Moderator Frank Plasberg made room for his successor Louis Klamroth in the last edition of the talk show "hart aber fair" that he presented.

At the end of the show on Monday evening, Klamroth surprisingly left the scene and asked Plasberg: "Frank, you have to give up a bit of control now." Then he asked him to "take a step to the side" - so that he could press the famous pad himself for the first time, with which small films can be started with "hard but fair". Plasberg let him do it. After that, Klamroth showed a big farewell film with scenes from Plasberg's "hard but fair" days.

The 65-year-old had declared in the summer that he wanted to give up the moderation of the ARD talk after more than 20 years. He had hosted the show since 2001. The big moment came on Monday - Plasberg said goodbye to his audience. "hard but fair" should now take a break and be presented by 2023 by the much younger Klamroth.

Before Klamroth's short appearance, Plasberg's longtime colleague and "spectator advocate" Brigitte Büscher had already presented selected opinions from the audience on the departure of the long-term host. Some were quite critical. A viewer wrote: "Maybe the new presenter will bring some atmosphere into the booth." But many were benevolent. A viewer explained that she "actually only watched because of Mr. Plasberg". The new moderator is following in "big footsteps". Plasberg greeted Klamroth a little later with the sentence: "Hello Louis, what is your shoe size?"

"Thanks Frank"

In the end, Plasberg stood in front of the studio audience and show staff with a large bouquet of flowers, who applauded him. He in turn thanked his colleagues and the spectators. A video wall said "Thank you Frank".

"It's a nice day for me," said Plasberg. A 79-year-old professor gave him advice on how to deal with the following phase of life. It was the advice that his wife had given him: "Always wear light-colored clothes and smell nice." Plasberg promised: "I'll do it."

Incidentally, the topic of the "hard but fair" issue was the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. Despite a cold, Plasberg led the discussion smoothly as usual ("That's a political formula!", "Oh! The hot potato is just being passed over there!"). However, he had also known that it was not an easy subject for him. "My editorial team is sweating blood and water," he explained. "Because I can't really play football. And of all things in the last show."