Dr Claus Kleber has been the face of the "heute journal" for many years. In December 2021, after almost 19 years and 2977 broadcasts, he said goodbye to the position of the first moderator of the ZDF news programme. Claus Kleber is one of Germany's most respected television journalists and is considered one of the best experts on US political and media landscape. Claus Kleber (*1955) studied law in Tübingen, Lausanne, Geneva and Washington. After passing the state law examinations and obtaining his PhD, as well as a foray into the legal profession, he became head of the SWF studio in Constance on Lake Constance in 1985. From there he went to Washington, the US capital, for the first time in 1986 as a correspondent. In 1989 Kleber is brought to Berlin as editor-in-chief of RIAS radio, where he observes the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire from close quarters and experiences it first-hand on his many trips. In 1990 he goes to Norddeutscher Rundfunk, which again sends him to the USA as a correspondent. There, in 1992, he switched from radio to television and advanced to become one of the best journalistic experts on the USA and American politics. Over the years, Kleber reported from all fifty US states and met and interviewed presidents from father to son Bush as well as key members of the respective US governments. In 2002, NDR calls him to London as their new studio director. Shortly afterwards, he replaces Wolf von Lojewski at ZDF as 'Mr. heute-journal' and is head and presenter of the news magazine from 2003 to 2008. From 2009 to 2021, as the first presenter of "heute-journal", he is responsible for its further development in terms of content and concept. He is a prominent face of ZDF when it comes to journalistic programme focuses, and he has also remained true to his passion as a reporter and filmmaker. His ZDF documentaries achieve high viewing figures and he also regularly climbs the bestseller lists with his books. His award-winning reports for ARD and ZDF, for example, on the Arabian Peninsula, the events after 9/11, the juvenile justice system in the USA, the oil wealth of the Inuit peoples of Alaska, the effects of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc on the fate of Cuba or the rise of India are exciting and critical insights into current and explosive topics. In the course of his career so far, he has also interviewed many important people of contemporary history in front of the camera, including the American presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama or the Iranian ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The charismatic journalist has received numerous important awards for his attitude and services to journalism. Among other things, he is named Political Journalist of the Year by Medium magazine in 2008 and receives the Adolf Grimme Award the following year as well as the German Television Award for Best Reportage (Die Bombe), together with Angela Andersen. In 2010 he received the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize for television journalism and in 2013 the Golden Camera in the category "Best Information - Best Anchorman". Since 2015, Claus Kleber has been an honorary professor at the Institute for Media Studies at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen.