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Of course, on Jan Hofer's last working day on Monday, December 14th, it will be about Corona again, that can already be foreseen.

The outgoing chief spokesman for the “Tagesschau” is unlikely to have experienced such a dominant topic in his long career.

At least he could benefit a little from it: During the contact restrictions, there was more time to be with his wife and young son Henry.

And because he enjoyed the time so much, Hofer apparently felt encouraged in his long-open decision to retire.

Karl-Heinz Köpcke, Werner Veigel, Dagmar Berghoff, Jo Brauner and, for more than 16 years, Jan Hofer: The list of chief speakers for the leading German news program is short, despite its long history, there were no real breaks in the program.

It is only logical that from now on Jens Riewa will take over the executive role - in the coming year Riewa will be with the “Tagesschau” for 30 years.

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Jan Hofer in turn even comes to 35 years, with which he spent about half of his life on the news broadcast of the ARD.

Although it is not possible to say exactly when Hofer was born: January 31st is probably his birthday, the year of birth varies between 1950, 1951 and 1952. Hofer, who comes from Wesel on the Lower Rhine, does not provide any information about the exact age.

Jan Hofer's passion: classic cars

The age puzzle is one of the little flirtatious habits that Hofer allows himself, and vintage cars are also his somewhat extroverted passion.

Otherwise he knows about his special position through his role as one of the most famous news faces.

"First of all, you are subject to a large, public social control," he told the "Hamburger Abendblatt".

In addition, a broad cross is necessary because a “Tagesschau” spokesman is never seen as an independent person.

"If someone rejects the ARD or the 'Tagesschau', they will also reject you as a speaker." He used to have sleepless nights because of audience reactions.

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Hofer started out as a moderator in Saarland.

There he played music as a disc jockey and was a presenter at Saarländischer Rundfunk, sponsored by the "Hit Parade" legend Dieter Thomas Heck.

After his apprenticeship with Saarländischer Rundfunk, he joined the “Tagesschau” in 1985 and rose almost 20 years later to become chief speaker.

Because of this job, he lives in the Hamburg district of Lokstedt, where the “Tagesschau” is also based and where he can therefore be in the studio extremely quickly.

"Once my colleagues called at five to twelve and at five past twelve I was in the studio - that's the job."

In addition to the “Tagesschau”, something else deserves

He had the "salary of a well-paid employee" in his job.

In the podcast “Decision makers meet Haider” of the “Hamburger Abendblatt” it became even more clear shortly before his retirement: You are paid per episode.

The highest fee is for the 8 pm show: "It is around 260 euros".

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The remaining broadcasts would be paid less, however.

Therefore, it could be that for six hours of effort you only get a fee of 300 euros.

"All in all," summarized Hofer, "you can live properly on the income as a" Tagesschau "spokesman, you can't get rich."

In addition, Hofer was able to earn something from other moderations, on television he did this from around 1992 to 2012 as host in the talk show "Riverboat".

The fact that he once joked after a live broadcast - with a microphone that was accidentally still active - that he had to drive the money home in his car was not really taken against him by his fans.

He does not want to go into full retirement yet, as he said to the "Hamburger Abendblatt".

He is talking to his management about whether he should do his own podcast.

From the coming week, however, things should be much quieter for him.

Hofer, who has three grown children from his first marriage, wants to spend time with his five-year-old fourth child Henry and his wife Phong Lan.

Although he was absolutely fit physically and in the head, but purely biologically not the youngest, Hofer told the "Bild am Sonntag" a few weeks ago.

"And that's why I want to spend the time that I have left with my family without compromising and enjoy every moment."