Overview
- The Westdeutscher Rundfunk announced that Jürgen Thebrath died on November 10, 2025, at the age of 78.
- Over more than three decades at WDR, he served as a Monitor editor from 1985 to 1991 and later headed ARD’s foreign studios in New York and Brussels before retiring in 2011 as deputy editor-in-chief for television.
- He received two Grimme Prizes for the reportages "Glückselig in New York" and "Gesucht wird... Geheimnis um das Olympia-Attentat 72."
- As recalled by contemporaries, his 1987 Monitor report on worm larvae in fresh herring triggered a major consumer reaction and led to stricter hygiene rules for fish.
- Program director Jörg Schönenborn honored him as a public-service journalist devoted to rigorous research, fair presentation of facts, and clear argument.