Overview
- Studio Hamburg confirmed that Martin Willich died Monday in Hamburg at age 80.
- The Hamburg Parliament held a minute of silence Wednesday, with a public condolence book opening at City Hall Friday and flags to be flown at half-mast.
- Willich led Studio Hamburg from 1984 to 2011, steering its growth into a leading television service provider and opening it to private broadcasters.
- A longtime CDU figure, he served in the Hamburg Parliament from 1974 to 1995, held the presidency in the 1980s, and was elected to the Hamburg constitutional court in 2005.
- Current leaders at NDR and Studio Hamburg praised his strategic vision and offered condolences, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.