Wim Thoelke

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Wim Thoelke (born May 9, 1927 in Mülheim an der Ruhr as Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Thölke ; † November 26, 1995 in Niedernhausen ) was a German showmaster who hosted the quiz show Der Große Preis . For this show Loriot created the characters Wum and Wendelin for the recorded films, which added the first name of the presenter to the catchphrase "Wim, Wum and Wendelin".

Life

Beginnings

Wim Thoelke passed his Abitur at the Mercator-Gymnasium in Duisburg and began studying law at the University of Cologne in the summer semester of 1948 . In 1951, instead of doing his legal clerkship, he began a dissertation on the subject of “Legal, and in particular, copyright problems in television”. Then Thoelke was managing director of the German Handball Federation based in Dortmund for seven years .

In this function, he had his tape recorder with him at a referee meeting in Karlsruhe in 1953 in order to dictate minutes. The sports director of the SDR then asked him to prepare a report for his station. The next day all football games were canceled due to bad weather and his ten-minute report was played by all broadcasters due to a lack of events. A month later, WDR asked for a comment on the indoor championship in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle , because a reporter was absent, and then NDR asked for a contribution for an international match in Prague because the reporter's own reporter had not received his visa in time.

In 1959 Thoelke moved to Stuttgart and worked as an asset manager for a client. He also worked as a freelance reporter for SDR and now also for television. He then became commercial director at Bavaria Fluggesellschaft .

Permanent position at ZDF

At the end of 1962, the newly founded Second German Television offered him a position as head of the sports department. Wim Thoelke was also seen as a news anchor in the first broadcasts today in 1963 . The program “ Current Sports Studio” developed into one of the most successful programs of the station, which Thoelke presented 115 times up to the spring of 1970 - together with Rainer Günzler and Dieter Kürten he was one of the best-known sports presenters on ZDF.

Freelancer at ZDF

After the shows by Peter Frankenfeld and Lou van Burg came to an end in 1970, there was a gap in the entertainment program, whereupon Wim Thoelke was asked for a new show. He agreed, but in return asked to work as a freelancer from now on. The programs Drei mal Neun and the follow-up program The Great Price , which brought in enormous donations for the problem child campaign , were created. His joint appearances with the dog Wum , drawn and spoken by Loriot , who called him with a long drawn out "Thöööölke", were particularly striking . This was later joined by the elephant Wendelin, also created by Loriot, and an alien in a small spaceship, the Blue Klaus . On December 10, 1992, Thoelke hosted the Grand Prix for the last time. A wax figure by Wim Thoelke based on the show has been in the Panoptikum Mannheim since May 2013 .

Outside employment

Wim Thoelke has had sideline jobs since he started working for the handball association, and he was particularly interested in aircraft . The aviation activities began with an entrepreneur in Dortmund who offered flights to the North Sea islands and extended to the establishment of an airline company twice . One of these cases was the Montana : Thoelke knew a license holder for large aircraft in Austria , whose license would soon expire. He managed to find financiers, buy a Boeing 707 and actually set up regular flight operations with passengers .

Thoelke was also active in the outerwear trade ; as early as the 1950s he went to Paris to meet various couturiers . With increasing popularity, he mainly represented his companies at trade fairs and negotiations. He even had a utility model registered for trousers for changing waist sizes, the stretch waistband trousers . The manufacturer then had to file for bankruptcy, so that no profit was made.

Automobiles also played a role: in the 1960s, he acquired a sports car from the small English racing car manufacturer Ginetta, which cost 16,000 DM and had a streamlined plastic body, and fitted it with a performance-enhanced DKW engine from Mantzel. This car was reported in Stern , whereupon numerous interested parties got in touch. However, the project could not be completed on time, was forgotten after the vehicle had participated in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring and had to be discontinued in the end. In the 1970s, Thoelke saw good opportunities for the Mitsubishi models that had just appeared on the German market and founded the Mitsubishi branch in Frankfurt am Main .

In addition, Wim Thoelke presented numerous product presentations, company anniversaries and the like.

death

Wim Thoelke died on November 26th, 1995 at the age of 68 in his house near Wiesbaden, from a long-standing heart condition. He was buried in the cemetery of his home community in Niedernhausen-Engenhahn , where he had lived for many years.

family

Thoelke was married and had two children.

Awards

literature

  • Wim Thoelke: Stars, colleagues and crooks - a kind of autobiography . Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1995, ISBN 3-404-61362-7 .
  • Wim Thoelke: Above all sports . Limpert Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1969.
  • Martin Pesch: Wim Thoelke (1927-1995). TV presenter, sports official and entrepreneur . In: Rheinische Lebensbilder , Vol. 20, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2019, pp. 223–256.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ THE WORLD: The good man from ZDF: . In: THE WORLD . November 28, 1995 ( welt.de [accessed September 30, 2017]).
  2. ↑ Wim Thoelke. Retrieved September 30, 2017 .
  3. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Wim Thoelke
personal data
SURNAME Thoelke, Wim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thölke, Georg Heinrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1995
Place of death Niedernhausen