Gerd Ruge is a German journalist, author and filmmaker.

Life and work

Ruge's career in journalism began at NWDR

Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk

Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Länder of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September 1945 until 31 December 1955. Until 1954, it was also responsible for broadcasting in West Berlin...

, concentrating on radio reporting from abroad. In 1950, he was the first West German journalist to report from Yugoslavia since the end of the Second World War.

Ruge was the first news correspondent for the German national television broadcaster ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 from 1956 until 1959, served as the ARD correspondent in the United States between 1964 and 1969, becoming the chief political correspondent for ARD in 1970.

From 1973 until 1976 he reported for the newspaper Die Welt

Die Welt

Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...

from Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. He subsequently worked for ARD and WDR in various functions, including as head of the ARD Studios in Moscow from 1987 until 1993. Ruge retired from ARD in September 1993.

In 1961, Ruge, together with Felix Rexhausen

Felix Rexhausen

Felix Rexhausen was a German journalist, editor and author.As a journalist, he wrote for Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and the magazines Die Zeit and Der Spiegel.-Personal:...

 und Carola Stern, founded the German section of Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

.

In 1963, together with Klaus Bölling, he started the ARD programme Weltspiegel which is still running. From 1981 to 1983, he was the moderator of the ARD magazine programme Monitor. With Helmut Markwort

Helmut Markwort

Helmut Markwort is a German journalist and since 1993 Editor-in-Chief of the weekly newsmagazine Focus. He is a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany....

, he moderated the 3sat

3sat

3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe. The programming is in German and is broadcast primarily within Germany, Austria and Switzerland .3sat was established for cultural...

 discussion programme NeunzehnZehn. Under the same title Ruge NeunzehnZehn this programme is moderated by Nina Ruge

Nina Ruge

Nina Ruge is a German journalist, TV presenter and author.- Life and work :Ruge is the daughter of an engineering professor and visited the Ina-Seidel-Schule in Braunschweig. Her sister Annette is an aeromedical doctor at the European Aviation Safety Agency in Cologne...

; these two are not related, though.
Since 2002, the Gerd Ruge-Stipendium (worth 100,000 Euro in total) is awarded to makers of documentary films. Ruge presides over the jury of eight.

Ruge was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal

Otto Hahn Peace Medal

The Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Laureate Otto Hahn, an honorary citizen of Berlin....

 in 1999.

Important reports

• 1968: Following the assassination Martin Luther King
• 1968: Following the assassination Robert Kennedy
• 1991: Four days in August, during the coup in Moscow
• 1998: Gerd Ruge in China
• 2003: Gerd Ruge in Afghanistan

Awards

• 1970 and 1971: Bambi
• 1991: Goldene Kamera
  Verleihung der Goldenen Kamera
  The GOLDENE KAMERA is an annual German film and television award, awarded by the television magazine HÖRZU. The gold-plated silver award model was created by Berlin artist Wolfram Beck...
  
  
• 1992: Federal Cross of Merit
• 1993: Staatspreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
• 1994: Bayerischer Fernsehpreis
  Bayerischer Fernsehpreis
  Bayerischer Fernsehpreis is an award presented by the government of Bavaria, Germany since 1989.- 2010 :* Nina Gummich, Nachwuchsförderpreis * Klaus Doldinger, Bavarian Prime Minister's Prize- 2009 :...
  
   (Sonderpreis) für seine Berichte als ARD-Korrespondent in Moskau
• 1999: Otto Hahn Peace Medal
  Otto Hahn Peace Medal
  The Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Laureate Otto Hahn, an honorary citizen of Berlin....
  
   (in Gold)
• 2001: Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Preis, named after journalist Hanns Joachim Friedrichs

Books

• Gerd Ruge: Michail Gorbatschow, Biographie, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1990, ISBN 3-10-068506-7
• Gerd Ruge: Weites Land, Erfahrungsberichte, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 1996, ISBN 3-426-60750-6
• Gerd Ruge: Sibirisches Tagebuch, Reisebericht, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 1998, ISBN 3-8270-0300-8

External links