“I didn’t know that it would be Italian oak parquet”
“Simply forbid public broadcasters to advertise”
“You can’t force people to pay for it and at the same time have structures that elude any control,” says WELT publisher Stefan Aust, criticizing public broadcasting. It should be “reduced to what it was there for,” says Aust.
She was “shocked” by the allegations and it pained her that they came from her “closest environment”, says former RBB director Patricia Schlesinger. She defends herself that she wouldn’t have chosen the Audi with massage seats, and some of the furniture is from her predecessor.
DThe dismissed director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Patricia Schlesinger, commented on the allegations against her in an interview. Apparently she is hardly aware of any wrongdoing. Schlesinger told Die Zeit that she was “shaken” by the allegations “to this day”.
The impact of the reporting was like a tsunami. “My doors were almost always open, I wanted my employees to know what I was doing. The allegations come from my closest circle. That hit me hard, it hurts me to this day.”
She confirmed that someone close to her passed on emails. She didn’t want to speculate about who it was. Schlesinger also admits mistakes. The modernization projects that she initiated together with the management turned the day-to-day work of many employees upside down. “In my view, the resentment and anger in the station are so strong that I blame myself for not seeing it,” says Schlesinger. “I’m sorry.” But she didn’t have the impression that criticism had been ignored there, “but obviously that was how it was received”. And she overestimated herself “how you can take people with you at such a pace”.
Schlesinger, who was dismissed without notice on August 22, spoke in detail about the privileges she enjoyed as director, such as a company car, an Audi A8 with massage seats. “I didn’t configure the car myself. I don’t need massage seats, that’s unnecessary clutter for me.” Her car was more “in the middle range” of other executives. “Anyone who knows me knows that cars don’t mean much to me.” She just said she needed space in the back for files. She couldn’t do anything for the generous discount that Audi granted for the car, she hadn’t negotiated it.
The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Schlesinger (61), who has led RBB since 2016 and who has also served as ARD chairwoman since the beginning of the year, on suspicion of infidelity and taking advantage.
“That’s why I didn’t care enough”
Schlesinger rejects reports that she ignored advice from RBB Controlling when she redesigned her office: “If someone warned me, unfortunately it didn’t reach me. I asked my female colleagues whether they had received such a warning. They said no.” The reason for the renovation was not a luxury craze, but “an urgently needed clean-up of harmful substances.” Regarding the furniture that is in her former office, she says: “It comes from my predecessor. I sat at her desk, in front of her bookshelves.” She admitted that she wished she had “wooden floors.” She says she didn’t know that it was Italian oak parquet. “That’s why I didn’t care enough.”
Furthermore, Schlesinger denies the allegation that she got her husband, a former Spiegel journalist, an assignment for her benefit. He is said to have received 100,000 euros for a book for the trade fair and 40,000 euros to introduce the new trade fair boss to the city of Berlin. According to Schlesinger, it turned out that no compliance rules had been violated. That was the result of the compliance investigation of the trade fair.
However, she admits: “From today’s perspective, I wish I had asked my husband not to accept the job.” When asked if she didn’t have a bad feeling when her husband accepted the job, she said: “I did I didn’t violate any compliance rules, so I asked about that immediately when the allegations came up.”
With the dinner, she tried to anchor the RBB better in the city. Restaurants were too expensive, she got offers from them. In total, it’s about nine evenings in four years. “They were very productive and constructive discussions.” The invitation cards said nothing about a housewarming. “I have accounted for everything to the best of my knowledge.”