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After graduating from high school, Köpcke began commercial training in his hometown. However, in the course of the National Socialist rearmament and war policy, he had to break off his training because he was drafted into labor service in 1941. After training as an Air Force radio operator, Köpcke was deployed as a radio squad leader in the Second World War. In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the French. After the end of the war, Köpcke joined Radio Bremen in 1946, where he worked as a speaker for radio plays and school radio programs. He also hosted quiz shows there. In 1948 Köpcke married fellow broadcaster Gertie Kelkenberg. Finally, Köpcke was appointed to the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, later Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR), in Hamburg, where he became first news anchor in April 1949.
A decade later, on March 2, 1959, Köpcke spoke for the first time in a "Tagesschau" on ARD television, of which he became chief spokesman at the beginning of 1964. In this role he discovered and influenced many news anchors who followed him. The central news program on ARD television has been broadcast since the 1950s and has only had five chief anchors in half a century: Köpcke, Werner Veigel, Dagmar Berghoff, Jo Brauner and, since October 2004, Jan Hofer. In more than 5,000 "Tagesschau" programs over the next 28 years, Köpcke achieved a level of fame that came close to that of the Federal Chancellor. The ARD news program itself took on the character of an official announcement in the German television culture of the 1960s and 1970s, which was still characterized by the monopoly of public broadcasters. The broadcast time of the "Tagesschau" at 8 p.m. became a permanent fixture in the everyday lives of many German citizens.
Köpcke appeared to the audience with the authority of a government spokesman. However, if there were unexpected incidents in the public appearance of the "Tagesschau" chief spokesman, such as slips of the tongue or Köpcke's holiday beard, this triggered vehement debates in the public. When in 1978 the news anchor was pushed into the background compared to the new figure of the presenter in the newly introduced second ARD news program "Tagesthemen", Köpcke protested against the changed broadcast concept through conspicuous behavior in the so-called "yawning and rustling affair". Köpcke read out his last "Tagesschau" broadcast on September 10, 1987. He retired and developed cancer.
Karl-Heinz Köpcke died on September 27, 1991 in Hamburg.
