The head of the Springer publishing house, who had made disparaging remarks about East Germans in private text messages, is “finally no longer acceptable” at the head of a publishing house, says SPD politician Carsten Schneider.
The Federal Government Commissioner for East Germany, Carsten Schneider (SPD), calls for the expulsion of Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner after the disclosure of private messages. “After this publication, Mr. Döpfner is finally no longer acceptable at the head of a publisher with this journalistic power and in view of the important role of the media for our democracy,” Schneider told the news portal t-online.
Schneider was reacting to a report in the Timeaccording to which Döpfner had written, among other things, in Springer’s internal mail and chat traffic: “The ossis are either communists or fascists. They don’t do it in between. Disgusting.”
Döpfner had sent the chat and e-mail messages that were passed to the newspaper to friends, acquaintances and work colleagues on various occasions in the past few years.
Schneider said it was the job of the media to paint a realistic picture of society. This includes the perspective of the East Germans, “which, more than 30 years after reunification, still has too little effect.” Döpfner not only shows “contempt for this perspective and the people, but also for democracy,” criticized Schneider. And further: The division of the country should not be a business model.