Sonndes interview: Mom Peter Kloeppel and mom Ulrike von der Groeben: “Then we’re off”

You know these two people

Ulrike von der Groeben, born Ulrike Elfes, began her career in Luxembourg in the mid-80s as an intern at German radio station RTL. After that, she went on air at the RTL Plus morning magazine “Guten Morgen Deutschland”. Since then, she still regularly visits the country with her colleagues.

Peter Kloeppel has been an RTL news anchor for 32 years. He started in 1985 in the Bonn studio and was the first American correspondent for the German private broadcaster in the early 1990s.

He served as editorial director there for ten years.

On 9/11, Peter Kloeppel gave nearly eight hours of live commentary on the news of the New York attacks on RTL.

The two met there

The two appeared together on the German RTL TV show and we have known them in front of the camera for decades.

These two RTL luminaries are as easy to impress as a binomial. They exude perfect harmony. And they are proud to emphasize that things run just as harmoniously behind the scenes.

It’s nice to be a very likeable contemporary. In the interview between the two, the ice was immediately broken after a “pleasant greetings from Luxembourg”. It was a conversation between colleagues, without forcing, without filtering.

They were pioneers in many ways.

This was always her lukewarm approach. They were the first journalists in Germany who did not stand stiffly behind a desk but stood lively in front of it.

Even so, they were often ahead of their time. Ulrike von der Groeben, for example, proved that even women could be trusted in sports broadcasting and sports journalism. Many other ladies on German channels have shown their gratitude and even cracked the sacrosanct territory of men’s football.

Peter Kloeppel was already fascinated by Ulrike in the 1980s, when her last name was still Elfes, a woman with football skills.

The place of journalism in a young, willing, but somewhat chaotic broadcaster was first and foremost a desire to be different and to convey fun. According to Peter Kloeppel, that place was found quickly because it was not questioned from the outset.

Television programs, no matter how entertaining they are, need news broadcasts. It is this combination of entertainment and information that is popular with audiences. They have a naughty side and a serious side. The concept took off.

Peter Kloepper says that the audience watching and following the two at home is a command for both and a confirmation that what they are doing and the way they are doing it is right. Ulrike von der Groeben welcomes the popularity of the two across generations of viewers in this context. Many grew up with the laboring couple in their carefree company.

Modern TV

With the new “competition” of the Internet and social media, the flow of information is becoming ever larger and faster. But this should also be seen as an opportunity, according to Ulrike von der Groeben. Many people are now overwhelmed to a certain extent by this flood of information, simply because they no longer have enough time in their everyday lives to absorb everything. For independent journalism, which does the work and research in the background, this is extremely important.

The line between information and opinion formation

This is important and it has to be so, says Peter Klopper. In a format like RTL-Aktuell, it is about providing information. The audience should make their own decisions. One should also always clearly distinguish between information and commentary.

Yet, there are now more and more topics that provoke black-and-white reactions, sometimes even outright hatred. How should journalists position themselves? The two immediately agreed that it is not up to journalists to decide their position. Their mission is to present information objectively and highlight different components and opinions. You don’t want to convey only black or white, but all the different shades of gray in between. And there are more of these grays. Black or white is mostly shown by those who think they have stolen the truth.

Neither Ulrike von der Groben nor Peter Klopper was prepared to pursue a career in journalism.