Helmut Markwort

Helmut Markwort is a journalist, media entrepreneur and politician. He has been a member of the FDP since 1968, and from 2018 to 2023 he was a member of the Bavarian Landtag for the FDP. From 2019, he was also one of the members of the Bavarian Rundfunk broadcasting council delegated by the Landtag. He holds shares in various media companies, including Antenne Bayern, Antenne Niedersachsen, Studio Gong and München TV, through several companies.

Markwort worked as a journalist for various newspapers and media outlets such as Stern and the publisher Hubert Burda. Following the third broadcasting judgement and the resulting opening of the broadcasting sector to private companies, Markwort was involved in the founding of Radio Gong. He was also the founding managing director of Antenne Bayern. He was involved in the founding of the weekly magazine Focus, published by Hubert Burda, and was its first editor-in-chief, and from 2009 its publisher. Markwort was also the publisher of Focus Money, Focus TV and other offerings from the Focus umbrella brand. He also held senior positions in other publications of the Burda Group, for example as managing director of Burda Broadcast Media GmbH and as chairman of the supervisory board of Playboy Deutschland Publishing. He was also a member of the supervisory board of FC Bayern München AG until 2014.

During his career, Markwort presented several talk shows and also took on roles in several television series and films. He had to give up presenting the Sunday round table on Bayerischer Rundfunk in 2017 because of his candidacy for the FDP in the Bavarian state election campaign. The raffle for a role in a BR production, which Markwort initiated and the proceeds of which were used to finance his election campaign, also caused a stir. The Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation ultimately prevented the casting after initially assuming that the auction was planned for charitable purposes.

Markwort has now largely withdrawn from managerial positions. He still writes regular articles for Focus in the ‘Helmut Markwort's Diary’ section.