Former WDR director Fritz Pleitgen died last night in Cologne at the age of 84. WDR director Tom Buhrow praised Pleitgen as a highly respected broadcast manager, correspondent and political journalist who had a decisive influence on WDR.
Pleitgen reported as an ARD correspondent in the 1970s and 1980s from the Soviet Union, the GDR and the USA. He moderated the press club on television almost 300 times and, as WDR radio director, played a key role in the creation of 1LIVE and WDR 5. As a journalist, Fritz Pleitgen experienced historic moments in German and international history and interviewed the most powerful people in the world.