Sender allegedly paid for husband
Schlesinger’s dinner: RBB journalists bring new allegations to light
Patricia Schlesinger has been Director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) since 2016
© Britta Pedersen / DPA
Privately at dinner, at work when doing the billing? Patricia Schlesinger’s dinners always raise new questions. In the meantime, in addition to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, the NDR is also interested in the felt and waste affair at RBB.
In the scandal and waste affair surrounding the resigned director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Patricia Schlesinger, journalists from the broadcaster have uncovered further possible inconsistencies in connection with entertainment costs.
According to the report, the then 59-year-old invited Berlinale director Mariette Rissenbeek to her home for a meal in February 2021. Cost: 206.47 euros, paid by RBB. It is said to have been an “official” dinner, just: Schlesinger’s husband Gerhard Spörl is said to have dined at the table – as well as four other of at least eight allegedly “business” dinners (total costs: 4,457.96 euros) in the Schlesinger house, which RBB is said to have paid. Spörl’s presence should not always have been stated correctly in the accounts. “How reliable are the other bills then?” ask the journalists in their reports.
Inconsistencies about dinner at Patricia Schlesinger’s
The findings about a dinner on February 12, 2022, which the “Business Insider” magazine uncovered in July, also suggest that Schlesinger’s dinner and the accounts could not always have been done correctly. The RBB was billed 1154.87 euros for this, nine people took a seat at the table at the alleged business meal in Schlesinger’s apartment on Berlin’s Schlachtensee, including her husband – and Berlin’s police chief Barbara Slowik and her husband.
However, the top official told RBB that she did not know anything about a business event: “I was invited to the inauguration of the new apartment with friends. That was the atmosphere and the mood.” If she had known that the costs had been passed on to the broadcaster, she would of course have paid for it, says Slowik. Other Schlesinger guests also told various media that they thought they were at private events.
The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office should also be interested in the incriminating statements made by Schlesinger’s guests. She is investigating the suspicion of infidelity and taking advantage against the resigned director, but fraud could also become an issue. Criminal offenses that could have serious consequences for Schlesinger – imprisonment is also possible.
The dinners in question are just one aspect of the ever-expanding affair about the RBB director. As reported, it is also about possible waste in the equipment of Schlesinger’s director floor at RBB, the private use of a luxurious company car and possibly also consulting contracts that came about through nepotism. At the same time, Schlesinger is said to have implemented tough austerity measures at RBB and created a climate of fear in the station.
RBB increasingly reports on its own behalf
Meanwhile, further trouble for Schlesinger may arise: the Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR) in Hamburg has turned on its anti-corruption officer. The background is the documentary drama “The Good Goering” from 2016. The NDR program department for culture and documentation was responsible for the production. Manager then: Patricia Schlesinger. One of the screenwriters: Schlesinger’s husband.
In addition to the official investigations, the RBB itself is also investigating the allegations against the former director. Journalists from the public-law institution report in detail about the conditions in their own company in their programs such as the “RBB-Abendschau” or the “Radio-Eins-Medienmagazin” and in this way try not only to provide information but also to save the tarnished image of their employer . However, they repeatedly complain about a lack of transparency at management level.
Patricia Schlesinger herself apparently does not want to make a clean sweep of the matter publicly for the time being. She has repeatedly stated that she does not want to comment on the allegations.
Sources: Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg (1), Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg (2), Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg (3), “Business Insiders”DPA news agency