Gerd Ruge

Gerd Ruge (9 August 1928 – 15 October 2021) was a German journalist, author and filmmaker. As a journalist he was associated with public broadcasters Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), ARD and WDR. Through his career spanning over 50 years, he reported from many countries including the former Soviet Union, China, the United States, and Afghanistan. He was the first German journalist with a visa to work in Yugoslavia, and the first correspondent for national television ARD in Moscow. He was ARD correspondent in the U.S. from 1964 and 1969, where he reported after the assassination of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Ruge summarised his reports in books such as Sibirisches Tagebuch ("Siberia Diary") and Russland: Portrait eines Nachbarn ("Russia: Portrait of a Neighbour") and Unterwegs: politische Erinnerungen ("On the way: political memories")

Ruge co-founded the German chapter of Amnesty International in 1961. He was professor of television journalism at Munich's University of Television and Film. He received awards for journalism, peace movement and national merit including the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2014.

Biography Ruge was born in Hamburg on 9 August 1928 to a physician. The following year, he became the first German journalist with a visa to work in Yugoslavia.

In the early 1970s, he moved to Bonn as the station director of the Bonn based public broadcaster WDR. He was also a guest lecturer at Harvard University during this time. He subsequently worked for ARD and WDR in various roles, including as head of the ARD Studios in Moscow from 1987 until 1993. During this time, he reported on the end of the cold war and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was close to the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who had called him a person of high moral values. Between 1997 and 2001, he taught as a professor of television journalism at Munich's University of Television and Film The programme is now called Ruge NeunzehnZehn and moderated by Nina Ruge (no relation). In the late 1980s, he also served as the executive director of the Alerdinck Foundation for East-West Communications, an organisation that aimed to foster communications between journalists from the eastern and western blocs during the cold war. He was also a member of the PEN Centre Germany, an association of German writers.

Ruge was also noted for his travel reports and foreign dispatches. Through his work, he was known for his precise interviews, complex analyses, and the ability to explain complex topics including foreign relationships in an easily comprehensible form. His travel reports from multiple places including the Russian countryside, the civil rights movement from the United States, or from a traffic-jam in Moscow, were noted to have authentically captured the mood of the people on the ground. He was known to start his travel reports with the locals with a simple question seeking "Und, wie ist das Leben?" ("And, how is life?") Explaining his laid-back style of reporting, he would emphasise that the journalist need not put himself in the foreground to tell the story. He had earlier written biographies of Russian writer Boris Pasternak in 1959 and of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. He also wrote a book on Russia titled Russland: Portrait eines Nachbarn ("Russia: Portraits of a Neighbour") in 2012.

The Gerd Ruge Scholarship (worth €100,000) has been awarded to makers of documentaries since 2002 in partnership with the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW ("Film and Media Foundation NRW"). Ruge was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in 1999 and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2014, among others. Ruge later married author . His third marriage was to Munich-based journalist Irmgard Eichner whom he married in 1992 in Moscow. He also had a beach house in Cyprus where he would spend two months every year.

Important reports 1968: Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 1998: Gerd Ruge in China 2003: Gerd Ruge in Afghanistan

Awards 1964: Gold Adolf Grimme Prize for the TV series The Third Reich 1994: Bayerischer Fernsehpreis (Sonderpreis) for his reports as ARD correspondent in Moscow 2001: Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award, named after journalist Hanns Joachim Friedrichs

Books Pasternak: A Pictorial Biography, McGraw Hill,1959, Michail Gorbatschow, biography, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1990, Weites Land. Erfahrungsberichte, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 1996, Sibirisches Tagebuch, travel account, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 1998, Russland: Portrait eines Nachbarn, C.H. Beck, 2012, Unterwegs. Politische Erinnerungen. Carl Hanser Verlag, Berlin 2013.