The long-time ARD correspondent and reporter Gerd Ruge is dead. He died on Friday at the age of 93 in Munich, as announced by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Ruge reported for many years as a correspondent from countries such as Russia and the USA. He was considered a reporter legend.
The ARD chairman and WDR director Tom Buhrow announced: “Gerd Ruge was one of the great reporter personalities of the first hour. Profound analyzes, precise interviews and the ability to explain complex relationships in an easily understandable manner – that made him stand out.” He was a valuable contemporary witness of important political events at home and abroad. “His numerous foreign reports and travel reports will remain unforgettable. The audience loved him for that,” added Buhrow. For many subsequent generations of journalists, he was a role model and orientation.
If the reporter Gerd Ruge – here in Moscow in 1992 – wanted to get people to talk anywhere in the world, then sometimes the rather open question was enough for him: “And?”
Image: imago / teutopress
Today, when you can reach almost any place in the world within a foreseeable number of flight hours and broadcast from there, much of Ruge’s early life as a reporter looks like something from a very distant past.
Image: imago / teutopress
For a long time it was said that when Ruge appears on the telly, it is important. He was a mediator between the big world out there and the comparatively small Germany.
Image: imago / teutopress
Ruge was born on August 9, 1928 in Hamburg. His professional career is mainly shaped by his work for ARD. The WDR journalist worked in various positions for public broadcasters. A few stations: in the 1950s he went to Moscow as an ARD correspondent, and in the 1960s he worked in the USA. In the early 1970s, the ARD chief correspondent took over the management of the WDR studio in Bonn.
Ruge headed the political magazine “Monitor”, founded and headed the “Weltspiegel” and was editor-in-chief at WDR television for two years. For the daily newspaper The world he worked in China for a few years in the 1970s, after which he worked again for ARD.
On the occasion of his death, the WDR broadcasts the long Gerd Ruge Night this Saturday at 9.45 pm with “Around the World in 80 Years” and the report “Gerd Ruge on the move – Summer on the Colorado”.