[1] Kienzle was known for appearing on Frontal, a ZDF series of political discussions also featuring broadcast journalist Bodo Hugo Hauser.

[citation needed] Kienzle was born in Neckargröningen, Württemberg, today part of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany.

[5] From 1956 to 1967, he worked first as a freelancer, then beginning in 1963 as a permanent contributing editor of the Abendschau ("Evening News") of the Stuttgart-based regional broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR).

[5] In 1974, Kienzle started working for the national public broadcaster ARD as a correspondent, from 1974 to 1977 covering the Middle East and stationed in Beirut.

[2] From 1993 to 2000, he was one of the "combatants" in the weekly ZDF political magazine Frontal [de], which always featured a controversial debate between the more leftist Kienzle, usually taking the position of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and the more rightist Bodo Hugo Hauser, usually taking the position of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).