2023-10-14 22:37:48
Birgit Schrowange (65) started her TV career at WDR as a steno clerk. But she really wanted to be in front of the camera – and managed it. She has been one of the most popular television faces in Germany for more than 40 years.
The first television, from which Birgit Schrowange beamed at the world with her beautiful face and deep blue eyes, was made of cardboard.
“I made it so I could practice being an announcer,” she tells BILD. “My school friend wanted to be a singer. I announced her in a big way, feeling like a TV star.”
That was at the end of the 60s.
“We didn’t get a television at home until late, when I was already thirteen. My friend’s family owned an inn. As a child, I was always thrilled when we were allowed to watch TV there. I found the women announcing the program fascinating. I knew: That’s what I want to be one day.”
It is known that Birgit Schrowange (one of the star presenters at the private broadcaster RTL until 2020, previously under contract with ZDF for many years) achieved her goal. Of course, her TV career was not. “I grew up in a village in the Sauerland. Back then, if I wanted to watch ‘Farmer Looking for a Wife’, all I had to do was look out the window.”
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The life path that the parents had in mind for their eldest daughter was solid: secondary school, apprenticeship, marriage, children, building a house. “But I really wanted to go on television,” says Birgit. “Unfortunately I didn’t know how to get there.”
She trained as a lawyer and notary’s assistant. “After two weeks I knew I was completely out of place here. I still went through with the course. When I was eighteen I was finished and secretly applied to WDR. I didn’t care what. My plan was to get my foot in the door first. After that, I’ll somehow manage to become an announcer.”
Birgit Schrowange wrote a letter to the station’s human resources manager. “According to the motto: I am Birgit from Sauerland and I absolutely have to work for you. I kindly ask you to give me a chance. I’ll also start in the canteen.” She was invited to an interview – and got a contract as a steno office clerk (secretary who knows shorthand).
Little Birgit starting school
Photo: RICHARD ROSICKA
She still remembers that day in 1977 “as if it were yesterday. I went to my law office, bought cake and champagne and said very arrogantly: ‘I’m quitting, I’m going to TV.'” Before she presented her parents with a fait accompli, she rented a furnished room in Cologne, in the house of an old, strict lady.
“My mother cried. She thought the child would get lost. I was just proud and happy that I was able to work in television. Even though I only earned very little money and also worked at a notary to make ends meet.” Within a short time, she managed to work her way up to editorial assistant.
She annoyed her bosses with the daily sentence: “I really want to be in front of the camera.” A voice trainer helped her get used to the Sauerland sing-song dialect and make her bright voice sound deeper. “I was finally allowed to go on a casting for school television.
My very first announcement was: ‘Welcome, dear children. Today you’ll see a post about our beautiful Sauerland.”
From 1983 to 1994, Schrowange was a program announcer at ZDF
Photo: ullstein picture
She laughs. “Our whole village sat in front of the television at eight in the morning and was excited with me. Apparently I did well, after that I was allowed to present the school television program and later even the ‘Current Hour’.” The career took its course.
In 1983 Birgit Schrowange moved to ZDF as a presenter. “I was just very lucky; thousands of people applied. It was probably also because I was a different type in terms of appearance. Most of the announcers back then were blonde and lovely.” She is convinced that another reason for her success is: “I am pushy and never let myself be discouraged. My grandmother was the same way.”
A broadcast manager at WDR once told her that she didn’t have enough charisma to make it into the evening program. At that time she said to herself: I’ll show him! “Years later I met the guy at an event and he told an audience that he had always known that I would become something great. I despise guys like that.”
When she was in her early 20s, Birgit Schrowange traveled to Holland
Photo: Dominik Sommerfeld
During her early days at ZDF, there was a supervisor “who stalked me,” she says. “I didn’t want anything from him and turned him down. With the result that he took away my services. He knew I depended on every penny. We announcers were poor but sexy. We had to wear our own clothes. There was no styling department back then.”
The bullying by her boss was bad. “I suffered a lot. After a year I went to Professor Stolte, the director at the time. Luckily he believed me and after that the harassment stopped. There were a lot of macho men on television back then, and a lot of misogynistic behavior. Luckily things are different today.”
Birgit Schrowange, as everyone who knows her personally knows, is an absolute woman’s woman. She supports and encourages young colleagues, e.g. B. her former colleague Nazan Eckes when she came to RTL.
“I’m definitely not a bitch,” she says. “I learned a lot from Petra Schürmann. She took me under her wing in my early days and was never jealous or stubborn. She was always a role model for me.”
Today, Birgit Schrowange only works for her advertising partners and for charitable purposes. She has long since taken care of herself financially. The mother of an adult son enjoys life and love with her husband Frank Spothelfer; the couple has been married since July 2023.
Schrowange and Markus Lanz were a couple from 1998 to 2006. They have son Laurin (23) together
Foto: picture alliance / dpa
BILD am Sonntag: Which book are you currently reading?
Schrowange: “Joachim Gauck: ‘Concussions’.”
Do you have a Sunday ritual?
Schrowange: “Sleep in late, have breakfast in bed and set weekly goals.”
What are you particularly looking forward to in the coming week?
Schrowange: “On the second leg of our America/Canada trip”
Photo:
“This article comes from BILD. The ePaper of the entire issue is available here.“
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