2023-05-11 15:48:52
Düsseldorf No one has been editor-in-chief of Europe’s largest tabloid as long as he has. The former head of the “Bild” newspaper Kai Diekmann published his memoirs on Thursday.
“I was an image” is written on the work. Diekmann, 58, can claim that: Between 2001 and 2017 he was editor-in-chief and later publisher of Germany’s most powerful, most popular and probably most hated newspaper. “Image is my drug,” he writes.
In Diekmann’s time, the “Bild” reached twelve million readers with headlines like “We are Pope”, almost twice as many as today. In the prologue he claims to be a “manic Messi”. The notes, calendar and diary entries he has kept provide insights into the Axel Springer media group and shed light on the mechanisms of the media, power and politics. Diekmann had planned 350 pages, it turned out to be almost 550 – garnished with letters and photos as evidence.
The book comes at a time when things are turbulent at Axel Springer Verlag. After Diekmann’s departure, “Bild” has worn out five editors-in-chief, the interim boss Julian Reichelt is accused of abuse of power.
In addition, internal chats have recently become public in which the head of the publishing house, Mathias Döpfner, made disparaging remarks about East Germans or foreigners. The news also suggests that the manager has interfered in the content.
>> Read more: That’s in Stuckrad-Barre’s book about the Springer affair
Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre’s “Still awake?” is number one on the “Spiegel” bestseller list. He reports on an editorial office in which employees complain about the abuse of power by their editor-in-chief. Observers see it as describing the conditions at Springer, Stuckrad-Barre describes the work as fiction.
No continuation of the Springer scandals
Anyone expecting a continuation of the Springer scandals in Diekmann’s biography will be disappointed. “There is no public talk about successors,” writes Diekmann in the epilogue. “Without question, I would have wished for a happier development.” That is material for another book. Reichelt only gets a chance to speak casually half a dozen times when Diekmann reports on joint research or editorial meetings.
“Ich bin Bild” is above all a nostalgic look into the past, when the newspaper was still a leading medium and the publishing house was more harmonious than it is today. Anyone interested in the media industry, the inner workings of a tabloid and the relationship between journalists and politicians will get their money’s worth.
And yet the book also says something about Springer’s presence. In his book, Diekmann publishes numerous messages that Döpfner sent him. This is especially true for the first chapter, which is well worth reading, in which the author deals with the affair surrounding the former Federal President Christian Wulff.
The “Bild” newspaper revealed at the time that Wulff had not truthfully answered a question about financing his home during his time as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony. Wulff tried to prevent the reports by speaking to Diekmann on the mailbox and threatening him with “war” and a “lawsuit”.
During this time, Döpfner and Diekmann often exchanged ideas. “Possibly. we have to react very quickly to the interview with Wulff. It may well be that he spreads a lie,” Diekmann quotes this SMS from Döpfner. The chapter shows how Döpfner wanted to promote reporting. But: “I never felt like I was getting instructions from him,” says Diekmann in an interview about the publisher’s boss.
>> Read more: Mathias Döpfner under pressure after radical emails
The relationship between the two is considered ambivalent, Diekmann pursued the plan to rise to the Springer board, which is said to have failed because of Döpfner. After his time at “Bild”, Diekmann founded the agency Storymachine, where he is currently not operationally active.
Ambivalent relationship between media and politics
The first chapter, titled “Pretty best enemies”, describes the difficult relationship between the media and politics, from Diekmann and Wulff. In the early days, the “Bild” boss was a frequent guest at Bellevue Palace. Diekmann quotes letters from Wulff to “dear dear Kai Diekmann”, who thanked him for the “support surrounding the election for the Federal President”.
Kai Diekmann: I was BILD
German publishing house
München 2023
544 pages
34 Euro
But there was a break between the two men, “the office had changed him, unfortunately not for the better,” writes Diekmann. Wulff later claims to have felt harassed by “Bild”. Critics accuse the newspaper of running a campaign against Wulff. Diekmann writes: “I think it’s a mistake to believe that the media are not allowed to run campaigns.” You have to fight passionately if you think something is right or wrong.
Twelve chapters on death threats, reconciliations and arguments
Diekmann’s book is divided into twelve chapters: He reports how he was under police protection after death threats and how his car was set on fire. “Some days Springer-Verlag receives more hate mail than invoices.”
He addresses his reconciliation with the “Bild” critic Günter Wallraff and his dispute with ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He apologizes to him: “Bild” criticized the SPD at the time with headlines like “Pension cuts because of Hartz IV?”. “Today I know that was a brutal campaign that was wrong on the matter,” writes Diekmann.
He praised Angela Merkel’s refugee policy and called for more engagement on this issue. With headlines like “Refugees welcome”, “Bild” reported positively about the refugees at the time. Diekmann obviously has a different point of view than publisher Döpfner on this issue. Many xenophobic statements were made public in his leaked chats.
Diekmann has already got himself into trouble with his book: the son of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl is considering taking legal action because he feels that he has been misrepresented. Diekmann must have expected that, right at the beginning he writes that lawyers have checked every page.
Diekmann’s meeting with the mighty of the world
Diekmann describes Kohl as a “fatherly friend” with whom he was best man and on his deathbed. In many places, Diekmann wants to give the impression of having met the powerful of this world on an equal footing.
Diekmann has often met with the powerful politicians of this world.
(Photo: imago/ITAR-TASS)
“I’m a theater director,” he writes – and he was on stage himself: He spoke to powerful politicians such as former US President Donald Trump or Russia’s head of state Vladimir Putin. After his interview in 2001, he even went swimming with Putin. “I would never have thought that one day there would be so much blood on his hands,” writes Diekmann.
In his book, the ex-“Bild” boss tries to garnish contemporary history with his own observations. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is said to have occasionally fallen asleep at Kohl’s funeral. And at a gala in Istanbul, alcohol and music frantically disappeared because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly showed up.
Marketing on your own behalf
With his book, Diekmann primarily does marketing for the “Bild” newspaper and his journalism. He often propagates that he was on the right side and therefore even avoided making headlines. For example, he points out that the sound recording of the Wulff mailbox has not yet been published.
For Diekmann, writing the book became “an unexpected journey of the soul,” he says. “There is not just one truth,” he writes, “different truths can be diametrically opposed.” This apparently also applies to his departure from Bild.
More on the subject:
An employee accused him of sexual harassment. The termination had been planned for a long time and “at best accelerated the planned farewell,” Springer said at the time. Prosecutors could not find any evidence to support the allegations. Diekmann leaves this entirely unmentioned in his book.
For this he answers the question of what his power as picture editor-in-chief was. “For 16 years, I finally decided who gets the big stages and the bright spotlights to reach a mass audience with his messages.” He apparently wants to do that again with his work in a weaker form. According to the Penguin Random House publishing group, the initial print run is 70,000 copies, and another is in preparation.
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