Dr Fritz Pleitgen

• Honorary Award Recipient of the DFL
• Former “Tagesschau” editor
• Former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the DFL Foundation

Dr Fritz Pleitgen, born in Duisburg in 1938, became the first Ehrenpreisträger (Honorary Award Recipient) of the DFL in 2007. Prior to this, the journalist had worked for the broadcasting corporation WDR since 1963 in posts including editor of the news programme Tagesschau, foreign correspondent in cities such as Brussels, Paris, the former East Berlin, Moscow and New York, TV editor in chief, director of radio and artistic director (1995–2007). Fritz Pleitgen was Chairman of ARD (2001–2002) and President of the European Broadcasting Union (2006–2008). Before going on to spend over 40 years at WDR, he started his career in the Bünde newsroom of the Bielefeld Freie Presse, where he completed a traineeship before being assigned various roles, including sports reporter.

Until the beginning of 2019, Fritz Pleitgen was Chairman of the DFL Foundation’s Board of Trustees (previously the Bundesliga Foundation), to which he later served as an honorary member. He was Managing Director of RUHR.2010 GmbH and organised Essen for the Ruhr’s year as a European Capital of Culture in 2010. Pleitgen was President of Stiftung Deutsche Krebshilfe (German Cancer Aid) from 2011 until 2021.

Fritz Pleitgen died in 2022 at the age of 84.

_{Photo: DFL Stiftung}