He went to school in Heidelberg and Paris and graduated from the Urspring School in Schelklingen in 1961. Wickert then decided to study political science and law, which he completed in Bonn. From 1962 to 1963 he also studied in the USA on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1968, Wickert passed his state law exam and then worked as a freelance radio writer. Shortly afterwards he came to ARD as an employee and editor. In 1969 he entered television journalism, working as an editor and editor of the political television magazine "Monitor". From 1977 he worked abroad for ARD: He first went to Washington as a correspondent, from where he moved to Paris a year later. Wickert, who seemed to feel at home everywhere, came back to the USA in 1981, where he became ARD studio manager in New York. Three years later he took on the same task in Paris.

From 1990, the cosmopolitan moderated the ARD program "Tagesthemen" in Hamburg, succeeding Hanns Joachim Friedrichs. Through his prominent participation in the most important German news program, Wickert became one of the most famous faces in German television culture. However, the presenter has also created numerous radio and television documentaries and published many essays in magazines and anthologies. Not to be forgotten are several book publications. In 1981, Wickert wrote "Freedom I Fear - the State Disempowers Its Citizens," a critical political analysis of the Federal Republic of Germany. His foreign report "New York - Tokyo - Paris" followed in 1986 and the book "France, the wonderful illusion" in 1989. The journalist and publicist received a number of honors and awards for many other books.

In 1990, "Champagne Clans. German stories about a French invention" was awarded the German-French Journalist Prize. In 2000, Wickert was honored with the Adenauer-DeGaulle Prize for his contributions to German-French cooperation. The presenter also won prizes such as the "Horizon Award" as "Media Man of the Year" (1992), the German television award "Telestar" (1992) and the "Golden Camera" (1994). In a representative survey by the magazine "TV Today" about the most popular news presenters, the German television audience placed Wickert in third place in the popularity list in July 2003, where he had to give way to the "Tagesschau" spokeswoman Eva Herman and the RTL presenter Peter Kloeppel . At the end of September 2004, Wickert was appointed the first honorary professor at Magdeburg-Stendal University. There he gave lectures in the journalism and media management course from the winter semester of 2004/05.

In the winter semester of 2004/05 he became an honorary professor of journalism/media management at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. According to a representative survey of the German population in autumn 2004, Wickert took fourth place among the most popular German news presenters. At the end of August 2005 he presented the crime novel "The Desert Queen" to the public. In November 2005 he was made an officer of the Legion of Honor for his services to Franco-German relations. After 15 years, Ulrich Wickert ended his work at "Tagesthemen" on August 31, 2006. His successor will be the journalist Tom Buhrow. Since August 17, 2006, Wickert has moderated the literary program "Wickert's Books" for ARD.

Ulrich Wickert has been married to publishing manager Julia Jäkel for the third time since March 1, 2003.