Olli Dittrich is a brilliant comedian – we already knew that back in 1993 when we summoned him to join "RTL Saturday Night". What nobody knew back then: The man is not only brilliant, he’s a genius. He put his mark on our program as a performer, author and musician. And after "RTL Saturday Night" was over, he just kept on going and kept getting better. As an actor he shined in, among other things, the role of the journalist Wollner in Helmut Dietl’s film "Late Show"; in the film "Frau Rettich, die Czerni und ich", he played alongside Martina Gedeck and Iris Berben; and his most brilliant role was as Joseph Goebbels in Jo Baier’s film "Stauffenberg".

He started as an author and performer in "RTL Saturday Night" together with Wigald Boning in the series "Zwei Stühle, eine Meinung" ("Two Chairs, One Opinion") and outdid himself at ZDF in "Olli, Tiere, Sensationen" ("Olli, Animals, Sensations"), only to completely surprise us as Anke Engelke’s partner in his improvisational show "Blind Date". Together with Wigald Boning, the musician Olli Dittrich gave us intelligent nonsense in the duo "Die Doofen" ("The Dummies"), participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Texas Lightning" and just released his splendid CD "11 Richtige" ("11 Right Picks") which features him as both composer and lyrics writer.

In the early days of "RTL Saturday Night", he came to us with a character he had created by the name of "Dittsche". We didn’t like him at all. What a mistake! WDR was smarter than we were, grabbed the chance and has been broadcasting the highly successful series since 2004. Loriot was smarter still. In 2008, he named Olli Dittrich as his official successor. My friend Olli Dittrich has already scored numerous prizes – some of them several times over. There’s only one award that has been denied him: THE GOLDEN CAMERA from HÖRZU. And now it’s his. Olli, I’m so happy that you are being honored with this prestigious award. You’ve earned it many times over! All the best from Hugo Egon Balder

By jury member Hugo Egon Balder
Foto: © Arne Weychardt for HÖRZU