Longtime ZDF director Dieter Stolte is dead
Dieter Stolte was at the helm of ZDF for 20 years. Until he relinquished his post in 2002, numerous successful formats were produced under his aegis. As an advocate of the public broadcasters, he armed the channel against the new competition from private television. Now the former director has died.
Former ZDF director Dieter Stolte is dead. He died in Berlin on Sunday at the age of 89, the public broadcaster announced. Stolte was at the helm of ZDF from 1982 to 2002. Director General Norbert Himmler paid tribute to him as a staunch advocate of the public broadcasting system. "For Dieter Stolte, television was not only a reporter, but also the motor of German unity," Himmler was quoted as saying in the press release.
With the accession of the new federal states to the ZDF State Treaty in 1990, ZDF was given a nationwide program mandate as a national broadcaster. According to ZDF, many of the station's major program brands such as "Terra X", "The TV Movie of the Week" and the "Saturday Thriller" were launched during Stolte's time in office. The "ZDF-Mittagsmagazin" was launched in 1989, followed by the "ZDF-Morgenmagazin" in 1992.
"Dieter Stolte built ZDF into a modern, competitive media company," said Himmler. "3sat, Arte, KiKa, Phoenix, ZDF's first digital channels - all of this happened during his four terms in office." Former ZDF editor-in-chief Klaus Bresser told Bild: "Dieter was a good friend and an outstanding director who always had ZDF's well-being firmly in mind." Under his aegis, public broadcaster ZDF had to prepare itself for the new competition from private television - and had to decide on the first drastic cost-cutting measures due to a dramatic fall in advertising revenue.
Stolte was born in Cologne in 1934 and joined ZDF in 1962 as personal assistant to the founding director Karl Holzamer. In 1967, he reportedly became head of the newly created program planning department. In 1976, he took up the post of program director. In 2002, Stolte handed over his post to Markus Schächter.
Read also:
- Snow chaos further restricts Bavaria
- Unanimous decision: faster wolf culls possible
- The year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Snow and ice paralyze southern Germany
The death of former ZDF director Dieter Stolte was announced on Sunday. During his tenure from 1982 to 2002, ZDF expanded its programming with major brands like "Terra X" and "The TV Movie of the Week", becoming a modern and competitive media company on the international stage.
Source: www.ntv.de
