Gisbert Baltes was a German radio and television journalist, presenter, editor and author who for decades was one of the best known faces of Cologne Carnival on WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) and ARD. He coined the opening words of the ARD live broadcasts that launched the street carnival in Cologne's old town, "Hier ist Köln, hier ist der Alter Markt!" ("This is Cologne, this is the Alter Markt!"), a line that for generations of viewers signalled the start of the festivities. He died on 25 October 2026 at the age of 75 after a long and serious illness, according to his family as reported by WDR.
Baltes was born in Heggen, a village in the municipality of Finnentrop near Attendorn in the Sauerland region of North Rhine-Westphalia. His exact date of birth has not been made public; German Wikipedia gives 1951 or 1952, while his reported age at death of 75 points to late 1950 or 1951. He was proud of his Sauerland roots all his life. He started his career in the early 1970s as a sports reporter at the Daspel ground of his home club SV Heggen, and in 1971 he travelled with a Catholic youth group from Gleidorf to Strasbourg, Taizé, Marseille and Monaco, a trip on which he met Hermann-Josef Hoffe, later founder of WOLL-Magazin and a friend for more than 55 years.
In the 1970s Baltes was a companion of the Schmallenberg singer Tom Astor and accompanied him to his first big television appearance on the ZDF programme Drehscheibe in Mainz. Years later, as a WDR editor, he heard Astor's song "Hallo, guten Morgen Deutschland" in the singer's home studio and insisted on playing it in his programme; the song became Astor's breakthrough hit in 1985.
At WDR, Baltes presented the WDR 2 radio magazine "Zwischen Rhein und Weser" for twelve years before moving to WDR television. From the mid-1980s he lived in the Rhineland and came to see it as his chosen home. As an author, presenter and editor he shaped many WDR entertainment programmes, including "Klingendes NRW" and the "Närrische Hitparade", which he co-presented for years with Marita Köllner. For about two decades he was a reporter at the Cologne Rose Monday parade and the editor responsible for the ARD Fernsehsitzung, the televised carnival gala from the Gürzenich. As presenter and responsible editor of the live broadcast of the proclamation of the Cologne Dreigestirn (Prince, Peasant and Maiden) each January in the Gürzenich, he guided more than two dozen Dreigestirne through their first television appearances. He also co-presented the "Kölner Brauhaus-Nächte" with Judith Scholte-Loh.
Baltes made many television portraits of Rhineland personalities, among them the Cologne band Bläck Fööss, the Paveier, the comedian Jürgen von der Lippe, the carnival preacher Willibert Pauels, the entertainer Ernst H. Hilbich, the TV chef Horst Lichter and the carnival veteran Ludwig Sebus. In 2012 he published his first book, "Rheinland" (Hoffmann und Campe), structured around the eleven articles of the so-called Rhenish Basic Law ("Rheinisches Grundgesetz") and drawing on conversations with figures such as Günter Grass, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and the Bläck Fööss. Friends called him "Giba".
In January 2016 he said goodbye to his active time as a WDR editor in typically playful style: at his last ARD Fernsehsitzung he climbed onto the Gürzenich stage as a one-man Dreigestirn, wearing the Maiden's plaits, the Peasant's robes and the Prince's red shoes. The Festkomitee Kölner Karneval awarded him its Order of Merit in Gold, an honour usually reserved for dedicated carnivalists. After leaving WDR he wrote for the Sauerland magazine WOLL, profiling local personalities such as an Attendorn blacksmith who won a famous hammer bet on "Wetten, dass..?", and he moderated events such as the Night of Sounds.
Tributes after his death came from WDR entertainment chief Karin Kuhn, who called him "a guarantor of successful entertainment programming from NRW", and from Festkomitee president Lutz Schade, who said he had helped carry Cologne Carnival and the Cologne way of life to people all over Germany. He is survived by his wife and two children, whose names have not been made public. The place of his death and the nature of his illness have not been made public.
lit a candle 3h ago
