Claus Kleber will host the “heute journal” on ZDF for the last time on December 30th. In an interview, the 66-year-old revealed who he would have liked to interview and what he thinks about when he looks into the camera.
Millions of ZDF “heute journal” viewers have to get used to: Moderator Claus Kleber stops one day before New Year’s Eve after many years. In an interview with the German Press Agency, the 66-year-old tells what he thinks of earlier interviews with Olaf Scholz, why he never wanted to say “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen” and why he will soon have some additional suits in his closet.
Are you jittery about the last broadcast?
That sounds so final, “the last one”! I want to try to stay cool, but I probably won’t be able to do it. To date, I’ve managed to suppress the topic quite well. But at some point I will realize that this happy chapter of my professional life and my life in general is over. I have to deal with that moment. Hopefully not with the camera fully aimed at me.
Is there a break now?
First of all, I’ll be happy about the huge gift I’m getting: More than 160 evenings a year that are suddenly free. That’s a hefty number. I want to get to know the phenomenon that everyone talks about so much – social life, friendships – I’ll try things like that.
Will you continue to work as a journalist?
Yes. What should definitely go on are the documentaries, which were close to my heart from the start. Because I got to know the world. Not like a tourist, but like a person immersed in everyday life. I always squeezed the stories into the calendar, even if I didn’t have time for them at all. Hopefully it will be different, easier.
Are those documentaries for ZDF then?
If ZDF wants them, sure. Over the years, the big, unwieldy topics have become a kind of specialty for my fellow writer Angela Andersen and me: atomic bombs, world food, climate change, digital revolution, human rights. Stories that played all over the world. Always very complex. Maybe we can find something else.
Are you actually approached on the street?
Yes, all the time. On the street or in shops the topic is always that I will soon stop with the “journal”. That gives a sting every time. But the comments are almost always appreciative and friendly. Occasionally there is also criticism, mostly constructive and taken seriously. What we find in so-called “social media” and also in the post often sounds different.
What do you attribute to the fact that there is sometimes harsh criticism of public service broadcasting on the internet?
We’re just privileged. The media market has become tougher and competition has become more aggressive. We are still armed with enough money and technical resources to do our job. Others struggle for it every day. The media journalists who accompany us critically also experience how their editorial offices are shrinking, their options are reducing, working conditions are tougher and rested pieces are becoming more difficult. I think it’s okay that we’ve been scrutinized more and more closely in recent years. We have to endure this tougher test.
Have interviews with politicians become more difficult?
I don’t know if more difficult is the right word. This demeanor of not answering and evading questions, driven by so-called media consultants, is spreading more and more. Probably by now they are all getting some kind of training from the same school of thought that persuades them: If you avoided the question, then you have won. But that’s nonsense. The audience: inside notice this very clearly and are out of tune. But there is also renewal. For example, someone like Robert Habeck is interested in the questions you ask and tries to answer them. He doesn’t always have a really convincing answer, but he engages in the conversation. Not only do I, as a journalist, enjoy talking to someone who works like him. The viewers also like it better because they feel that their representative, the questioning journalist, is being treated better by this politician.
How were your interviews with Olaf Scholz, who is now Federal Chancellor?
This is one who barely takes notice of the question. He waits until the interviewer stops talking and then rewinds his standard.
Who have you always wanted to interview?
I tried in vain for the Pope. And Fidel Castro died before I had the chance.
Wouldn’t you have secretly liked to become editor-in-chief of “Spiegel”? You had canceled your job at the last second.
I have had the conversations with the “Spiegel” very seriously and I was two centimeters away from the signature. The contract was ready. Then ZDF made it practically impossible for me to leave. With a really good offer. I don’t mean my salary now. That was done in three minutes. Offer, accepted, done. It was about the future of “heute journal”: broadcast times, staff, rules of the game. That worked. I think we both, ZDF and I, haven’t regretted it. I had actually already decided on the “Spiegel”.
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When you look into the camera and talk to millions, what do you think?
There is one thing I really never think of: that there are millions behind the lens. I have my co-moderator Gundula Gause next to me, three cameramen, a unit manager and some technology colleagues around me. Basically, in that moment, I am talking to those who are in the room with me. That’s why I never said “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen”. I wouldn’t say that to you in the living room either. I say, dear, “Good evening, something interesting happened today, in Berlin.” This is not a minor matter. This influences your own attitude beyond the greeting. At the beginning there were mail from people who accused me of not even having the courtesy to say “Ladies and Gentlemen”. In the meantime they have calmed down.
In the closing credits of “heute journal” you can always see that you are talking to your co-moderator. Are you talking about the show?
Most of the time yes. It has also happened that we have amused ourselves at still standing in the shop window, although we have nothing more to say: “Well, now everyone will be wondering again what we are talking about.” Most of the time, however, pent-up tension is discharged. There are still things in the air before each broadcast. Some contributions only come in after the broadcast has already started. Then relief spreads: “Man, the piece from Munich turned out really great in spite of everything” or: “Oh my God, the piece from anyway was just as confused as we had feared it.” We and our teams have just struggled for a half-hour program for a whole day and evening. And we’re already twenty-three and a half hours away from the next deadline. It’s almost always about that.
What is your ritual after the show?
There used to be the “corridor scolding” when there was still star cult around the moderators in the house. The team gathered and the moderators shouted what kind of shit had happened again that had prevented them from shining even more than they were already. That’s roughly what I’m told about, from the wild old days. In the meantime it’s more of a “floor petting”. We console ourselves when things have not worked out. We say what needs to be better next time. But there is a conciliatory after-work spirit. Then you go home and have another glass. In my case: a sip of single malt whiskey and a piece of dark chocolate.
What happens to Claus Kleber’s ZDF cloakroom?
I am allowed to buy the suits that ZDF has made available at a sale price. I’ll take a few of these with me. I think I’ve had the same nine suits for many years. Half will be enough.
Like visiting an outlet …
Something like that. But second hand. There are familiar things that are still to some extent. Besides, who else would want them?