When Hans Meiser called the kidnapper Dieter Degowski live
He spoke on the phone with one of the hostage-takers in Gladbeck, was a newsman and presented "Notruf": But Hans Meiser became a television legend as the father of the daily talk show. It was impossible to imagine the afternoon program of the 90s without him. Now the journalist and presenter has died at the age of 77. The radio station Wellenrausch, which he co-founded, announced in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, that Meiser had unexpectedly succumbed to heart failure. The station paid tribute to Meiser as a "great man" whose achievements would "never be forgotten". "Thank you Hans. Thank you for everything," the statement continued.
Meiser was born on August 20, 1946 in Bad Rothenfelde, Lower Saxony. His career began where it ended: on the radio. He initially worked at Südwestfunk in Baden-Baden. In 1971, Meiser moved to Radio Luxembourg as news editor, where he developed a European magazine program. He also presented the entertainment program "Hans im Glück". From then on, things went uphill for Meiser, who soon acquired a reputation as a workaholic. As early as 1984, he became one of the main people responsible for developing programs for the new channel RTL Plus, the forerunner of RTL. Following the example of US news formats, he presented the RTL news as an anchorman.
"Well, who do you think? The bank robber"
His most controversial interview also dates from this time. When the Gladbeck hostage drama was just beginning in August 1988, Meiser called the bank branch where the two main perpetrators were holding two employees hostage. "Who are you, please?" Meiser asked politely when the phone was picked up. "Well, who do you think? The bank robber," replied the hostage-taker Dieter Degowski. Meiser received a lot of criticism afterwards for the call, which lasted only a few seconds.
Nevertheless, he made his final breakthrough shortly afterwards. In 1992, he first took over the moderation of the rescue program "Notruf" and then got his own afternoon talk show "Hans Meiser". Both formats developed into ratings hits. Meiser talked to "little people" about even bigger topics. His show featured self-confessed Scientologists, relatives of alcoholics and people who believed they could talk to the dead. Meiser's guests came from all sections of society. They earned their money as electricians, pastors or psychotherapists.
At the time, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" attested that Meiser sometimes revealed more about German reality "than in well-intentioned social reportages". Meiser and his team received a Golden Camera and a Bambi, among other awards, for the program. Towards the end of the millennium, Meiser had to cope with a severe drop in ratings. In 1998, he lost around 660,000 viewers within a year. The broadcaster reacted and pulled the ripcord in 2001. Meiser appeared live for the last time on January 17, 2001. Then it was over - after 1700 talks and around 14,000 guests. After a few less successful shows in the following years, RTL did not renew its contract with Meiser in 2010.
Collaboration with conspiracy ideology portal
After 2010, the father of two daughters and a son was only occasionally seen on television. From 2015, he played an angry citizen on "Neo Magazin Royale" with Jan Böhmermann. However, the production company ended its collaboration with Meiser in 2017 when it became known that he was working for a conspiracy ideology portal. Meiser denied conspiracy allegations.
After that, things became quieter around him. He found new happiness in his private life: as he told the Bild newspaper in 2019, he had recently married his third wife Angelika and moved to the Baltic Sea with her. But he didn't want to be a pensioner. Instead, he was "passionate about building up our station from day one", as Radio Wellenrausch reported. "I would love to do radio again," Meiser told the portal t-online in 2020. This will no longer happen. The new station only officially launched a week ago. Now he has had to announce the death of this "great man".
Despite his controversies, Hans Meiser's afternoon talk show on RTL continued to attract viewers, featuring guests from various backgrounds discussing a range of topics, including those who claimed to communicate with the dead. This led to RTL's news magazine, "RTL aktuell," incorporating an "entertainment segment" dedicated to paranormal topics.
Following Meiser's passing, RTL paid tribute to him, acknowledging his impact on German TV and describing him as a "pioneer in bringing such topics into the mainstream of German television entertainment."
Source: www.ntv.de
