Departures of note

Klaus Bresser was a German journalist and television presenter who shaped the news programming of the public broadcaster ZDF for more than two decades. Born in Berlin, he trained at the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, where he became chief reporter, before moving to television at WDR, where he led the editorial team of the investigative magazine Monitor. In 1977 he joined ZDF, where he helped conceive, lead and anchor the late-evening news program heute-journal, which premiered in January 1978 as the channel's counterpart to the ARD's Tagesthemen.

From 1988 to 2000 Bresser served as editor-in-chief of ZDF, a period in which the channel introduced formats such as the ZDF-Morgenmagazin, Bonn direkt, ZDF spezial and the investigative program frontal, and expanded heute-journal to a half-hour daily broadcast. He also established the political interview series Was nun, ...? and hosted the Sunday talk format Sonntagsgespräch. He was known for his advocacy of public-service journalism and his criticism of the blurring of information and entertainment in commercial television.

After leaving ZDF, Bresser hosted the n-tv talk show Talk in Berlin and wrote books and essays on journalism, media ethics and politics. He received awards including the Theodor Wolff Prize, the Goldene Kamera and the Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate. He died in Berlin in October 2026 at the age of 90.