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Friede Springer and Mathias Döpfner (archive picture from 2017)
Photo:
Britta Pedersen / dpa
Fall begins, the pandemic doesn't stop, and Netflix is already empty.
New material is needed!
And there it comes: The Axel Springer publishing house is surprising with a promising trailer for a revolutionary reality soap.
As if the news weren't already spectacular enough: the publisher's widow Friede Springer sells her chief manager for around a quarter of a billion euros in corporate shares and gives him shares worth around a billion.
He should exercise the voting rights for the remaining shares.
Now it turns out: The mega-deal is apparently to be filmed as a documentary soap.
In any case, there is already a first scene to be seen - and it makes you want more.
In 4 minutes and 9 seconds all the conflicts and entanglements of a story are laid out in which everything is oversized: love, wealth, ambition.
And after this brief glimpse, we suspect: All of this is in danger.
The action begins without a trace.
We see two people in a wood-paneled setting, in the background a bookshelf with leather-bound works, a painting and an ashtray made of heavy metal mark the setting: exhibited wealth in a country house style, no longer modern, but solid.
Friede Springer, elegant in pink, on a leather armchair.
She looks a bit excited, her hands are gesturing under the coffee table.
She is about to give away a billion euros publicly - to the man across the street: Mathias Döpfner, in a tight blue suit, Springer's chief employee since 2002, sits bent forward, legs spread wide.
"I am now firmly determined, the time has come, the contracts are ready," says Friede Springer, "Mathias, you will be my successor."
A big moment for the Springer Group, but above all for Döpfner: He is probably the first music critic to become a billionaire.
A great success.
Döpfner involuntarily rubs his hands when Springer says: "We have an excellent board."
Then the fingertips lie still on top of one another, like an arrow pointed at Friede Springer, Döpfner is directed towards them with every fiber of his body, towards the most important woman of his life.
Springer is the godmother of his second son, and in 2012 she gave Döpfner shares worth 73 million euros because she liked him back then and wanted to tie him to the company.
Compared to the current donation, this is a comparatively poor proof of sympathy.
Today it has to be at least love, skin and hair.
A promise for the ages
"Sometimes I still have a little trouble with that," says Döpfner, he laughs for a second as if he couldn't believe it himself, a billion, madness.
Or was he trying to make a joke?
Of course, Döpfner doesn’t miss any words, he has thought everything through carefully, he knows what he has to express now, immediately put it back and in a muted voice: gratitude.
Then he makes a promise for eternity: "I will give everything for the company to always run it in the interests of the founder and in your interests."
"Mathias, I'm sure of that," says Friede Springer, she knocks energetically on the table, she has no doubts, she wants that now.
"We have an excellent board," says Friede Springer again, and Döpfner rubs his hands again, it seems to be a very important, perhaps the most important sentence, and it evidently fills him with great satisfaction to be able to hear it repeatedly.
Then an interesting cut.
Friede Springer has just said how important it is to her that Döpfner will now lead the company, her voice is picking up speed, she feels comfortable with the decision, she looks positively excited: "It will be a good time."
Then the cut.
Obviously it had to be started repeatedly for what follows now - and what will follow for Springer, the woman and the group.
"We will continue to do this together in the future," says Döpfner soothingly, his hands open, his gesture signaling a concession.
Friede Springer knocks on the table: "I'll stay here, I'll stay here in the office," she exclaims and gesticulates that she will stay with her index finger pointing towards the table, this is exactly where she will stay, Döpfner agrees.
"Yes ... yes yes ... yes, absolutely," he says, while Friede Springer paints the future together: "It's not like I let go of everything."
At this point Döpfner's remarkably short glance, a sharp inhalation, the right hand goes up to support his head.
The dream of sole rulership, he is just hearing it, is not yet entirely reality.
The boss will still come to the office every day.
They will continue to spend a lot of time together.
She has given him her voting rights, but he will still have her voice in his ears.
She doesn't want to let go yet, she just wants to take precautions in the event that something happens to her - then everything should be in the right hands.
After this emotional sequence a new cut, possibly had to be reassured, had to be comforted.
After the cut, time seems to have passed, the mood is now sober, Döpfner talks about continuity, everything should stay that way, he won't reveal the company's values.
"As successful as before," agrees Friede Springer.
The break point
And we suspect: it won't be able to stay the way it was.
Because the house has not been as successful as it used to be, as it was in the great times.
That is the break point.
At a time when everything is fundamentally changing, and the media business is changing even faster than anything else, the Springer Group will have to change, possibly hard and without any false consideration of wood-paneled tradition.
This is what the next episodes of this saga will be about: The long goodbye to the old lady, Springer's departure from Springer.
The change without which no future is possible.
But not yet, not in the hour of the great gift.
Döpfner stoops in grateful modesty, and as a stock billionaire he also wants to stay down to earth.
Friede Springer pats the left knuckle of his knotted hands, he has apparently said what she wanted to hear, passed the test: "Great! We can do it, Mathias."
She comes here every day, to the publishing house, and be grateful to God when she was gone and could return to where she belongs.
And from.
What a cliffhanger.
She passed up but hasn't left yet.
He should lead now, but not without her.
Everything should stay that way, and yet it has to be different.
"The Legacy of the Godmother" shows us a man facing an almost impossible task, between tradition and upheaval, humble, loyal, but also tough and ambitious.
When will he break his chains?
It will be an exciting autumn in the golden Springer Palace - and on our television screens.
Icon: The mirror
