues to moderate reporting: "This is an explosive time, which we should not give any additional drama or even tinder."

After Pleitgen had worked as editor-in-chief at WDR until 1993, he switched to radio on January 1, 1994 after three decades of television and became radio director of WDR. During this time, Pleitgen reformed the program and organizational structure and launched the Eins Live channel .

On December 17, 2006, Fritz Pleitgen hosted the ARD press club for the last time after almost 300 programs , one of the oldest series on German television. Monika Piel followed him.

Directorship

On March 17, 1995, Pleitgen was elected by the Broadcasting Council to succeed Friedrich Nowottny as director of the WDR; the other applicants for the post withdrew, as they did with Nowottny's appeal. As director, Pleitgen continued the regionalization of the WDR, which led to the establishment of the local studios in Cologne and Dortmund. He is also committed to developing the PHOENIX event channel . In 2001 and 2002 he was also chairman of the ARD . Pleitgen was also active for the European Broadcasting Union , of which he was Vice President since 2002 and President from September 2006 to 2008. In addition to his managerial tasks, Fritz Pleitgen continues to work as a journalist. Newer productions are the travel reports broadcast on the ARD about the Rocky Mountains The Rockies. Longing for the old west and looking for traces in the Ore Mountains: reunion with the land of Christmas . The end of 2004 came Pleitgen in the criticism after Harald Schmidt was recruited for a mission in the ARD. The contract with Schmidt's production company was signed by the ARD subsidiary Degeto . In order to finance the broadcast, the ARD allegedly had to forego the acquisition of broadcasting rights to sporting events. 1 Live , a radio wave for young listeners, is also based on his idea . With the radio wave WDR 5 Pleitgen set up a pure word program.

Fritz Pleitgen's last regularly planned term of office as director of the WDR ended after his re-election on September 14, 2000 in July 2007. He had planned for this re-election to only use half of it, but rejected this idea. A political dispute broke out within the 43-member WDR committee about his successor. Pleitgen himself showed himself ready if he was appointed by the Broadcasting Council and there was no agreement on a successor. However, his own party, the SPD , refused to support him, as did the chairman of the WDR Broadcasting Council. Pleitgen found support on the part of the CDU, FDP and the Greens , who counted on the continuity of his work. An initiative by the CDU to continue to employ Pleitgen as director without re-election after 2007 was rejected in the Broadcasting Council by votes from the SPD and independent members. On November 20, 2006, the Broadcasting Council of the West German Broadcasting Corporation elected Monika Piel, the radio director of the West German Broadcasting Corporation, to succeed Pleitgen. He left the WDR three months before the end of the term of office.

Management Ruhr 2010

at the opening of Emscherkunst. 2010

On January 5, 2007, gave North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers and food mayor Wolfgang Reiniger known that Fritz Pleitgen CEO of Ruhr 2010 GmbH will be responsible for the planning of the European Capital of Culture -year 2010 in Essen and the Ruhr region is responsible . Pleitgen took up this position on April 1, 2007, three months earlier than his term of office as director at WDR would have ended normally. Fritz Pleitgen said of the accident at the Love Parade 2010 , which took place as part of the RUHR.2010: “We are bearing heavily on the tragedy”. In a moral sense he feels responsible for the misfortune.

Volunteering

On March 28, 2011, Fritz Pleitgen became President of Deutsche Krebshilfe e. V. , which was converted into the German Cancer Aid Foundation in 2015 . Since then he has continued to do the voluntary work.

In 2013, Pleitgen took over the patronage for the German prostate cancer study PREFERE, which was canceled in 2016. On September 30, 2017, Pleitgen was a guest at the ZDF charity gala Welcome to Carmen Nebel , which raised over 3.5 million euros in donations.

At the anniversary event on September 29 in Berlin on the occasion of ten years of the ZDF gala in favor of the German Cancer Aid, Pleitgen, as President of the German Cancer Aid Foundation, discussed cancer in children and their improved care with moderator Carmen Nebel and pop star Andrea Berg . The socially committed singer had visited the exemplary "EKKstein Family House" at the University Children's Hospital in Jena , which had just opened , and reported on it on the program, which was followed by 3.6 million viewers. At the end of the shipment, the donations for cancer aid amounted to 3.2 million euros. Pleitgen thanked everyone involved for their dedication and the numerous people for their loyalty to donations.

Pleitgen's other charitable commitments include: He is the sponsor of the Bethel children's hospice for dying children, a member of the board of trustees of Aktion Deutschland Hilft and the chairman of the advisory board of "Glückauf Zukunft", an initiative of the mining industry. Until 2019 he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the DFL Foundation (formerly Bundesliga Foundation) and was then named an honorary member of the Board of Trustees. From its founding in 1998 to April 2017, he was chairman, and from then until today, honorary chairman of the Lew Kopelew Forum in Cologne . Co-initiator of the charitable initiative "The Children of Perm" and chairman of the association of the same name. Since 2014, Fritz Pleitgen has been the patron of the InterArtes association, founded in 2011, for the promotion of young, highly talented artists from various disciplines.

Cancer 2020

Cancer Aid President Fritz Pleitgen was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020, as the German Cancer Aid Foundation announced in Bonn. The 82-year-old patient had already been operated on in Heidelberg, it said. Pleitgen said of this stroke of fate: "I am very confident because the tumor was discovered at an early stage and was operable". His own situation makes it abundantly clear to him "how important it is to recognize cancer early". Pleitgen, who was friends with Krebshilfe founder Mildred Scheel , has been president of the aid organization since March 2011. The voluntary work ends in the spring of 2021.

Private life

Pleitgen has been married since 1969 and has four children. His son Frederik Pleitgen is also a journalist, moderated the RTL Nachtjournal from 2013 to 2015 and now works as a foreign correspondent for the television station CNN .

Awards

Publications (selection)

Web links

Commons : Fritz Pleitgen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g Michael Hanfeld: Fritz Pleitgen is eighty: Reporter von Welt, Intendant von Statur . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 15, 2019]).
  2. ^ Ruhr 2010. Pleitgen becomes head of Kulturhauptstadt GmbH , Die Zeit , January 5, 2007
  3. ^ "Pleitgen plans cultural capital 2010" , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , January 5, 2007
  4. Pleitgen: "We mustn't give up now" - For the Love Parade at RUHR.2010, derwesten.de, July 26, 2010
  5. Fritz Pleitgen is the new President of the German Cancer Aid , press release of March 28, 2011
  6. krebshilfe.de
  7. ^ Anne Burgmer: Fritz Pleitgen is 80: "I've been very lucky". March 21, 2018, accessed February 15, 2019 .
  8. Press release on the prostate study of January 22, 2013
  9. Prostate cancer study "Prefere" will not be continued. Accessed December 8, 2016
  10. Krebshilfe press release of October 2, 2017. Accessed October 24, 2017
  11. krebshilfe.de accessed on October 2, 2018
  12. krebshilfe.de accessed on October 3, 2018
  13. ^ Fritz Pleitgen on the website of the Children's Hospice Bethel
  14. ^ Anne Burgmer: Fritz Pleitgen is 80: "I've been very lucky". March 21, 2018, accessed February 15, 2019 .
  15. ^ DFL German Football League: DFL Foundation appoints new curators. Retrieved August 4, 2019 .
  16. Pleitgen resigns. In April Thomas Roth takes over the chairmanship of the Lew Kopelew Forum . Kölnische Rundschau, January 21, 2017; Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  17. RP ONLINE: Russia: What happened to the children of Perm. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  18. Homepage. Retrieved June 27, 2020 .
  19. [1] , accessed on June 9, 2020
  20. ^ Westdeutsche Zeitung: Fritz Pleitgen: Der Privatier. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  21. dpa: With fur cap: Celebrity birthday of March 21, 2018: Fritz Pleitgen. In: svz.de. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  22. Saure Gurke: NDR seeks misogyny. In: Spiegel Online . November 15, 2005, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  23. Krefeld: Rainald Becker becomes the new hobby horse third. In: RP Online. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  24. ^ Website of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Crafts ( Memento from January 14, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 27, 2011
  25. WDR press release: Pleitgen awarded the Josef Neuberger Medal - “Special Services to the Jewish Community”. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  26. Laudation from former RTL boss Helmut Thoma: WDR director Pleitgen receives the German Freemasons' Culture Prize. In: RP Online. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  27. ^ Charles Medal for English historian Ian Kershaw. In: Welt Online . February 20, 2018, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  28. Britta Linnhoff: 50 years TU Dortmund University: University awards Donald Tusk an honorary doctorate. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Culture penny for Fritz Pleitgen. September 25, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  30. +++ ATTENTION: BLOCKING PERIOD TODAY 6.30 PM +++ Fritz Pleitgen receives Order of Merit from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
  31. ^ Willi Ostermann Medal for Fritz Pleitgen
  32. vdv-online.de ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vdv-online.de
  33. "Laughing official mold" - Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer receives the medal. February 20, 2014, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  34. ^ Anglicisms: Fritz Pleitgen new "Sprachpanscher" of the year. In: Welt Online . August 27, 2010, accessed February 19, 2019 .
  35. BAnz AT November 22, 2012 B1
  36. ↑ Ceremonial event with award of the Dr. Friedrich Joseph Haass Prize - German-Russian Forum eV Accessed December 4, 2019 .
  37. Dennis Wach: Awarded “Golden Sun” for the 12th time and in the Wunderland Kalkar on the Lower Rhine for the second time. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .