Former TV presenter: entertainer Alfred Biolek has died

Former television presenter Alfred Biolek has died at the age of 87. He is considered one of the pioneers of talk and cooking shows in Germany. After a serious fall, he had recently lived quite withdrawn.

Biolek is considered one of the pioneers of talk and cooking shows in Germany. He was closely associated with the WDR. With Rudi Carrell, for example, he developed the Saturday evening show “Amlauf Band”, the most successful show of the 1970s. At the same time, he gained his first experience of moderation in the “Kölner Treff” and got his own program in 1978, “Bio’s Bahnhof”: A mixture of play, dance and conversation – all in a closed train depot. After that he was constantly present on German television for 30 years.

“I have always viewed my guests as people”

The son of a lawyer, Biolek, was born in 1934 in Freistadt, which is now in the Czech Republic. After the war, the family fled to the west. Like his father, Biolek studied law and obtained a doctorate in law. He started as legal advisor at the newly founded ZDF in 1963, but soon after switched to the editorial office.

His era only ended in 2007 with the last episode of the cooking show “alfredissimo!”, In which he stood at the stove with guests, chatted and tasted wine for many years. “I’m happy that I was able to do programs that were so active, that were so positive,” said Biolek in 2018 in the “Kölner Treff”. “I’ve always viewed my guests as people.”

In 2010, he suffered severe skull injuries when he fell off a spiral staircase and was temporarily comatose. Since then he had lived quite withdrawn in Cologne.