[1] He grew up in West Berlin and attended a humanities-oriented gymnasium with subjects such as Latin, Greek, classical music, literature and theatre.
In 1974, at a television awards ceremony for direkt, Peter Rüchel met Hans-Geert Falkenberg [de], the then-head of the WDR cultural department.
In Cologne, Peter Rüchel met Christian Wagner [de], then still a student of Filmhochschule München, with whom he collaborated in the following years and who made him familiar with the world of rock music.
[1] The disastrous result of the Rockpalast of 19 October 1985, when The Armoury Show, Squeeze, Rodgau Monotones [de] and Ruben Blades drew just 3000 viewers into the Grugahalle (Rüchel: My most depressing moment!)
[1] Rüchel made friends with some of the music scene's performers over the years, including Pete Townshend, whom he first met in London in 1981, as well as Little Steven.
[4] With Rockpalast, Peter Rüchel since the second half of the 1970s has completed what Mike Leckebusch [de] had brought on its way in a short flowering of Beat Club between 1969 and 1972, which, however, was not allowed to continue due to commercial pressure.
Together with his congenial director Christian Wagner [de], the editor Rüchel at WDR established an internationally respected television program reconciling live rock music with this medium.
For many years this has been Europe's most successful show it terms of making rock a very close, uncensored and handmade TV experience unforgettable to millions.