With Dieter Stolte, German television reached a historical dimension for the first time. From 1982 he served as ZDF director for twenty years. In the same year, Helmut Kohl became Chancellor and announced an “intellectual and moral turnaround”. Not much came of this change, but private television came to Germany. Stolte was particularly concerned about spiritual and moral issues and was therefore able to hold office for four years longer than Kohl. In 2002, on his descent from Lerchenberg, he fell Mirror on the fact that Stolte’s best odds-maker was “Wetten, dass…?” “patina has set in after 21 years”. Since then, another 21 years have passed, “Wetten, dass…?” was just running – at least under Thomas Gottschalk – for the very last time, and the average ZDF viewer (m/f/d) has aged from 56 to 65 years since Stolte’s departure.
Obituary for ZDF director Dieter Stolte: The television architect – media
