Claus Kleber

Claus Kleber covering Barack Obama's speech at the Victory Column in Berlin (July 2008)

Claus Kleber (born September 2, 1955 in Reutlingen, Germany) is a German journalist. He anchors heute journal, an evening news program on ZDF, one of Germany major public TV stations. He is also known for his expertise in United States politics and German-American relations, as evidenced by his 2005 book Amerikas Kreuzzüge ("America's crusades").

Career

Kleber started building his reputation during the 1980s as a Washington correspondent for Deutschlandfunk (DLF), a German public radio station.

In the spring of 1989, Kleber returned to Germany as chief editor of RIAS Berlin, the city’s most influential radio station. There, he was on location for the fall of the Berlin Wall, and brought eyewitness accounts of the crumbling Soviet Empire to Germany.

In 1990, Kleber returned to Washington as a senior correspondent and bureau chief for ARD, one of the two nationwide German public television networks (the other being ZDF, where he currently works). There, he spent twelve years to setting high standards in international reporting and consequently gained a reputation as one of his country’s most influential foreign policy journalists. He has reported from all fifty states in the US, and he has covered, met and interviewed every American president since Ronald Reagan as well as the most influential members of the George W. Bush administration, including President Bush himself as well as secretaries Condoleezza Rice,[1] Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell.

In 2001, Kleber moved to London as ARD bureau chief. Only a few months into the new job, he received an offer from ZDF (Germany's other major public network) to become managing editor and principal anchor of "Heute Journal", one of Germany's leading television news programs.

Kleber is also a documentary filmmaker, and with his long-standing professional partner, Angela Andersen, he has made many films, including the award-winning America, Almighty (2003), Peoples of the Orient (2003), Minefield Afghanistan (2004), India – Unstoppable (2006),[2] and The Bomb (2009).[3]

Awards and books

Claus Kleber is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Media prize of the Johanna Quandt Foundation (1998) for excellence in economic reporting, the RIAS Berlin committee TV prize (1997, 1999 and 2003), and the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (the German equivalent of the American Emmy) in 2005 and 2006. His best-selling book Amerikas Kreuzzüge ("America's crusades") won the 2005 Corine Literature Prize for best non-fiction work. Shortly before the 2008 presidential election, Kleber published an updated edition with his views on the candidates.

Education & Family

Kleber has a doctorate in Law and Political Science from Tübingen University. He is an alumnus of Studienstiftung and DAAD. Kleber is married to Renate Kleber, a physician. They have two daughters, 20 and 18 years old, and the family lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Bibliography

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References