Head of HR Politics and Current Affairs
Shakuntala Banerjee will take over as head of the Politics and Current Affairs editorial department on 1 November this year. The main editorial team includes the editorial departments "Special Programmes", "Germany", "Europe", "Documentaries", "Foreign Journal", "maybrit illner" and "Social Reportage". Ms Banerjee has been working for ZDF since 2004 and has since held various positions as editor, reporter, presenter and manager in the editorial department. As a correspondent, she has worked in the ZDF studios in Erfurt, Wiesbaden and Brussels. Since 2019, Ms Banerjee has been reporting as a political correspondent from the capital city studio, where she is also the deputy head of the capital city studio and presents the political magazine programme "Berlin direkt". 

Deputy Head of Capital City Studio
Ms Banerjee will be succeeded by Dr Wulf Schmiese. The former head of "heute journal" will move to Berlin in July 2024. There, he will take over from the head of the capital city studio, Diana Zimmermann, in her absence. The experienced political journalist and editorial manager will also be working as an author, switching partner and presenter of "Berlin direkt" and the ZDF summer interviews. The former capital city correspondent for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" moved to ZDF in 2010, where he initially presented the "ZDF-Morgenmagazin" programme. From 2014 to 2017, Schmiese was a correspondent in the ZDF capital city studio. In April 2017, he moved to the headquarters in Mainz as head of the "heute journal" editorial team.  

Head of "heute journal"
The new head of "heute journal" will be Dr Stefan Leifert, the current head of the Bavarian regional studio. He will move to Mainz on 1 August 2024. Leifert joined ZDF in 2005 and worked as an editor and reporter for the parliamentary desk of the capital city studio. In 2014, he moved to the Brussels foreign studio as a correspondent. He has been head of the ZDF regional studio in Munich since June 2021.