Fritz Pleitgen

Fritz Pleitgen (1938–2022) was a German journalist and broadcasting executive. He began his career in 1952 as a freelance contributor to the newspaper Freie Presse and joined WDR in 1963. From 1970 onward, he worked as an ARD television correspondent, including seven years in Moscow and later assignments in East Berlin, Washington, and New York. He returned to WDR in Cologne in 1988, becoming head of television news and current affairs. He served as WDR radio director from 1994 to 1995 and as director-general of Westdeutscher Rundfunk from 1995 to 2007. From 2011 to 2021, Pleitgen was president of the German Cancer Aid.