2023-04-15 21:23:26
Our author draws a link between Döpfner’s Ossi-baiting, Springer journalism and the trust exhibition “Fate Treuhand – Treuhand Destinies”. A comment.
Mathias Döpfner, how much time does he still have as head of Springer?imago/stock&people
Springer boss Mathias Döpfner is making headlines again. Again the occasion is inglorious. Thanks to the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Döpfner’s world of ideas is open to the world – and I wish it wasn’t. “The ossis are either communists or fascists. In between they don’t. Disgusting,” says Döpfner. His mother had “always warned him about the Ossis. From Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler to Honnecker” that leads “in a direct line to AFD.” (Spelling taken from the original.)
The list of comments made by the Springer boss seems endless. She shows the dark side of power. Whether ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, Muslims or Ossis. Döpfner’s attitudes are discriminatory, derogatory and embarrassing. But they are not particularly new or surprising.
What do you expect from a CEO who temporarily held his hand protectively over Julian Reichelt? Even then, Döpfner said that the Bild editor-in-chief at the time was “really the last and only journalist in Germany who is still bravely rebelling against the new authoritarian GDR state”.
The New York Times (NYT) quoted Döpfner in 2021 and exposed the Reichelt scandal. But when a Springer stock billionaire wields the East German dictatorship club to cover up his employees’ bed affairs, the problem is definitely not Reichelt. It’s Döpfner and the Springer press system.
The “Reichelt scandal” then became the “Springer affair” and Reichelt became a symptom of a corporate culture in which everything that did not fit into the Springer business model was capped. This model – which is now shown by Die Zeit thanks to internal documents – is closely linked to the CEO. He keeps “loyalty among men” high, but economic growth and political influence higher. The media and market power of the group help him for both.
The Ossis seem to only be able to do “SED propaganda”.
For Döpfner, the tabloid Bild is a tool “to do politics,” confirms Die Zeit. Although the details of the calculation of power are shocking, this finding is not new either. Observers have been criticizing for years that the Springer press is pursuing an information policy. The group repeatedly uses its newspapers for information campaigns, for example against people fleeing, against climate activists, but also against publishing competitors.
Mathias Döpfner was President of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) until autumn 2022. Marijan Murat/dpa
It is not just a picture that is a medial means to a political end. Information campaigns can also be found in other Springer newspapers such as Die Welt. The fiduciary exhibition “Destiny Treuhand – Treuhand Destinies” is currently tearing it up.
In the article “The Left Party Foundation uses tax money to spread lies about the Treuhand”, history editor Sven Felix Kellerhoff complains about the “unconstitutional propaganda” of the exhibition. Now I’m researching the trust and the privatization of the GDR press. I know the exhibition well. One might think that Kellerhoff would not have visited her.
Because the exhibition shows a collection of East German life stories and the consequences of the trust policy for people after the reunification. So it’s about biographies, not about the SED state. As it is, Kellerhoff’s contribution fits into Döpfner’s communist cosmos. The Ossis seem to only be able to do “SED propaganda”. “From Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler to Honnecker”, as Döpfner so beautifully put it. “In between they don’t do it.”
We can now draw lines like these between Kellerhoff and Döpfner, thanks to time. Their initiative to publish internal documents from the Springer house is commendable. Because open conflicts with the Springer group are no small matter – they are well-considered steps. The group’s media and market power is not to be trifled with, because it goes beyond its own titles. The group is well networked, has great financial resources and can do more than just destroy its reputation.
The New York Times, the US press heavyweight, was needed for the Reichelt scandal. She washed the dirty laundry of German journalism; after that, the German media pounced on the case like hyenas. Now is the time to pioneer. It remains to be seen how the German media will deal with this weighty case.
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