A big voice on German sports television falls silent: ZDF mourns the loss of its former sports director Wolf-Dieter Poschmann.
The multiple TV journalist of the year died last Friday at the age of 70 - according to ZDF "after a short, serious illness".
"He conveyed many great sporting moments to the viewers in a vivid, competent and passionate way for the athletes' performance," said ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey in a tribute on Monday.
"For over 30 years he was one of the defining faces and one of the memorable voices in many sports programs in the Second."
Poschmann, athlete before his TV career and once even runner-up in the German marathon championship, started working for ZDF in 1986, initially as an intern, then as a freelancer. In 1993 he became a sports editor, two years later head of the sports department. After ten years in this role, he moved to the position of chief reporter in the main sports department. He retired after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Poschmann is particularly known to millions of viewers as the face of the “current sports studio”, which he moderated from 1994 to 2011. He presented the "sports report" from 1990 to 1995. With his voice, Wolf-Dieter Poschmann gave numerous memorable scenes at the Olympic Games, major soccer tournaments and countless athletics competitions the appropriate sound - as well as computer games: This is how he commented on the series FIFA with.