Herbert Watterott

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Herbert Watterott (2012)
Watterott (left) in an interview with Nico Sijmens

Herbert Watterott (born September 21, 1941 in Bensberg ) is a German journalist .

Life

He became known primarily to German television viewers as the "voice of the Tour de France ". From 1965 he reported 41 times for ARD on this cycling event, the last time on the Tour de France in 2006 . He said goodbye before retirement at the 2006 road cycling world championships in Salzburg. He was best known for his unusual culinary recommendations and for the phrase "... the red devil's rag ..." for the red pennant that characterizes the 1000 meter mark .

Professional practice

In 1962, Watterott began his television work as an assistant in the production line at Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR . On August 24, 1963, he was editor of the ARD's first Bundesliga broadcast, which was produced and broadcast by WDR as the lead station.

The Tour de France started in Cologne in 1965 , and Watterott was there as Werner Zimmer's assistant . In 1969 he commented on the race for the first time. His first live broadcast of 1973. Watterott experienced as a journalist death of Tom Simpson on Mont Ventoux , the ride Dietrich Thuraus the yellow jersey in 1977, the flourishing of German cycling with Team Telekom and Erik Zabel , and finally rise and fall of Jan Ullrich with . Over many years, Watterott formed a commentator duo with Jürgen Emig , which could no longer exist from 2004 onwards due to criminal investigations against Emig. In a similar way, Watterott lost another long-term comment partner, Hagen Boßdorf, a year later due to his former IM activity.

In addition to the tour, Watterott also reported on other tours such as 25 times the Giro d'Italia , 40 cycling world championships , the Germany tour and the one-day classics and, since Mexico 1968, of 17 Olympic Games , as well as 25 ice hockey world championships . Outside of radio and television, he was hall speaker at 60 six-day races .

Herbert Watterott officially announced his departure as a WDR employee in 2006. In the same year he published the book Tour de France live! - Forty years of reports from the most famous cycling race in the world . Herbert Watterott also spoke daily stage comments on the 2007 and 2008 Tour de France for their website exclusively for the Gerolsteiner team .

Watterott is still working as a freelance speaker and journalist and writes about cycling in specialist magazines and on the Internet portal Radsport-News.com .

In 2017, Watterott worked as a co-commentator for ARD at the opening stage of the Tour de France in Düsseldorf.

bibliography

  • with Jörg Brokmann and Sven Simon (photos): Tour de France '97: Jan Ullrich and the team, triumphant path to victory . H-und-L, Cologne 1997, DNB 958825467
  • Tour de France live! Forty years of reports from the world's most famous cycling race , Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 978-3-7688-5236-4 .

Web links

Commons : Herbert Watterott  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What is actually ... Herbert Watterott? "I could get started again immediately" radsport-news.com
  2. ↑ Media event for more than a hundred years taz.de July 12, 2003
  3. ↑ Berliner Morgenpost, July 16, 2006
  4. ↑ Tagesspiegel from January 25, 2009: One million kilometers ...
personal data
SURNAME Watterott, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sports journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Bensberg