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In the end, it was a theatrical gesture, executed with graceful ease, with which the oldest news anchor said goodbye after 35 years at the »Tagesschau«. As he spoke, he took off his pink tie.
The »Tagesschau« has been on television for decades, it has been the ringing of church bells for centuries. Cesura and threshold of the afternoon, when the work of the day is done.
Few institutions are so little affected by the passage of time as the program that reports on the passage of time. Its real element is constancy, as embodied by Hofer. In 1985 he came to the »Tagesschau« from Saarländischer Rundfunk, when he was 33 years old.
Initially, Hofer was considered a “confirming”
Werner Veigel had discovered it, in the circle of veterans Karl-Heinz Köpke, Dagmar Berghoff or Jo Brauner, whom he was supposed to replace as main spokesperson in 2004, Hofer was considered a “person of confirmation” at that time. It reported on Boris Becker’s victory at Wimbledon in 1985, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Ideally, the newscaster provides the clear water of pure news. No opinion, neither as a raised eyebrow nor as a clouding of the voice. You are not allowed to comment. Basically it has to be a white sheet of paper labeled with what’s happening for a quarter of an hour every night starting at 8pm, only to be blank and blank the next day.
The institution stands or falls with its integrity and neutrality. Anyone who wants to go higher or is looking for other compromises on the sidelines is basically out of place. Hofer satirized at a young age, commented on the Eurovision Song Contest, and directed talk shows; the presidential aura of the “Tagesschau” spokesperson was not affected.
Service provider, not a star
Secondary employment is an employee’s additional income, nothing more. The spokesperson for the »Tagesschau« is a service provider, not a star. There is no emotion. And if so, they have to be painstakingly manufactured. Hofer once wore a light blue tie, the color of South Americans, before a soccer match between Argentina and Germany.
Only in 2019 did the microphone accidentally stay on after a broadcast, so that one could hear a conversation between Claus-Erich Boetzkes and Hofer. After joking about the colossal sums of money newscasters make, Hofer whispers that the day before yesterday he received an appreciation of his real estate from the bank. Now “they’re worth three times as much,” he whispers. It sounds like a sketch.
Boetzkes: »And? Why do you keep working here, friend? Why? Hofer: “I don’t know either” – “Just because you’re having fun!” – “Yes, there is something in that …”
He began his last show (“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen”) with a smile that was perhaps a little more intense than usual. After daily hard lockdown work, Steinmeier, 16,362 new infections, countdown to Christmas business, retail, school closings, first Vaccines in US and Canada, independent CDU candidate, Biden, Navalny, soccer and handball : he himself made the news for almost a minute before the weather.
Jens Riewa explained that “an era is coming to an end on German television today” and presented a humorous compilation of the last 35 years. NDR Director Joachim Knuth praised the game as a “reliable partner.” Presumably he was actually a classic, one of the last of his kind, characterless, a everyone reliably mistaken for the charm of an incorruptible employee of the fourth estate.
He took off his tie like a burden. He also seemed to have enjoyed it.
