Claus-Detlev Walter Kleber (born September 2, 1955) is a German journalist and former lawyer. He anchored the heute-journal, an evening news program on ZDF, one of Germany's two major public television stations. He is also known for his reporting on U.S. politics and German-American relations, themes explored in his 2005 bestseller, Amerikas Kreuzzüge ("America's Crusades").
Claus Kleber was born in Reutlingen, Germany.[1] He attended Otto Hahn Gymnasium in Bergisch Gladbach, completing his Abitur in 1974. During his schooling, Kleber freelanced as a local reporter for the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. From 1974, he studied law at the University of Tübingen, where he spent two semesters abroad, in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1978 and 1979. In the autumn of 1980, Kleber passed his first Staatsexamen in law. This was followed by further training in Stuttgart. In 1983, he completed his second Staatsexamen, and then undertook extended dissertation research stays in New York City and Washington, D.C. He received scholarships from Studienstiftung and DAAD for this research. Afterwards, he worked as a lawyer for a law firm in Stuttgart, specializing in commercial law and competition law. In 1986, he completed his PhD in law under Thomas Oppermann at the University of Tübingen.[2]
Kleber financed his 14 semesters of law studies by freelancing as a radio reporter and anchor for a public broadcasting service. After completing his PhD, Kleber became a journalist. During the 1980s, he worked as the Washington correspondent for Deutschlandfunk (DLF), a German public broadcaster. In the spring of 1989, Kleber returned to Germany as Chief Editor of RIAS, a broadcaster in Berlin under the control of the United States Information Agency.
From 1990, he worked for 12 years as Senior Correspondent and Bureau Chief for ARD, one of the two nationwide German public television networks.[3] He conducted interviews with all U.S. Presidents of that period,[4] as well as Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell. In June 2002, Kleber moved to London as ARD Bureau Chief.[5]
A few months after starting the new job, he became managing editor and principal anchor of heute journal, the 30-minute late-evening news show of ZDF, the other major public television channel in Germany.[6] In 2014, he interviewed U.S. President Barack Obama.[7] In June 2021, he announced his departure from ZDF at the end of the year.[8]
Documentaries
Kleber is also a documentary filmmaker. With his long-standing professional partner, Angela Andersen, he has created documentary films, including India – Unstoppable (2006) for the DVD market.[9]
They later also made documentaries for broadcasting, such as The Bomb (2009), about nuclear threats in the 21st century,[10]Machtfaktor Erde (2011) on climate change, HUNGER! and DURST! (Thirst), a two-part documentary (2014) that explored the global challenge and efforts to feed 10 billion people by 2050.[11]
In 2017, their 90-minute report on human rights, 'Unantastbar' ('Inviolable'), won the Silver Award at the New York Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Monaco Film Festival.[12]
In 2021, ZDF aired "We have the better story," a 40-minute conversation between Kleber and U.S. President Barack Obama discussing his achievements and shortcomings.[13]
Books
Kleber's book Amerikas Kreuzzüge ('America's Crusades') won the 2005 Corine Literature Prize for Best Non-Fiction.[14] Shortly before the 2008 presidential election, Kleber published an updated edition reflecting developments and candidates. In 2012, Kleber published Spielball Erde about the global strategic consequences of Climate Change.
Further information
Since 2015, Claus Kleber has been an Honorary Professor at his alma mater, the University of Tübingen.[15] He is a member of Atlantik-Brücke, an organization promoting cultural, economic, and military cooperation between Germany and the United States.[16]
Recognition
Kleber is the recipient of several awards, including the Media prize of the Johanna Quandt Foundation (1998) for economic reporting,[17] the RIAS TV prize (1997, 1999 and 2003), and the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (the German equivalent of the American Emmy) in 2005,[18] 2006 and 2013[19] (heute journal as best German news program). Claus Kleber and his ZDF partner anchor Marietta Slomka, were awarded the Grimme Prize in 2009 for their merits in the evolution of television.[20] In 2010, he won the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award for Outstanding Journalism.[21] His documentary work on global challenges (with Angela Andersen) received the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for The Bomb in 2009[22] and the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis for HUNGER! DURST! in 2015.[23] In a 2018 survey conducted by Forsa Institute, he was voted Germany's most trusted news presenter.[24]
1998: Preis der RIAS Berlin Kommission für die Fernsehproduktion Pioneer Square (ARD-Studio Washington zusammen mit Tom Buhrow, Sabine Reifenberg)
1999: Fernsehpreis der RIAS Berlin Kommission für die Produktion Oh Gott, Amerika! Glaube, Seelen, Scharlatane (ARD-Studio Washington zusammen mit Tom Buhrow, Georg Kellermann, Sabine Reifenberg)
2004: Fernsehpreis der RIAS Berlin Kommission für die Produktion Allmacht Amerika. Die Welt im Griff (ZDF, zusammen mit der Filmemacherin Angela Andersen)
2005: Corine, internationaler Literaturpreis für das Buch Amerikas Kreuzzüge – Was die Weltmacht treibt
2006: Carl-Schurz-Plakette der State Legislative Leaders Foundation
2013: Goldene Kamera (Beste Information – Bester Anchorman)
2013: Karl-Carstens-Preis des Freundeskreis der Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik e.V.
2015: Bayerischer Fernsehpreis zusammen mit Angela Andersen als Autoren der zweiteiligen Dokumentation Hunger! Durst! (ZDF)
2017: Schöne Neue Welt – Wie Silicon Valley unsere Zukunft bestimmt, Silver World Medal. New York Film Festival 2017, nominiert „Beste Dokumentation“ beim TV Festival Monte Carlo, Special Selection „Science Film Festival“
Kleber, Claus and Paskal, Cleo (2012). Spielball Erde. Machtkämpfe im Klimawandel. (in German) (original ed.). München: C. Bertelsmann Verlag. ISBN978-3-570-10134-6.[25]
↑ "Wirtschaftsministerium Bayern"(PDF). Wirtschaftsministerium Bayern. Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft und Medien, Energie und Technologie. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
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