Sonja Kurowsky

Sonja Ortmann-Kurowsky (born December 11, 1938 in Wiesbaden ; † November 14, 2017 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German television announcer . It gained popularity with the audience through its relaxed style of presentation.

Life

Because Sonja was so temperamental, the parents gave their youngest daughter to the Ursulines at a boarding school, which she left with secondary school leaving certificate. Her parents' will was also forced upon her when choosing a career , so that instead of training as an actor, a commercial apprenticeship was due. At the age of 18 she escaped her influence by moving from Wiesbaden to Cologne . There she worked as a secretary for a car company, as a hostess and as a translator of English novels.

In 1961, a friend found her a job as a secretary in the sports department of the WDR . Their job was to compile and type in the incoming sports news. Walter Hartner, responsible for the television announcements, had his office on the same floor. When Kurowsky came into contact with him on business, she took the chance and asked if he could possibly have a use for her, whereupon he arranged a microphone test, which turned out to be to his satisfaction.

It was used immediately in the ARD program without going through the announcement in the regional program . At first she was still insecure, and she made all sorts of slips of the tongue, but with increasing routine, flanked by a two-year speech training course, she gained security and self-confidence. Based on this, her temperament flared up again: she announced a youth show dancing, a swimwear report in a bathing suit, a children's show trying out children's handicrafts and another time included the puppet figure of the following show in her announcement, secretly regretting that she did not use the doll Ventriloquist art could speak for itself Although the audience responded positively, Hartner went too far and imposed a "antics" ban.

Kurowsky met her future husband Friedhelm Ortmann at the radio station . Ortmann, over ten years his senior, was head of the WDR radio play department from 1960 to 1968. In 1965 they jointly produced - he as director, she as role speaker - the radio play Die Wand by Dieter Forte . In 1987, when Ortmann, now freelance for theater and radio, led a radio play cooperation between Radio Bremen (where the author of the radio play, Konrad Hansen , was employed) and the WDR, he used Kurowsky again in the speaker cast . Ortmann and Kurowsky married on October 7, 1966; Daughter Sandra was born on November 5, 1967.

After Kurowsky appeared in children's entertainment programs on WDR television in the ARD program in the 1960s, namely in Caesar the rabbit and We wait for Christkind , and in the late 1970s the first radio telephone broadcast on the WDR2 radio program (once a week in the morning program Daheim and en route ), she and the presenters Reinhard Münchenhagen and Rainer Nohn were entrusted with the live broadcast Gesucht - found in the third television program from 1983 to 1992 , which was an interactive exchange show that traveled through cities and communities in North Rhine-Westphalia and attracted people with a passion for collecting introduced. Viewers were able to contact the participants of the program by telephone and fill in gaps in the collection.

Occasional follow-up engagements followed later at her home broadcaster WDR, which finally stopped the television announcement in 1997.

Sonja Kurowsky died in November 2017 in a hospice in Bergisch Gladbach .

Web links

• Sonja Kurowsky in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Broadcast yesterday

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Anonymous: Sonja Kurowsky. The fairy tale fairy from Cologne. (Occupation: TV announcer (17)) . Funk Uhr , issue 2/1972, p. 8.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} hü: Asked about it once - and it's already popular! Sonja Kurowsky doesn't like sitting rigidly in front of the camera . Hörzu , issue 7/1967, p. 40f.
3. ^ Excerpts from conversation Friedhelm Ortmann / Reinhard Döhl .
4. ↑ hoerspieleipps.net  ( 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. .  
5. ↑ hoerspielkrimi.net  ( 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. .  
6. ^ The Internet Movie Database .
7. ↑ ARD TV announcer: Sonja Kurowsky died after a serious illness in Bergisch Gladbach . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . ( ksta.de [accessed on November 16, 2017]).