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Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer and the most important media zampano in the country
Photo: Christoph Hardt / Future Image / IMAGO
It is difficult to say what Mathias Döpfner actually does professionally.
The 58-year-old is officially CEO of Axel Springer AG, the man at the head of the »Bild« and »Welt« publishers and the most important media zampano in the country.
The only thing that Döpfner clearly had no idea about was what was going on in his own company.
Axel Springer wrote in the press release that sealed Julian Reichelt's departure from "Bild" "as a result of press research".
There is talk of "new findings", they have learned that Reichelt still "has not clearly separated" private and professional matters.
What a shock it must have been to the poor billionaire that his trust was so abused.
How could Reichelt disappoint him so badly?
It's a ridiculous spectacle.
How much the "Bild" boss harassed young women in his own editorial team, how many problematic affairs he had with interns and volunteers, what macho culture prevailed and prevailed in Germany's largest newspaper, Mathias Döpfner has known not just since yesterday.
Nor did he find out from a report in the New York Times or from inquiries from SPIEGEL and Ippen Investigativ.
He found out for himself months ago.
In February of this year, Axel Springer initiated compliance proceedings against Julian Reichelt, triggered not by competitive media critical of the tabloid or by evil politicians, but by information from their own company.
SPIEGEL reported on it first.
Snuggle in the same trench
Hardly any of the information that is now on the table can therefore surprise Döpfner. They could be read in the final report of the Freshfields law firm, which Springer had provided with the clarification, in minutes and notes. Döpfner was one of only three people to receive the report, but the entire industry knew the individual cases in their bad and bad details. Nonetheless, Döpfner stuck to Reichelt and, after only twelve days off, brought him back to the understanding family. Like a somewhat too naughty, naughty son who, unfortunately, cannot be chosen.
"Instead of a termination, there was a second chance," writes Springer now, as if Reichelt's alleged abuse of power had only been a one-off slip - and not a system that had been tolerated for years. In reality, Döpfner gave his most important journalist a downright blank check on second chances. Reichelt used it in the interests of his sponsor: politically, you cuddled in the same trench, the rest didn't really matter.
When asked about the many collateral damage that this strategy caused, Döpfner reacted as is usual in the Springer cosmos: with distractions, declarations of solidarity, reversals of guilt. The fact that the publisher, in a WhatsApp message that has now become known, compared the federal government's corona policy with the “GDR governmental state” and railed against “propaganda assistants” in journalism may be politically explosive. What is characteristic of Döpfner and his house, however, is what he writes afterwards: the reasons for his deliberate, long-term looking away. "You make a lot of powerful enemies every day," writes the Springer boss about Julian Reichelt. "And we always have to distinguish very precisely where the opposition comes from."
The whispering tone with which Döpfner tried to preventively refute the statements of the women concerned, fits the wagon castle mentality in which "Bild" and Springer have comfortably settled down.
Anyone who sees only friend and foe in the world must interpret every attack as a conspiracy.
He must close ranks at all costs.
Not a word of apology
Stab-in-the-back legends are told about Reichelt's departure not only in relevant Telegram groups, they can also be found in the beginning in the publisher's official announcement. Springer hardly finds a critical word about the killed editor-in-chief. Instead, »legal action against third parties« is announced that would have had the aim of »damaging« the newspaper and the publisher. Springer sees himself as a victim, to the bitter end, for the women concerned neither Springer nor Döpfner can find a single word of apology.
It is true that the Reichelt system has now been put to an end.
The fact that even after the compliance procedure, which was uncomfortable for him, he still had at least one affair with a subordinate in the spring and lied to the management board about it, shows how safe and unassailable he felt under his powerful publisher.
Rightly so: In the end, it was not Döpfner who sealed Reichelt's fate, but the storm triggered by an article in the New York Times.
The paper wanted to know from the publisher whether Springer would also introduce such a work culture in America for his new prestige project »Politico«.
Döpfner denied that “no behavior will be tolerated that contradicts the clear compliance guidelines.” The “Bild” work culture will not be introduced in the USA.
It was evidently good enough for Germany for many years.