Klaus Bednarz – On the death of the journalist Klaus Bednarz – Frankfurter Rundschau

April 15, 2015

Klaus Bednarz in the “Monitor” studio, 2000. 72-year-old journalist who is now deceased. Photo: AP

There were golden times: A tribute to the reporters, correspondents and TV host Klaus Bednarz, who died at the age of 72 years

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Klaus Bednarz was an institution. He was the face and voice of a critical and engaged journalism, a leading figure of the WDR in particular and the public service broadcasting in general. A television journalist like it does not exist any more today.

because gone are the days when one drew attention to himself with a magazine such as “Monitor” week after week. The show was seen by those who appreciated the critical reporting, and of those who once again wanted to get excited about tone and theme itself. In this regard, the left tends to “monitor” show was like the right decision “ZDF magazine” under Gerhard Lowenthal -. The polarized indeed decided sharper

It was the golden age of television Magazinismus that has helped shape Klaus Bednarz 1983-2001 with passion. Any attempt to touch on budget or broadcasting time, Bednarz countered with all publicly vorgetragenem contradiction to which he was capable. And he was able to some. What also his colleagues knew to report on the editorial board, which he demanded much as it is called. For the bite, the magazine had under his leadership had to work hard. There were certainly more convenient than managing editor him.

As the public trusts with the performances of the moderator was, can also be ascertained make is that they gave rise to some parody. Was on the Bednarz himself laughing. Because somehow striking his presentations were all square – the slightly tilted head, the tinkling of the eyelashes, the staccato of his presentation, the sweater. Supple saw all this is not enough.

But that was not him, what mattered was the next instance of maladministration, the aim was to denounce. Before the “Monitor” phase had Bednarz, born in 1942 in Falkensee near Berlin, reported for ARD from the communist East. He was the first television correspondent for the ARD in Warsaw (1971-1977). When he began there, he once said in an interview that they had still felt the burden of the war: “My former wife and I have avoided after a short time to speak German in public.” Then: “But it is precisely those who had suffered the most, so Polish Jews and resistance fighters are approached me and have built my bridges. That impressed me deeply “

. The” Sports Show “he would have liked moderated

Then he reported from Moscow (1977-1982), where he had once studied for a while. Towards the end of his Soviet service sought the WDR a successor to Ernst Huberty in the sports editorial staff. Bednarz raised his finger. But Friedrich Wilhelm von Sell, the then director, this thought was a joke. This Bednarz had meant the application seriously. So followed in his career just “monitor” instead of “Sports Show”.

For his travelogues, he returned several times back to Eastern Europe, especially since the end of the occupation years, and not least to Lake Baikal. These reports turned their attention not only on the political situation, but also to the cultural riches of the region

Because that was also Bednarz -. A man who loved the books and the theater. With a dissertation on the Russian writer Anton Chekhov in 1966 he received his PhD at the University of Vienna. He was also interlocutor of Heinrich Böll and Lev Kopelew that impressed him with spirit and attitude.

Bednarz was one of the best minds of the WDR, grew up there at a time when the order to education and information was taken more seriously than it is today. And as the Cologne-based broadcaster within the ARD still set the tone. What Bednarz also had his share. Relevant prizes were for it in large numbers. Now Klaus Bednarz has died after a long illness, on Tuesday at the age of 72 years in Schwerin.