Dieter Stolte
Ex-ZDF director dies at the age of 89
Dieter Stolte has been working for ZDF since the 1960s.
© imago/Photopress Müller
Former ZDF director Dieter Stolte is dead. As his wife announced, he died on Sunday in a Berlin clinic at the age of 89.
The former ZDF director Prof. Dr. Dieter Stolte is dead. He died at the age of 89 on Sunday afternoon in a hospital in Berlin. His surviving widow Petra Stolte confirmed this to the “Bild” newspaper. “He fell asleep peacefully,” the paper quoted his wife as saying. According to the report, Stolte had been in poor health for several years. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was recently dependent on a walker.
From 1982 to 2002, Stolte was director of the Second German Television, for which he had worked since the 1960s. Stolte then edited the newspapers “Die Welt” and “Berliner Morgenpost” from 2002 to 2010 and was chairman of the supervisory board of “Ströer Media SE” until 2014. Born in Cologne, he studied philosophy, history and German in Tübingen and was professor of media theory and media practice at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg.
Former colleague Klaus Bresser: “We are deeply sad”
Former ZDF editor-in-chief Klaus Bresser, 87, told the “Bild” newspaper: “We are deeply sad. Dieter was a good friend to us and an outstanding director who always had the well-being of ZDF firmly in mind.” He demonstrated great skill in keeping politicians’ attempts to influence the station at bay at the time.