Alfred Biolek

Alfred Franz Maria Biolek (10 July 1934 – 23 July 2021) was a German entertainer and television producer. Biolek held a PhD in law and was an honorary professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He received many awards for his work on television which included popular long-running series, and pioneering work for talk shows and cooking shows in the 1970s. He also received awards for his efforts for promoting the culture of food and wine. He supported and founded charities for Africa.

Youth Biolek was born in Freistadt (Fryštát) in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), into a Sudeten German family. His father was a lawyer. After expulsion from Czechoslovakia in 1946, the Biolek family moved to Waiblingen near Stuttgart, where Biolek's father practiced law again.

He attended the Gymnasium in Waiblingen and graduated in 1954. He then studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich, and Vienna. and worked for a larger law firm. Living in the city, Biolek underwent a radical change and distanced himself from his previous conservative mindset. He took part in the bohemian community in Munich, and belonged to filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder's social circle.

Television career From 1963, Biolek worked as an assessor in the legal department of the new public German TV channel ZDF where he soon switched to editorial tasks. He became the anchor man of the TV show Drehscheibe. In the 1980s, commercially less successful shows followed: Bei Bio, Show Bühne, and the game show Mensch Meier. ran from 1991 for 12 years, Between 1991 and 2003, Biolek produced his weekly show Boulevard Bio.

He was actively engaged in the struggle against AIDS and unwanted pregnancy in Africa. In 2000, he was appointed the first German UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. In October 2005, Biolek founded the charity fund Alfred Biolek Stiftung – Hilfe für Afrika, to give African youngsters the opportunity of a better start in life. He was on the advisory board for the German Foundation for World Population.

As a patron of the arts, Biolek was committed to supporting cabaret. He was one of the patrons of the vaudeville theatre "Bar jeder Vernunft" in Wilmersdorf.

Since October 2006, Biolek was on tour with his program Mein Theater mit dem Fernsehen (My theatre/struggle with TV), in which he illustrated parts of his TV career.

Personal life

On 10 December 1991, the director and activist Rosa von Praunheim outed Biolek, among other celebrities, as gay during a TV show. Biolek lived with his partner in Cologne and Berlin.

TV shows 1971/1972 – producer of Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus 1974 – producer of the Rudi Carrell show 1991 – talk show

1983 – Adolf-Grimme-Preis in Gold 1993 – Goldene Kamera for 2003 – Karl Valentin Order 2003 – Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz 2008 – Goldene Kamera for his life's work 2009 – Deutscher Fernsehpreis, Honorary award of the donors