Klaus Martens (journalist)

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Klaus Martens (2011)

Klaus Martens (born May 18, 1954 ) in Uedem is a German journalist , filmmaker and book author.

Career

Klaus Martens works as a freelance writer and producer in Cologne. Until his retirement in February 2020, he was a permanent editor and author in the Inland program group of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). After studying political science, history and philosophy (MA), his first WDR station was the program Here and Today . Klaus Martens then worked in the culture / history departments, in the editor-in-chief and in the international program group.

Martens was part of the founding team of the ARD morning magazine . In 2001 he switched to the editorial team of Die Story . In his documentaries, for which he has received numerous awards, he focuses on economic topics.

On May 14, 2010, the WDR released Martens from service due to alleged violations of the WDR's programming principles and false information given to the WDR in connection with its feature healing undesirable (2009, see below) and its subsequent book publication and initiated legal action. In connection with the documentation, doubts about Marten's independence had been expressed in the case, and the director accused Martens of breach of trust. However, the Cologne Labor Court overturned the termination on January 20, 2011. According to the court ruling, the allegations against Martens turned out to be largely incorrect after review. Due to Martens' previously renowned journalistic work, the reasons for an immediate dismissal were not sufficient. On October 5, 2011, the regional labor court proposed a comparative dispute settlement. It "strongly" suggested continuing the employment relationship and continuing to employ Martens in a different editorial office or in another area of ​​responsibility before it would pass a judgment on the matter itself. On December 14, 2011, the judgment of the Cologne Regional Labor Court (Az. 3 Sa 347/11) was that the termination without notice was ineffective and did not allow an appeal.

Prizes and awards

As the author of a film about the takeover of Mannesmann AG by Vodafone , Martens received the Johanna Quandt Foundation's media prize in 2002 . His story The Invisible Third was nominated in 2005 for the Ernst Schneider Prize . His documentation banking secrets was awarded the Helmut Schmidt Journalist Prize 2005 and the Ernst Schneider Prize 2006.

He received the European Civis Prize 2008 for the television documentary Death Voyage in a Fishing Boat and the DUH Environment Media Prize 2008 for Der Störfall . For the one-hour film Nightmare in a Fishing Boat - Africa's Refugees and Europe's Fisheries Policy , he received the film prize of at the Protestant Church Congress in Bremen Evangelical Development Service 2009 on Sustainable Germany in a Globalized World .

Documentary: Unwanted healing

On October 19, 2009, the ARD broadcast Martens' 45-minute documentary Healing Unwanted - How Pharmaceutical Companies Prevent a Drug . The subject of the film is the story of an ointment containing vitamin B 12 for the treatment of atopic eczema (neurodermatitis) and psoriasis (psoriasis) and the unsuccessful attempts to win a large pharmaceutical company to manufacture and market the ointment as a drug. The film documents the history of the invention, development, patenting and testing of the agent and the unsuccessful contacts with several pharmaceutical companies largely through interviews and statements from the people involved. The film comes to the conclusion that companies in the pharmaceutical industry have refused for years for strategic reasons to produce and market an inexpensive and effective product, although they had no doubt that it could have helped many of those affected. At the same time as the film was broadcast, a book on the film was announced, which was released on November 5, 2009.

The documentation initially met with positive, but then also with very critical media coverage. Some newspapers, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ and the Süddeutsche Zeitung , followed the statement made by Siegfried Throm, managing director of the research-based pharmaceutical company, on the show Hart but fair: Martens was running a PR campaign. After the film was broadcast, it became known that the patent owner had found a sales partner in the Swiss company Mavena Health Care AG who wanted to bring the cream onto the market. The fact that the patent owner wanted to bring the cream onto the market "on his own" was certainly an issue in the film. In an interview, the representative of a sales company from Kleve in the Lower Rhine region, who announced the market launch. It was criticized that the studies carried out were too small to prove beyond doubt the effectiveness in atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, as claimed in the film. The title "Unwanted cure" has also been criticized as misleading. In fact, neurodermatitis is considered incurable. The dispute over the film led to labor law proceedings between Martens and the WDR, which Martens won both in the first and in the second instance before the labor court .

Passionate teacher / staff room - one school year

On October 29, 2009, Martens 45-minute film Teacher from Passion was broadcast in the series People Up Close on WDR television . For this documentation 90 teachers were observed at an Overather high school for one year. A large part of the documentation shows what is happening in the staff room, occasionally contrasted with quotes from Theodor Adorno's taboos about the teaching profession . PHOENIX first broadcast a 60-minute version entitled Teachers' Room - A School Year on January 19, 2013.

We the wall

"Wir die Wand" is a 90-minute documentary that Martens shot with a team of 50 in one day. The film is a WDR in-house production and portrays the south stand in the football stadium in Dortmund during the football game against Mainz on April 20, 2013. A total of 16 cameras monitor the action on the largest standing stand in Europe without showing a single game scene on the football field itself . The documentation is based on the thesis that among the 25,000 people in the stands come together from all walks of life. Eleven of them are accompanied by a camera when they enter the stadium and watched until the end of the game. The protagonists tell their stories both directly into the camera and "off-screen". Director Martens asked his protagonists in long interviews in front of the microphone. The documentary was shown for the first time in September 2013 in German cinemas and in October 2013 on WDR television.

Works

Films (selection)

  • 2001 Bend and break. The rise and end of Mannesmann (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2002 The invisible third. Billion deal for Mannesmann (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2003 The Haffa brothers. From stock market stars to villains (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2004 Double Game - The Billionaire Deal of the Male Men (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2005 in the middle of it or canceled - at 50. A documentary about the attitude to life at 50 years (ARD / WDR 45 min.).
  • 2005 Bank secrets - the bankruptcy of a computer dealer (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2006 The Super Account - Reaching for the EU Billions. A documentation about the subsidy policy of the European Union. (ARD / WDR 45 min)
  • 2007 The accident - What really happened in the Vattenfall nuclear power plant? (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2007 nightmare in the fishing boat. Africa's Refugees and Europe's Fisheries Policy (3sat / WDR 60 min.)
  • 2007 Passage - Stories from the Lower Rhine (3sat / WDR 45 min)
  • 2008 The Siemens files (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2007 The company. The business methods of Siemens AG (Phoenix / 3sat / WDR 60 min.)
  • 2009 Teachers out of passion A documentation from a teacher's room (WDR 45 min.)
  • 2009 Unwanted cure - How pharmaceutical companies prevent a drug (ARD / WDR 45 min.)
  • 2013 Teachers' Room - One School Year (Phoenix 60 min.)
  • 2013 We the Wall (WDR 90 min.)
  • 2015 Count down to breaking a taboo - MEIN KAMPF is published (ARD / WDR 45/60 min.)
  • 2016 Shift change - the robots take over (WDR / arte / ARD 90 min / 45 min.)
  • 2017 Don't tell anyone! (90 min. In theatrical distribution from realfiction)
  • 2018 WDR story (s) - A journey through time in 14 interviews. By Klaus Michael Heinz (8 interviews of 60 min.) And by Klaus Martens in conversation with Nikolaus Brender , Helga Kirchner , Gabriele Krone-Schmalz , Friedrich Nowottny , Fritz Pleitgen and Sonia Seymour Mikich (6 interviews of 60 min.)
  • 2019 don't tell anyone! A German-Norwegian love story. German TV premiere on October 26, 2019 ZDF / PHOENIX at 9.45 p.m.
  • 2020 Traumfabrik, documentary film, a production by WDR, 93 min., Premiere on February 1, 2020 documentary film festival STRANGER THAN FICTION.
  • 2020 WDR-Geschichte (n) - A journey through time in interviews. By Klaus Michael Heinz (5 interviews of 60 min.) And by Klaus Martens in conversation with Klaus Jürgen Haller , Ulrich Harbecke and Ulrich Wickert (3 interviews of 60 min.)

Books

  • Martens, Klaus: Unwanted healing. The dramatic story of a drug. Dumont Literature and Art Publishing House; Edition: 1st (November 5, 2009), ISBN 978-3-8321-9531-1 .
  • Martens, Klaus (ed.): Carl Baumann perceive, (Life and work of the Hagen artist C. Baumann), ardenkuverlag Hagen 2010, ISBN 978-3-942184-02-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. WDR press release of May 14, 2010 ( Memento of June 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. File number 6 Ca 4641/10 ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release Labor Court Cologne: Labor Court Cologne: Termination without notice of a WDR editor ineffective  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / juris.de @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.justiz.nrw.de  
  3. Cologne Labor Court, 6 Ca 4641/10
  4. http://www.lag-koeln.nrw.de/service/sitzungsresult/index.php?daten=05.10.2011  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.lag-koeln.nrw.de  
  5. Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.helmutschmidtjournalistenpreis.de
  6. Süddeutsche Zeitung: The great itch
  7. Frankfurter Allgemeine: Psoriasis therapy - rose red is hope
  8. People up close: Passionate teachers .
  9.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ]. [http: //IABotdeadurl.invalid/http: //programm.ard.de/TV/Programm/TV-nach-Rubriken/Information/lehrerzimmer/eid_287259295288826? month = 01 & year = & date = 2013-01-30 & list = themenschwerpunkt @ 1@ 2Template: Toter Link / programm.ard.de  
  10. Film description on: realfictionfilme.de