Status: 04/13/2023 3:12 p.m
Springer boss Döpfner is said to have made disparaging comments about East Germans in text messages and emails and tried to intervene in the federal election campaign. From Springer circles it is said that the article consists of “manipulative SMS shreds”.
A media report about alleged internal messages from Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner has again caused a stir about the affair surrounding the former “Bild” editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt.
The weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” published a long report on the Springer boss in the morning and referred to documents that are said to have come from previous years. These are e-mails and chat messages from the media group’s closest management circle. Many are from the Springer boss himself.
Several messages addressed directly to Reichelt
The newspaper listed several quotes. It is striking that several were said to have been sent directly by Döpfner to the then “Bild” editor-in-chief Reichelt. The journalistic brand “Bild” is part of the Springer portfolio.
The quotes that “Die Zeit” lists, including the spelling mistakes they contain, deal with derogatory remarks about East Germany, for example. According to the newspaper report, the head of the group is said to have written in 2019: “The ossis will never become democrats. Perhaps the former GDR should be turned into an agricultural and production zone with a standard wage.”
Other quotes are about sympathy for Donald Trump’s policies. And apparently Döpfner also criticized ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Zeit” used a quote in which “M” is mentioned. “It is a nail in the coffin of democracy.” In another message he is said to have written verbatim: “free west, fuck the intolerant muslims and all that other sex”.
Döpfner is also said to have acted in a partisan way
The newspaper also writes that the head of the publishing house, Döpfner, acted in a partisan way. He is said to have wished for pro-FDP reporting in the “Bild” before the last federal election. Two days before the general election, he is said to have urged Reichelt: “Please strengthen the FDP. If they are very strong, they can be so authoritarian in traffic lights that they burst. And then Jamaica works.”
According to information from the dpa news agency, Springer circles reacted by saying that the article consisted of “manipulative SMS scraps”. Döpfner is a publishing boss with strong opinions, who as a matter of principle always challenges opposing opinions and contradictions and repeatedly polemicizes in return. You can be measured by what is in the publisher’s publications, not by alleged excerpts from personal chats. The intention of the article is recognizable: it should cause unrest and distract from the essentials.
allegations of abuse of power
With the article, the Reichelt affair catches up with the media group, which wants to expand primarily in the USA. Reichelt had to vacate his position as editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest tabloid in autumn 2021 and leave the group.
The background to his end at “Bild” had been allegations of abuse of power in connection with consensual relationships with employees. The journalist himself later spoke of a “smear campaign” against him and had rejected allegations.
Döpfner had already been criticized for a private short message. In a message to the writer Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, the Springer boss described Reichelt as the last and only journalist in Germany who was still bravely rebelling against the “new GDR authoritarian state”. Almost everyone else had become “propaganda assistants”. Springer classified the short message as ironic.