Frank Elstner

Who is Frank Elstner?

Frank Elstner, full name Timm Maria Franz Elstner is a German television presenter.

Elstner went to school in Rastatt in Germany and gained his first experience in broadcasting as a child when he acted in radio plays for the station then known as Südwestfunk, now as Südwestrundfunk, which served the Rhineland Palatinate and southern Baden-Württemberg.

He first became famous as a presenter for the German radio broadcasting programme on Radio Luxembourg. He started out in television with shows such as Spiel ohne Grenzen and Die Montagsmaler.

In 1981 he invented the show Wetten, dass..? which became extremely popular and was, for some time, one of the most successful shows in Europe. That year, Elstner was presented with a Bambi, the German television and media prize. In Britain it was copied as You Bet! and ran from 1988 to 1997. Elstner presented the German show himself until 1987, appearing 39 times altogether, before handing it over to Thomas Gottschalk.

Elstner worked for ZDF television company for many years but moved to RTL when viewing figures dropped. Here, he presented the German version of the quiz show Jeopardy!.