The ZDF cultural journalist Volker Panzer is dead. The longtime director of the show “nachtstudio” died in Berlin at the age of 73.
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Volker Panzer is said to have died on Thursday, like that ZDF now announced in a press release. No information has yet been given on the cause of death.
“He appreciated the cross-border discourse on everything”
The station’s head of culture, Anne Reidt, said according to the announcement: “Volker Panzer valued the cross-border discourse about everything, and the ‘night studio’ was the dazzling alternative he invented for lateral thinkers of all stripes.”
Volker Panzer was born in Schaffhausen in Saarland. He studied sociology, literary studies and education in Frankfurt and took his state examination in Mainz.
According to the broadcaster, he had been with ZDF since 1977, initially as a freelance journalist. In 1989 he became editor of the oldest German cultural magazine “aspekte”. “During this time, he was particularly committed to protecting historical monuments,” it said.
From 1994 to 1997 the cultural journalist headed the ZDF editorial team “History and Society”. From 1997 until his retirement in 2012 he was the leader and moderator of the “Nachtstudio” conversation format he developed. At the beginning of 2013 his book “Happiness is something very small – Conversations with Volker Panzer” was published.
