Overview
- BR confirmed Brebeck’s death at a care home in Ahrweiler, where he had lived since losing much of his property in the 2021 Ahr Valley floods.
- BR information director Thomas Hinrichs praised him as incorruptible and unflinching, calling him a reporter legend for his frontline work.
- From 1992, he filed more than 400 television reports on the Balkan conflicts from ARD’s Southeast Europe bureau in Vienna, frequently reporting under siege conditions in Sarajevo.
- In 1998 Serbian authorities expelled him from Belgrade and imposed a re-entry ban after his Kosovo coverage, a move rejected by BR and protested by the German government.
- His decades-long career spanned postings in Tehran, Belgrade, Vienna, Tel Aviv and Istanbul, earning honors including the Grimme Prize, the German Critics’ Prize and the Bavarian TV Award.