Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Logo of Westdeutscher Rundfunk

WDR is the public broadcaster in the North Rhine-Westphalia broadcasting region. It was founded in 1956 when NWDR was split into WDR and NDR and is the largest state broadcaster in Germany. WDR also manages the channels ONE and phoenix for ARD. WDR has its headquarters in Cologne, but also operates ten other regional studios throughout North Rhine-Westphalia.
WDR's management consists of the director general and six directors. According to the WDR Act, the director general is "responsible for programme planning and for the overall operation of the institution". WDR also has two central committees:
The Administrative Board consists of nine members, seven of whom are elected by the Broadcasting Council. The remaining two members are delegated by the WDR Staff Council. The current chairperson is Claudia Schare. Each member has one vote. However, the two members delegated by the Staff Council are not entitled to vote on matters relating to the programme area.
The WDR Broadcasting Council consists of 55 members, 13 of whom are members of the state parliament, delegated by the parliamentary groups in proportion to their size. 37 members are delegated by statutory interest groups such as trade unions, churches, family or social organisations. Other status groups can apply for the remaining five places, which are selected by the state parliament. The members may not belong to the federal or state government and may not be members of the federal or state parliaments or the European Parliament.

Key Facts

Business FormState-funded
Legal FormInstitution under public law (Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts)

Ownership

Individual Owner

Media Outlets

Other Media Outlets

Other TV Outlets
  • One (1.1%)
Other Radio Outlets
  • WDR 3 (0.4%)
  • WDR 4 (3.2%)
  • WDR 5 (1.1%)
  • WDR COSMO (0.2%)
  • WDR Event (Webradio) (MD)
Other Online Outlets
  • wdr.de (0.49%)
  • planet-wissen.de (0.06%)
  • sportschau.de (0.5%)

Facts

Other Media BusinessesAdvertising
  • WDR mediagroup GmbH (100%)
  • ARD MEDIA GmbH (11.11%)
IT-Infrastructure
  • WDR mediagroup digital GmbH (100%)
Further education
  • ARD.ZDF medienakademie gGmbH (16.8%)
Media education
  • Grimme-Institut mbH (10%)
Broadcastinsting Rights
  • SportA Sportrechte- und Marketing-Agentur (5.56%)
News agency
  • Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (1.84%)
Market research
  • AGF Videoforschung GmbH (1.76%)
  • AGF Videoforschung GmbH (0.83%)
Broadcasting Center Foreign Studio
  • German Broadcasting Centre Brussels SRL (100%)
Video on Demand
  • ARD Plus GmbH (100%)
Film production
  • Bavaria Film GmbH (33.35%)
Film rights and Marketing
  • degeto Film GmbH (11.11%)
Foundation work, integration and diversity
  • CIVIS Medienstiftung GmbH (58%)
Foundation work, film and media industry
  • Film- und Medienstiftung NRW GmbH (40%)
Prize giving
  • DER DEUTSCHE FERNSEHPREIS GmbH (20%)
TV-Broadcasting
  • ARTE Deutschland TV GmbH (11%)
  • ARTE G.E.I.E. (5.5%)
Concerts, operation of the Cologne Philharmonic
  • KölnMusik Betriebs- und Servicegesellschaft mbH (10.07%)
Archive
  • Stiftung Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (7.14%)
Infrastructure, interlligent transportation system
  • ERTICO SC (0.95%)
Other International BusinessesTV channel
  • ARTE (via ARTE Deutschland GmbH) (Missing data)
Founding Year1956
Founder
  • Major General Alex Bishop
    was commissioned by the British occupying power in 1945 to set up press, radio and information services in the British occupation zone. Modelled on the BBC, Northwest German Broadcasting (NWDR) was created, from which NDR and WDR emerged in 1956.
  • Hugh Greene
    was a British journalist. From 1940, he was editor-in-chief of the BBC's German-language programme. In 1946, he took over the management of NWDR as an organiser, which was transformed into a public institution under his guidance in 1948. His aim was to establish a public broadcaster that would be independent of state or party political influence. From 1960 to 1969, Greene was Director General of the BBC.
ContactWestdeutscher Rundfunk Köln
Appellhofplatz 1
50667 Köln
Germany
redaktion@wdr.de
0221/220 - 0
www1.wdr.de
Tax / ID NumberDE 122 79 0169
Revenue€ 1.564 Billion / USD 1.643 Billion (2022)
Operating Profit€ 6.8 Mio / USD 7.14 Million (2022)
Advertising (in % of total funding)€ 47.8 Mio / USD 50.19 Million (2022)
Executive Board
  • Tom Buhrow
    Tom Buhrow has been the director general of WDR since 2013. He completed a traineeship at WDR in 1985. He then worked for several ARD studios abroad, including in Brussels and Washington. He was Chairman of ARD from January 2020 to December 2021 and temporarily from August to December 2022. Buhrow has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bavaria Film GmbH since 2015 and is also a member of the supervisory boards of several public service subsidiaries. Buhrow will step down at the end of 2024. In June 2024, Dr Katrin Vernau was elected as his successor, who will become the new Director General from January 2025.
  • Dr Katrin Neukamm
    Katrin Neukamm has been WDR's legal advisor since November 2022. She heads the legal department together with Caroline Volkmann. From September 2020 to July 2022, she was Legal Director of SWR. She had previously worked for WDR since 2008, including in the Legal Department and in the NRW, Knowledge and Culture Programme Directorate. Together with Caroline Volkmann, Neukamm is also Deputy Director General of WDR. As a representative of WDR, she has also been Chairwoman of the Shareholders' Meeting of the CIVIS Media Foundation since January 2023.
  • Prof. Dr Caroline Volkmann
    Caroline Volkmann has been WDR's legal advisor since November 2022. She previously worked in the legal department of ZDF from 2008 to 2017, after which she was appointed Professor of Information Law at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. She heads the legal department with Katrin Neukamm. Together with Katrin Neukamm, Volkmann is also Deputy Director General of WDR.
  • Jörg Schönenborn
    Jörg Schönenborn has been Programme Director for Information, Fiction and Entertainment since May 2014. He worked for WDR as an editor for many years before taking on the position of WDR Editor-in-Chief of Television and Head of the Politics and Current Affairs programme area from 2002 to 2014. From 2023 to 2025, Jörg Schönenborn will be Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Grimme Institute as a representative of WDR. Schönenborn is married to journalist Jona Teichmann, who has been Programme Director of Deutschlandradio since 2021.
  • Andrea Schafarczyk
    Andrea Schafarczyk has been responsible for the NRW, Knowledge and Culture programme area since 2022. Previously, she was editor-in-chief at Radio Bremen from 2015 and multimedia editor-in-chief at Hessischer Rundfunk from 2020. From July 2023 to January 2024, Schafarczyk was Deputy Director General of WDR.
  • Dominique Hoffmann
    Dominique Hoffmann has been Head of the Production and Technology Directorate since 2023. Prior to this, she had been responsible for the Distribution and Development Department in the Technology and Production Directorate at SWR since 2020. She has held various positions there since 2006.
  • Dr Katrin Vernau
    Katrin Vernau has been Head of the Administrative Directorate at WDR since March 2015. From 2002 to 2005, she was initially Chancellor of the University of Ulm, after which Vernau founded the consulting agency blv consult. From 2006 to 2012, she was Chancellor of the University of Hamburg. In September 2022, Vernau was elected interim director-general of rbb after Patricia Schlesinger had to resign as director-general due to allegations of corruption. Her subsequent nomination for election as director failed, so Vernau returned to her post as administrative director. In June 2024, she was elected as Tom Buhrow's successor as the new Director General of WDR, taking up the post in January 2025.
Non-Executive Board
  • noname-303984
    The WDR Broadcasting Council consists of 55 members, 13 of whom are members of the state parliament who are delegated by the parliamentary groups in proportion to their size. 37 members are delegated by statutory interest groups such as trade unions, churches, family or social organisations. Other status groups can apply for the remaining five places, which are selected by the state parliament. These members may not belong to the federal or state government and may not be members of the federal or state parliaments or the European Parliament. The Broadcasting Council is responsible for programme supervision at WDR and decides on the budget. It also elects seven of the nine members of the Administrative Board, elects the director general and appoints the directors on his or her recommendation.
  • Rolf Zurbrüggen
    has been Chairman of the WDR Broadcasting Council since December 2021 and has been a member since 2016. He was delegated as a member of the State Association of Adult Education Centres, of which he has been a board member since 2014. Zurbrüggen holds further offices as a member of the supervisory board of WDR media group GmbH, deputy chairman of the Förderverein Haus Nottbeck e. V. and vice president of the Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft Warendorf e.V.
  • Corinna Blümel
    Deputy Chairwoman. Blümel was delegated by the German Journalists' Association (djv). She works as a freelance journalist and lecturer for the Journalism Centre for Business and Administration. Blümel is Chairwoman of the DJV Cologne.
  • Marie Kaub
    Deputy Chairwoman. Kaub was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the nature conservation organisations. She is deputy chairwoman of BUND NRW. Kaub is also a lecturer at various film schools.
  • Petra Kammerevert
    Chairwoman of the Programme Committee. Kammerevert was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the NRW state parliament. She has been a member of the European Parliament for the SPD since 2009. She is also a member of the state executive of the SPD in NRW.
  • Florian Braun
    Deputy Chairman of the Programme Committee. Braun was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the NRW state parliament. Braun holds a seat in the state parliament for the CDU. He is deputy chairman of the CDU Cologne and a member of the state executive board of the CDU NRW. He is also a member of the supervisory boards of GEW Köln AG, NetCologne GmbH and WDR mediagroup GmbH.
  • Gisela Hinnemann
    Chairwoman of the Budget and Finance Committee. Hinnemann was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the NRW State Sports Association. She was a member of the NRW state parliament twice (2000-2005, 2009-2010). Hinnemann is Vice President in the area of competitive sport for the NRW State Sports Association.
  • Christian Hülsmeier
    Deputy Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. Hülsmeier was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the IG BCE trade union. He works full-time for IG BCE as a board secretary. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG.
  • Prof. Dr Gerd Ascheid
    Chairman of the Broadcasting Development and Digitisation Committee. Mr Ascheid was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the Landesbehindertenrat NRW e.V.. He is an emeritus university professor. Ascheid has been the state chairman of Lebenshilfe NRW since 2018 and has been a member of the supervisory board of Lebenshilfe Aachen Werkstätten & Service GmbH as chairman since 2014.
  • Peter Freitag
    Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Broadcasting Development and Digitisation. Freitag was delegated to the Broadcasting Council by the journalists' union dju (ver.di). Freitag has been deputy national chairman of the dju since 2014. He also works as an editor for the Rheinische Redaktionsgemeinschaft.
Supervisory Board
  • noname-303994
    The Administrative Board consists of nine members:
  • Claudia Schare
    Schare has been Chairwoman of the Administrative Board since December 2019, having been a full member since 2012. She is also a member of the Supervisory Board of WDR media group GmbH, a member of the University Council of the TH Ostwestfalen-Lippe and, until June 2021, Vice-Chairwoman of the SPD local association in Dortmund-Schüren.
  • Roswitha Müller-Piepenkötter
    Vice-Chairwoman. Müller-Piepenkötter has been Deputy Chair of the WDR Administrative Board since 2019. Prior to taking up this position, she was a deputy member of the WDR Broadcasting Council. From 2005 to 2010, Müller-Piepenkötter held the office of Minister of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia (CDU), having previously been a judge at the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf since 1992. In addition to her activities for WDR, Müller-Piepenkötter is a member of the Supervisory Board of St. Elisabeth-Krankenhaus GmbH in Cologne and a member of the Administrative Board of Caritas Jugendhilfe GmbH. She is also an honorary chairwoman and member of the Federal Executive Board of the White Ring Association.
  • Monika Frederking
    has been a member of the Administrative Board since December 2019 as a representative of the Staff Council. She has also been chairwoman of the Staff Council since April 2022. Frederking began her journalistic career in 1986 at WDR, where she has since been employed in various editorial departments. She is a member of the trade union ver.di
  • Johannes Höflich
    has been a member of the Administrative Board as a representative of the Staff Council since December 2020. He has been a member of the Staff Council since 2012. Höflich has been working as a freelance journalist and director since 1987. He is a member of the trade union ver.di.
  • Dr Fritz Jaeckel
    has been a member of the Administrative Board since 2019. He previously held various political offices: first as head of department in the Saxon state administration, then as state secretary in the Saxon State Ministry for the Environment and Agriculture (2012-2014) and finally as state minister for federal and European affairs in the Free State of Saxony and head of the state chancellery (CDU, 2014-2017). Since February 2020, Jaeckel has been a member of the Supervisory Board of WDR media GmbH. In addition to his work for WDR, he has also been the CEO of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of North Westphalia since 2018.
  • Prof. Dr. Claudia Loebbecke
    has been a member of the Administrative Board since 2021. Previously, she was a deputy member of the WDR Broadcasting Council from 2016 to 2021. Loebbecke has held the professorship for Media and Technology Management at the University of Cologne since 2000. From 2018 to 2022, she was also a member of the supervisory board of the scientific research organisations WIK GmbH and WIK Consult GmbH. In addition, Loebbecke was a member of the Scientific Working Group for Regulatory Issues of the Federal Network Agency until December 2021.
  • Doris Ludwig
    has been a member of the Administrative Board since 2015. In parallel, she has been Chairwoman of the Works Council of IBM Deutschland Financial Markets Services GmbH and a member of the Group Works Council of IBM Deutschland since 2018.
  • Arno Prangenberg
    Arno Prangenberg has been a member of the Administrative Board since 2019. He previously held mandates on two supervisory boards: from 2008 to 2018 at Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide and from 1996 to 2002 for ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG. Prangenberg's main occupation is as a tax consultant and auditor.
  • Prof. Dr Karsten Rudolph
    has been a member of the Administrative Board since 2019. He was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament for the SPD from 2002 to 2010 and from 2017 to 2022. After that, Rudolph took over the management of the strategy consultancy No Drama in Bochum. Between 2011 and 2015, he headed the political communications department of the chemical company Evonik, for which he also worked as a lobbyist in the European Parliament. From 1999 to 2017, Rudolph was a member of the WDR Broadcasting Council, and since 2020 he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Bavaria Film GmbH, in which WDR has a stake.
Headlines
Active Transparency
company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable
Meta DataThe business figures relate to the year 2022 and are taken from the company's own annual report.
The percentage of the total audience for radio stations is taken from the agma-Ergebung Audio I/2024 and refers to the nationwide daily reach in the population aged 14 and over.
The percentage of the total audience for television stations is taken from the AGF Videoforschung in cooperation with the GfK 2023, accessed via Meedia.de and refers to the average annual share of the total audience.
The audience share in the online sector refers to the share of unique users, was collected by Nielsen and accessed via KEK. The date of collection is unknown.
Note on the level of transparency:
Since a classification of the level of transparency with regard to ownership structures is not possible for public media, the availability of information on the supervisory and control bodies as well as information on their members and the transparency
Sources