Nikolaus Brender

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Nikolaus Brender
in the ZDF election studio for the 2013 federal election

Nikolaus Johannes Edmund Brender (born January 24, 1949 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German television journalist and media manager . Brender was editor-in-chief of ZDF from April 2000 to March 2010 . The non-renewal of his contract led to a public discussion about party political influence and the independence of public broadcasting as well as to a norm review suit at the Federal Constitutional Court, which was followed by a revision of the ZDF State Treaty . The composition of the ZDF television council and the ZDF administrative council must therefore be designed to be "remote from the state" in order to guarantee the independence of public broadcasting.

Life

After attending the St. Blasien College , Brender studied law and political science at the Universities of Freiburg , Munich and Hamburg and passed the first state examination in 1978. In Munich he became a member of the KDStV Aenania Munich in the CV . In his youth he was a member of the CDU / CSU youth organization Junge Union , today he does not belong to any party.

Brender has been working as a journalist since 1978, first for Südwestfunk (until 1982) and for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit (until 1980), then as an editor for Tagesthemen . From 1984 to 1989 he was ARD correspondent for South America based in Buenos Aires , then until 1993 he was head of the WDR's foreign country and moderator of Weltspiegel . In 1994 he became political editor-in-chief at WDR, and in 1997 he became the station's program director. From April 1, 2000 to March 31, 2010 Brender was editor-in-chief of ZDF.

In 2006 Brender applied for the directorship of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) . However, he withdrew his candidacy shortly before the election by the WDR broadcasting council back as well as its competitors, the SR -Intendant, Fritz Raff , and NDR - Counsel Werner Hahn . From the beginning of 2012 to the end of 2013 Brender hosted the n-tv interview program “Bei Brender!”.

Brender is married to a doctor and has a daughter with her.

Controversy over contract extension

course

In February 2009, the majority of the Union parties on the 14-member ZDF Board of Directors , in particular its deputy chairman Roland Koch, announced that they would not extend Brender's current contract until March 2010. Koch justified his criticism in an interview with Stefan Niggemeier with falling audience ratings in the information section of ZDF, especially in comparison with similar programs on Das Erste and RTL Television . Niggemeier expressed doubts about Koch's justification for the termination of the contract and warned against quota pressure at the expense of quality in public television. In the dissertation of Inga Wagner it is shown that in the end the impulse to dismiss Brender came from Edmund Stoiber.

The moderator of the ZDF- heute-Journal , Claus Kleber , criticized the decision of the majority of the board of directors as politically motivated: "It must not be that party political clans try again to determine journalist posts on ZDF according to party political criteria." He was supported in an open letter of protest by all the main editorial managers as well as by Maybrit Illner , Marietta Slomka , Guido Knopp , Claus Richter and Peter Frey, among others . The letter warns, among other things, of a "dangerous interference by political parties in sovereignty" and a "serious interference with the freedom of broadcasting ".

After a series of contributions by the FAZ , which turned against the constant interference of CDU politicians, the FAZ co-editor Frank Schirrmacher accused Hessian Prime Minister Koch “an ultimate incapacitation of the public”. Since director Markus Schächter had campaigned for Brender's contract extension, he was also criticized by the CDU. On March 13, 2009, Schächter announced that he had commissioned a legal opinion to clarify the powers of the administrative board in the election of directors, the result of which, however, was not expected until after the federal elections in September 2009. His approach was supported by the 77-strong ZDF television council .

The former FDP chairmen Wolfgang Gerhardt and Otto Graf Lambsdorff joined the general criticism of Koch's behavior in the FAZ. "The debate initiated by the Union is completely counterproductive," said Gerhardt. With his statements, Koch had confirmed the prejudice of party political influence in public broadcasting. At the meeting of the board of directors on March 27, 2009, Edmund Stoiber ( CSU ) and the former CDU federal manager Willi Hausmann prevented Brender from being heard. Other politicians of the FDP, SPD and the Greens also sharply criticized, the SPD politician Henning Voscherau calls on the SPD-led federal states to act: "If the ZDF administrative boards disregard this, the Brender case must go to the Constitutional Court ." Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin are aiming for a norm review procedure before the Federal Constitutional Court. A corresponding application should be drawn up and forwarded to the members of the Bundestag.

Likewise, 35 constitutional lawyers, including constitutional lawyers Hans Herbert von Arnim , Hans-Peter Schneider , Joachim Wieland , Dieter Dörr and Dieter Birk , wrote in an open letter to the members of the ZDF Administrative Council on November 27, 2009 : “We urgently appeal to the common sense and expertise of all representatives on the Board of Directors. Do not participate in the intended government influence on the election of the editor-in-chief. The freedom of broadcasting is an important pillar of our democratic state [...]. This pillar is currently being sawed by some members of the ZDF board of directors. "It is simply a matter of" ousting an independent journalist and strengthening the influence of party politics "and" who is in charge, who has power at ZDF " .

In the vote on November 27, 2009, seven out of 14 members voted for Brender , according to the ZDF board chairman and Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck . The required majority of nine votes was not achieved, so that the ZDF contract with Brender, which expired at the end of March 2010, was not extended. His successor as ZDF editor-in-chief was Peter Frey .

Reactions

As Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate and Chairman of the ZDF Administrative Council, Kurt Beck called for an amendment to the State Broadcasting Agreement . Accordingly, the interstate broadcasting agreement should be changed so that the board of directors, which Beck was in charge of at the time, can only reject the proposed ZDF editor-in-chief with a three-fifths majority.

The former director of the SWR, Peter Voss , resigned from the CDU after 35 years and accused the CDU of breaching the constitution and an “attack on the independence of the station”. He also called for the ZDF State Treaty to be corrected: “There are some unconstitutional provisions that could be changed.” Voss saw not only Hessian Prime Minister Koch, but also Chancellor Merkel as the culprit: “Merkel's involvement is obvious. I am sure that Koch would not have prevailed without the blessing of the federal government - he was just the mouthpiece. "

Brender's predecessor in office, Klaus Bresser , called the dismissal “organized constitutional crime”.

The former Saxon Prime Minister Kurt Biedenkopf (CDU) also called for a constitutional review of the ZDF state treaty.

ZDF director Markus Schächter expressed "no understanding" for the non-renewal of Brender's contract and stated:

“The public discussion has raised the fundamental question of how the board of directors and the general manager deal with them. The federal states as sponsors of the ZDF now have the duty to ensure that the ZDF has a reliable legal basis within the framework of the upcoming amendment to the State Broadcasting Treaty. "

After he had already received the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize in October for “his exemplary journalistic attitude” , Brender was voted “ Journalist of the Year 2009 ” by Medium Magazin before the planned announcement of his successor . Medium Magazin editor-in-chief Annette Milz spoke of an “overwhelming vote” and “the most convincing choice in the history of the award”. The jury criticized the fact that Brender "became a plaything of party political interests in 2009" and also called for an amendment to the ZDF state treaty.

In an interview with the Spiegel, Brender himself criticized the party-political dominance in public broadcasting and the parties' “proportionality thinking”. He continued to speak of a "spy system that lives from editors reporting internally to the parties" and said that some of the journalists were " unofficial employees " of the major parties, "really comparable to the GDR's IM ". There are few, but the few are still too many. There is a “finely woven network of dependencies”. He himself tried to “at least keep such spies away from posts with real responsibility”. Before he started at ZDF, the phone protests by politicians landed directly in the news editorial office. He turned that off. In particular, there is a "dark shadowy realm in the Union that has established itself in the administrative board and is now trying to dominate it". The Federal Constitutional Court is "the only institution that can secure the state, form and thus future of public broadcasting."

Intendant Schächter reacted to Brender's remarks about the station's internal intelligence systems with a public criticism of Brender. His presentation is "wrong in the matter and excessive in the form and unacceptable". Brender defamed his former employees. The member of the television council Hugo Diederich criticized Brender's comparison of the GDR as irresponsible, Kurt Beck as exaggerated and inaccurate.

However, approval came from Fritz Pleitgen , who considered Brender's account to be correct. Brender later only distanced himself from the Stasi settlement, but stuck to his presentation on the matter. Michael Hanfeld (FAZ) defended Brender's account: He was once again speaking a bitter truth about the state of public broadcasting. "The parties shape the institutions according to their will, make personnel and thus program policy, in return they approve of the broadcasters' fee increases and access to the Internet." According to the "power apparatus logic", the "historically burdened" IM comparison is very accurate. Schächter's criticism of Brender's statement is unfounded, Schächter should "maybe just go through his organizational chart once and remember his first choice - a single black and red post haggling, party personnel policy in its purest form". In the search for a successor to director Dieter Stolte , the party dominance had become clear. Markus Schächter was only elected as the new artistic director in March 2002 after five ballots . For Steffen Grimberg (taz), too, “Brender definitely describes reality in the matter”.

In an article on WeltN24 , Bettina Röhl criticized Brender's self-righteousness, saying that his behavior was "partial, egomaniacal and paranoid". He himself asserted political interests against a critical account of Joschka Fischer's past, reprimanded unpleasant editors and, as an “oligarch”, abused the freedom of the press for his own benefit. Now Brender "slurps" the Federal Constitutional Court "disgustingly" in order to be at least "morally enthroned" again. “Roland Koch turns out to be the savior of the Basic Law, if you look at the journalistic oath of disclosure that Brender is now taking in the mirror. After Brender's self-development, it is clear that Brender has been the wrong man in the post of ZDF editor-in-chief and was not allowed to receive a third term under any circumstances. "

On March 25, 2014, the Federal Constitutional Court declared parts of the ZDF State Treaty to be unconstitutional. The federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg had previously sued. In the grounds of the judgment, the deputy chairman, Ferdinand Kirchhof , referred to the free media coverage enshrined in the Basic Law. This is not given by the high number of politicians and people close to the state in the ZDF television council and ZDF administrative council. In its ruling, the BVG limited the proportion of people close to the state and politicians on the ZDF television council to a third (previously 44%). On the ZDF board of directors, the relevant interest group may have a maximum of 6 people (a total of 14 board members, i.e. 42.8% of 14 - rounded: 43 percent - compared to 44 percent previously). In addition, the interest group concerned may not exercise “any decisive influence” on the composition of the ZDF television council.

However, after the amendment of the State Treaty, critics are of the opinion that the state continues to exercise too great an influence, the position of the governing parties towards the opposition is too strong, and important representatives of society are missing.

Andreas Paulus formulated a different opinion in the verdict of the court: The verdict would not do justice to its own standard of reflecting the opinions of society in the broadcasting council. In his opinion, the participation of members of the executive branch is fundamentally harmful, a third quota too high. “If the supervisory bodies of radio and television are dominated by those whose control they are supposed to enable, among other things, their function is impaired. With the option of sending executive representatives, the judgment redefines state power from a threat to diversity to an element of precisely guaranteeing diversity. " Bodies.

The refusal to participate in a television discussion with AfD representatives by government politicians from the SPD and the Greens in January 2016 criticized Brender and others as an attempt to interfere with politics in the station's decisions. Michael Hanfeld commented in the FAZ: "The ZDF ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court has long been forgotten by the Greens and the SPD in the southwest."

reception

During the so-called " elephant round " (Berliner round) with the main party leaders after the early parliamentary elections acquired on 18 September 2005 Brender be co-hosted by his steadfast attitude towards Gerhard Schroeder's allegations of bias even when public broadcasting in public for Part respect.

As the editor in charge, Brender came under fire for the shortening and broadcast of an interview on December 28, 2005 in the news program heute-journal with kidnapping victim Susanne Osthoff , which was initially announced as “media coup” and “ scoop ”. In an article by the FAZ , Brender was accused of having recognized Osthoff's mental state, which had been affected by the 25 days of being held hostage, but did not take it into account to protect it. In relation to the FAZ, Brender argued with the public interest and with the reference to the fact that five preliminary talks had been held with Osthoff. After the broadcast of the ZDF interview, ARD temporarily refrained from interviewing Osthoff.

Awards

literature

  • Christian Schäfer: The "Causa Brender". From the public dispute about the ZDF editor-in-chief's contract extension to the discussion about the political influence on broadcasting. Gesellschaft.Wirtschaft.Ppolitik (GWP), Vol. 59 (2010), Issue 1, pp. 111–119, ISSN  0016-5875 .
  • Inga Wagner: Informal political communication. A reconstruction of the Nikolaus Brender case. Springer VS Verlag der Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2016.

Web links

Wikiquote: Nikolaus Brender  - Quotes
TV report
  • Great solidarity - ZDF defends itself against political intrigues. TV report, Germany, 2009, 8:56 min., Script and direction: Grit Fischer, Josy Wübben, production: NDR , Zapp , first broadcast: February 25, 2009
Osthoff interview

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Vanity Faces. Nikolaus Brender.  ( 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. Vanity Fair , 2006.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.vanityfair.de  
  2. ↑ Fritz Pleitgen: On the farewell of Nikolaus Brenders: Truthfulness is his character. FAZ , March 30, 2010.
  3. ↑ Hans Leyendecker: At ZDF politics plays power with editor-in-chief Brender. Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 23, 2009
       Michael Hanfeld: Seeing black with the second. FAZ, February 17, 2009.
  4. ↑ It's better with the second. ( Memento of November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung , February 25, 2009.
  5. ↑ Controversy over everything. In: sueddeutsche.de. December 19, 2011, accessed April 29, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Political scandal at ZDF - Kleber attacks party clusters. Spiegel Online , February 20, 2009.
  7. ↑ In conversation: Roland Koch. What do you have against Nikolaus Brender? Interview with Stefan Niggemeier in the FAZ on February 24, 2009.
  8. ↑ It's about the FAZ principle of February 24, 2009.
  9. ^ Inga Wagner: Informal political communication. A reconstruction of the Nikolaus Brender case. Springer VS Verlag der Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2016.
  10. ↑ First Brender left, now politics goes . ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed on November 19, 2016]).
  11. ^ ZDF celebrities want to save editor-in-chief from being dismissed by Union. Spiegel Online, February 20, 2009.
  12. ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: The Brender case. Attack on the ZDF. FAZ, March 9, 2009.
  13. ^ A b c Michael Hanfeld: Power struggle for ZDF. He is and will remain my candidate. FAZ, March 13, 2009.
  14. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: Brender wasn't even heard. FAZ, March 30, 2009.
  15. ↑ Politicians stand behind Brender Spiegel Online from November 21, 2009.
  16. ↑ The dispute over ZDF editor-in-chief Brender escalates. Welt Online from November 26, 2009.
  17. ↑ 35 constitutional lawyers warn Koch. Spiegel Online from November 20, 2009.
  18. ^ ZDF editor-in-chief Brender must go , Spiegel Online from November 27, 2009.
  19. ↑ https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2009-12/peter-voss-austritt-cdu-brender
  20. ↑ Interstate Broadcasting Treaty (consolidated version)
  21. ↑ Out of indignation: Ex-SWR director Voss resigns from the CDU. ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten from December 15, 2009.
  22. ↑ Because of Brender deselection: Ex-SWR-Intendant Voss resigns from the CDU. In: Spiegel Online from December 15, 2009.
  23. ↑ The reach of the parties for ARD & ZDF: We want television back! In: the daily newspaper of December 9, 2009.
  24. ↑ Protest against Brender's replacement: Former SWR director Voss resigns from the CDU. In: Die Welt from December 15, 2009.
  25. ↑ In the wording: The reaction of the ZDF Intdaten Markus Schächter. In: Die Welt of November 27, 2009.
  26. ↑ ZDF chief editor: Geschasster Brender is "Journalist of the Year". In: Die Welt from December 9, 2009.
  27. ↑ Brender denounces the "spy system" in public law. Spiegel Online from February 20, 2010.
  28. ↑ a b Steffen Grimberg: Stasi comparison by ZDF editor-in-chief: spy hunter Nikolaus Brender . In: the daily newspaper . ( taz.de [accessed on November 19, 2016]).
  29. ^ A b SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: "Spy" allegations: ZDF director reprimands Brender because of the SPIEGEL interview. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. February 22, 2010, accessed November 19, 2016 .
  30. ^ ZDF boss Nikolaus Brender regrets the Stasi comparison . In: BILD.de . ( bild.de [accessed on November 19, 2016]).
  31. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: Brender on the ZDF system: Lauscher on the Lerchenberg . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 22, 2010, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 19, 2016]).
  32. ^ ZDF: The Intendanten-Stadl. Der Spiegel, November 5, 2001, accessed November 15, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Miracle from Lerchenberg. Tagesspiegel , March 11, 2002, accessed November 15, 2016 .
  34. ^ Brender - partisan, egomaniacal and paranoid: ZDF - WELT. In: THE WORLD. Retrieved November 19, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Politicians continue to rule . ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed on November 19, 2016]).
  36. ↑ See Federal Constitutional Court (BverfG): 1 BvF 1/11 of March 25, 2014, paragraph no. 41.
  37. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: Elefantenrunde in SWR: That's really Mainz-unique! In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 22, 2016, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 19, 2016]).
  38. ^ Rüdiger Ditz: TV elephant round. Chancellor in a rush of victory. Spiegel Online , September 18, 2005
      Excerpts from conversations from the Berlin group. Die Welt , September 20, 2005
      Nikolaus Brender on the Chancellor's media scolding. Die Welt, September 20, 2005.
  39. ^ Patrick Bahners: Susanne Osthoff. Processed. FAZ, December 30, 2005.
  40. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: kidnapping. The Osthoff case. FAZ, January 23, 2006.
  41. ↑ ARD for the time being renounces Osthoff interview. Tagesspiegel , January 2, 2006
       ARD does not want an Osthoff interview for the time being. ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung , January 2, 2006.
  42. ↑ ZDF editor-in-chief honored for quality and independence. ( Memento from March 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) tagesschau.de , March 27, 2009.
  43. ↑ Nikolaus Brender is “Journalist of the Year”. bild.de , December 9, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Brender, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brender, Nikolaus Johannes Edmund (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, editor-in-chief of ZDF
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau