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After the chaos of war, he began attending school in the Soviet occupation zone and then in the GDR. In 1955 the family moved from the GDR to Hamburg, where Klaus continued school and graduated from high school in 1961. Bednarz then studied theater studies, Slavic studies and Eastern European history in Hamburg, Vienna and Moscow. In 1966 he completed his studies with a doctorate in Vienna. Just one year later, Bednarz joined ARD as a correspondent, for which he worked as an editor until 1971. He then worked as a correspondent in Warsaw until 1977. From 1977 to 1982, the journalist headed the ARD studio in Moscow. He then took over the editorial management of the "Auslandsstudio" for Cologne's WDR and helped moderate the "Tagesthemen". In December 1983, Bednarz became editor-in-chief of the political WDR magazine "Monitor", succeeding Gerd Ruge.
In this role and as a commentator on ARD, Bednarz worked tirelessly over the following 18 years to maintain critical and courageous investigative journalism in the Federal Republic and then in reunified Germany, which focused on exposing political scandals and affairs as well as the mistakes of politicians wrote flags. The critical reporting by "Monitor" brought Bednarz and the ARD numerous hostilities and complaints, mostly from CDU/CSU politicians who were affected or felt affected. Through impressive moral courage and tireless research, Bednarz and his editorial team uncovered many violations of civil and human rights at home and abroad. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and German reunification, Bednarz campaigned in the "Monitor" with well-known acrimony against neo-Nazism and xenophobia in Germany and the warmongering of the new global world power.
When "Monitor" celebrated its 30th birthday on May 21, 1995, Bednarz had made the ARD political magazine the recognized school of investigative journalism in Germany. Bednarz left the Monitor editorial team in 2001. Since then he has worked as a special correspondent and chief reporter for WDR television. Bednarz has been honored with numerous awards for his journalistic achievements. In 1984 the journalist received the Grimme Prize, in 1986 the BUND Environmental Prize, followed a year later by the DBG Media Prize. In 1988 he was awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal and in 1993 the Association of German Critics Prize. In 1999, Bednarz was honored with the German Environmental Prize. From 2002, Bednarz worked as a special correspondent and chief reporter for WDR television. In his television reports and book publications, he deals not only with the countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also with the south of Chile and Argentina.
In 2003 he was honored with the gold medal at the Yalta International Film and Television Festival. In 2007 and 2009 he published the books "The Northern Cross. Journey through Karelia" and "Distance and Proximity: From my journalistic life".
