Biography
His father was a German merchant who did business in the Netherlands, which is why his son also grew up there. Veigel attended a German high school in his hometown and took his Abitur at a Dutch school in Leiden. He then took up a commercial apprenticeship. However, Veigel stopped training again because he was accepted as a speaker at the Dutch Radio Hilversum in 1950. Veigel moved to Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, later Norddeutsche Rundfunk, in Hamburg in 1954. There he worked as a radio announcer on news and sports programs. He also gained experience in moderating live broadcasts. Veigel married his Dutch partner in 1955, with whom he lived ever since.
At NDR radio, Veigel met the first news anchor Karl-Heinz Köpcke, who moved to ARD television in 1959. In 1961, Veigel was also used as a speaker on TV programs for the first time, such as the NDR program "Reports from the Day". Finally, his colleague Köpcke, who had now become the "Tagesschau" chief spokesman, brought Veigel into the ARD news program in 1966. The central news program on ARD television has been broadcast since the 1950s and has only had five chief anchors in half a century: Karl-Heinz Köpcke, Veigel, Dagmar Berghoff, Jo Brauner and, since October 2004, Jan Hofer. In addition to his work as a "Tagesschau" speaker, through which Veigel achieved great popularity in the German television landscape, he also repeatedly appeared as a speaker in the area of documentaries and educational films.
Veigel could also be seen and heard as a presenter on public broadcasting, where he led the TV spectacle "Grand Prix Eurovision" or the radio program "NDR 2 from nine to half past twelve". Finally, in 1987, Veigel was appointed chief spokesman for the "Tagesschau", succeeding his mentor Köpcke. In this role, the professional news anchor ensured the quality standard of Germany's most popular news program for eight years. At the beginning of 1995, a surprising cancer diagnosis forced Veigel to give up his job. As his successor, Dagmar Berghoff was appointed chief spokeswoman for the "Tagesschau".
Just a few months later, Werner Veigel died on May 2, 1995 in Hamburg.
