Roger Willemsen (15 August 1955 – 7 February 2016) was a German author, essayist and TV presenter.

Biography

Willemsen was born and passed his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. He studied

German philology German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

(Germanistik), philosophy and history of art in Bonn,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and was awarded a scholarship by the Evangelisches Studienwerk. He did his postgraduate studies on

Robert Musil Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, ''The Man Without Qualities'' (german: link=no, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften), is generally considered to be one of the most important ...

and received his PhD. He started his TV career in 1991 as head interviewer at ''0137'', a daily talkshow and signature programme at newly founded German pay-TV ''Premiere''. He performed about 1.000 interviews, including some with imprisoned members of the Red Army Faction, a fugitive bank robber, a leftover cosmonaut in space station MIR and a cannibal. He also interviewed

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...

Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...

Dame Edna Everage Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, th ...

and

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

. Driven by Willemsen, the show won numerous prestigious awards. Willemsen was praised for his intellect, charm and wit. 1994 Willemsen got his own show ''Willemsens Woche'' on public broadcaster

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

. In 2006 he ended his career in mass-TV. In 1999, he interviewed the German musician

Herbert Grönemeyer Herbert Arthur Wiglev Clamor Grönemeyer (born 12 April 1956) is a German singer, musician, producer, composer and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Grönemeyer starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Pete ...

for ''

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

'' after Grönemeyer's wife Anna had died of cancer. Willemsen wrote newspaper columns in ''

Zeit Magazin ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

'' and ''Die Woche.'' He authored about 50 books, many of them inspired by travelling such as ''Die Enden der Welt / The Ends of the Earth''. His last bestseller, published in 2014, is ''Das Hohe Haus: Ein Jahr im Parlament'', reflecting on a year sitting in meetings of the German parliament ''

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

''. He died of cancer on 7 February 2016, aged 60.Publizist und Moderator: Roger Willemsen ist tot
spiegel.de, access date February 8, 2016

Writings

* ''Robert Musil.'' Piper, München, Zürich 1985, * ''Deutschlandreise.'' Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2002, * ''Afghanische Reise.'' Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2006, * ''Momentum.'' Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2012, * ''Es war einmal oder nicht. Afghanische Kinder und ihre Welt''. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, * ''Das Hohe Haus: Ein Jahr im Parlament.'' Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2014, .

References

External links

* 1955 births 2016 deaths German philologists German television presenters German male writers Deaths from cancer in Germany ZDF people {{Germany-writer-stub