Trivia

For over 40 years, from Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977 until his retirement in 2019, he provided commentary on the annual live broadcast of Trooping the Colour on ARD.

After graduating from Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Hanover in 1956, Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert studied sociology, international law, and ethnology in Bristol, Munich, Hamburg, Hanover, and Göttingen. He completed his studies with a Master of Arts degree.

In 1990 he was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and in 1992 as Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

He was the only journalist in Europe to whom all seven European royal houses and their heirs to the throne granted interviews.

While still at school and university, he worked as a trainee and later as a freelancer for the former Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR). After the station split into Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Westdeutscher Rundfunk in 1956, he remained at NDR as a freelancer for radio and television.

Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert's journalistic career began at the age of 19 at NDR. His Berlin lawyer family was not enthusiastic about their offspring's career choice. The young journalist was paid 25 marks for his manuscript on bicycle licenses for 16-year-olds. Seelmann-Eggebert was "proud as a peacock" at the time.

From 1982 to 1989, Seelmann-Eggebert was program director at NDR television.

Together with his son Florian, he ran his own TV production company, Seelmannfilm, in Hamburg.

Seelmann-Eggebert provided commentary on the Last Night of the Proms on NDR television and radio from 1981 to 2015.

He covered the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, the tragic death of the princess, and many other major events involving European royal families.

In his early years, from 1968 to 1976, he reported from Africa, first as a radio reporter and then as a television reporter.

For many viewers, Seelmann-Eggebert, also known as "Sir Rolf," was the royal family expert par excellence-he himself played down his proximity to the nobility: "When I sit on the sofa with a king, everyone thinks I'm close to them. But that's misleading.".

Seelmann-Eggebert was sent to London by ARD in 1978, where he became studio manager. He increasingly specialized in reporting on the aristocracy and, as a commentator, covered almost all major events involving European royal families in recent decades.

Seelmann-Eggebert became a television legend thanks to his reports, particularly on the British royal family. Among other things, he reported live on the funeral of Lady Diana and the wedding of Prince William and Kate to an audience of millions.

Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert was a German journalist working for the Norddeutscher Rundfunk.