Harry Valérien

Harry Valérien (* November 4, 1923 in Munich, † October 12, 2012 on the way to Berg am Starnberger See ), was a German sports journalist and author who was known primarily as a co-founder and host of the television show The current gym. In 1952 he reported on more than four decades of Olympic Games. His areas of expertise were winter sports, swimming and golf.

Life and work

Valérien had three younger siblings. When he was 14 years old, the mother came shortly before the Second World War in a car accident. His father, a press photographer, died a year later of heart disease. So he grew up with his three siblings with their grandfather. This put him in an apprenticeship with a mechanic. As a journeyman he worked in a " military importance ." In 1942 he was called up for military service with the mountain and got 1945 in American captivity.

In 1946 he was in the newly opened German School of Journalism in Munich. 1947 made ​​Valérien first an internship at the Münchner Merkur and later worked there as an editor. In 1949 he also began to work as a reporter for the Bayerischer Rundfunk. In 1952, the first peak in his career, when the then 28 -year-old has only just surprisingly elected to be one of the four German radio reporter at the Olympic Winter Games in Norway. He was the preferred hitherto regarded as a top-class Herbert Zimmermann of NWDR, Ludwig Maibohm by the Hessischer Rundfunk, Gerd Kramer and Rainer Günzler from the South German Radio and Günther Jendrich from Südwestfunk. With the exception of 1956, he was henceforth to 1996 in all Olympic Games as a commentator for radio and television here.

In later years he worked as a television reporter also at ZDF, Sat.1 and Premiere. He quickly distinguished himself as a specialist in skiing, swimming and golf. 1958 earned him even a small supporting role as a sports reporter in the ski film The Black Lightning with the then-popular Olympic champion Toni Sailer one.

The Current Gym ZDF, which he co-founded, he hosted from 1963 to 1988 a total of 283 times. His trademark were his favorite colorful sweater, mainly in yellow. Always recurring was the question " Which camera are we? " - On bavarian simma as " Where? Where samma? ! Do samma " carried forward - when he hosted during the live broadcast. He was appreciated for charm and fairness. "I Carry no reports at the expense of others, and no one should even in interviews leave as the winner or loser of the ring ," was his motto. "He dug deeper, perfectly elegant tone, but inexorably in the matter ," wrote Dieter Kürten, formerly itself gym presenter, once on his long-time colleagues.

The in those years very popular Valérien presented in 1972 along with the former Miss World and former presenter of the Bavarian Radio Petra Schürmann the formerly very highly rated charity Circus of the Stars of the Circus Krone from Munich, the over forty years, a highlight of the annual TV calendar showed.

Attention was his radiated 1979 three-part documentary on his early football national coach Helmut Schön, sent the sports mirror in the frame of the emitted 1963-1969 ZDF Fixtums.

As it should be 1983 ZDF sports chief, refused Valérien: "I 'd rather stay reporters that says more to me than any administration. " In later years Valérien reported also like Sat.1 and Premiere from golf. That he was not only sporty shod, Valérien proved, among other things during his performances in the ZDF talk show Live at the side of Amelie Fried, as a moderator of ZDF transport magazine telemotor or as an interviewer in the series Sunday conversation.

Valérien involved as one of the first against doping in sport and counted alongside sporting greats of all stripes and stars like Bud Spencer as a former swimmer or Elton John as president of an English football club to its guests. With the coverage of sports events, Valérien but was not satisfied. An event in 1973 even went down in sports history when he invited the Olympic bronze medalists over 200 meters freestyle, Werner lamp to a swimming race. Valérien, then almost 50 years, more than twice as old as the 21 year old lamp, began to entertain the audience with flippers - and proposed a tenth of a second before the specialists.

Among the numerous awards he has received over the years include the Bambi, which he received in the years 1972, 1979, 1990 and 2005, the Golden Camera, which was awarded to him in the years 1965, 1976 and 1988, and in 2004 the honorary Prize of the Bavarian Prime Minister at the Bavarian television Prize and in 2009 the Herbert Award for lifetime achievement. In 2002, the Bavarian sports award, he was awarded for Outstanding presentation of the sport.

Valérien is 2012 after presentation of his son- "peacefully asleep and died of heart failure " on the way back from a meeting with former colleagues and ski racers in Oberaudorf to Berg am Starnberger See in the passenger seat in the car.

Valériens grave is in the cemetery in the district in Santa Maria in Bavaria, Berg am Starnberger See.

Family

Valérien lived with his wife, the former Norwegian skier Randi, which campaigns for years for international nuclear disarmament and Montessori schools, on Lake Starnberg. The common daughters Tanya and Laila were born in 1962 or 1964. Laila died in 2007 from breast cancer. Tanya is married to the climber Stefan Glowacz.

Social Commitment

As an obituary in the Frankfurter Rundschau on 20-21. October 2012 revealed, Valérien was on the way to an inclusive school to schools in the Main- Taunus-Kreis a committed precursor for the common life and learning of children with and without disabilities.

Works

Valériens numerous books, some of which illuminate sporting topics also from an unusual point of view, almost all were best-sellers. If in the collection after the year of publication is a *, it could be a later edition.

• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien: Olympics '68: South Verlag, Munich ( 1968)
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien: Football '70: South Verlag, Munich ( 1970)
• Harry Valérien: Olympics Munich 1972 Munich, Kiel, Sapporo. Southwest Verlag, Munich (1982 *)
• Harry Valérien: Football 74 - World Cup: South Verlag, Munich ( 1974)
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien: 1976 Montreal Olympics, Innsbruck. Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1985 * )
• Harry Valérien: Football 78 - Argentina World Cup: South Verlag, Munich ( 1978)
• Harry Valerian: Football '80 - European Championship, European Cups, League: West Verlag, Munich ( 1980)
• Harry Valérien Olympia '80. Moscow and Lake Placid: Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1982)
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien: Football '82. XII. World Cup from 13 June to 11 July 1982 in Spain: West Verlag, Munich (1984 *)
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien: Football '84. V. European Championship from June 12 to 27, 1984 in France. Bundesliga trophies: Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1986 * )
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien Olympia '84. Los Angeles, Sarajevo: Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1986 * )
• Harry Valériens sports reports. Images, events, documents: Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1985)
• Football '86. World Cup in Mexico ( 1986)
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien Football Championship '88 Germany. VIII European Football Championship 10 to 25 June 1988: South Verlag, Munich ( 1988)
• Christian Zentner and Harry Valérien: 1988 Olympics Seoul, Calgary. Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1988)
• Harry Valérien: Golf, fascination of a world sport: Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1989)
• Harry Valérien and Christian Zentner: World Cup '90 Italy: South Verlag, Munich ( 1990)
• Harry Valérien Olympia '92. The Winter Games Albertville: Southwest Verlag, Munich ( 1992)
• Harry Valérien: Lillehammer '94. The Olympic Book: Sport Verlag, Berlin (1994 )
• USA '94: Sports Verlag, Berlin (1994 )
• Atlanta. The Olympic book 1996: Sports Verlag, Berlin (1996 )

Awards

• Golden Camera (3 times: 1965, 1976, 1988)
• Golden Bambi for the best sports reporter of the year ( three times: 1972, 1979, 1990)
• Golden Gong for reportage of the fall extravaganza at the downhill race in Kitzbühel 1981 (1981)
• " Oskar " ( Austria )
• Telestar (1988 )
• Badge of Honour of the City of Munich
• Bavarian Television Award - Honorary Award of the Bavarian Prime Minister ( 2004)
• Herbert Award in the category HERBERT Award for lifetime achievement (2009)
• Induction into the Hall of Fame of German sport (2013 )

TV Portrait

• Beyond the microphone - Harry Valérien; in the series " life lines "; Duration: 45 minutes; Director: Franz Deubzer; Bayerisches Fernsehen; Original Air Date: October 11, 2010.