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Katrin Vernau before the meeting
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) is temporarily getting a new boss: WDR manager Katrin Vernau is to lead the ARD sister station through the coming months in the middle of the crisis.
On Wednesday, the RBB Broadcasting Council control body elected the 49-year-old administrative director of West German Broadcasting (WDR) in the second ballot as interim director.
Difficult and arduous times are coming for Vernau.
Your boss and WDR director Tom Buhrow had casually spoken of a "fire brigade operation" at the post a few days ago.
Allegations of felony and nepotism against the director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice, and the resigned chief controller Wolf-Dieter Wolf have severely damaged the public broadcaster - and with it the entire system.
The General Prosecutor's Office in Berlin determined and searched the directorship.
An external investigation into a law firm is also underway.
The presumption of innocence applies until the allegations have been clarified.
Vernau is considered competent - but the choice was controversial
With Vernau, a connoisseur of the crooked and widely ramified public service broadcasting comes to the RBB.
As Administrative Director of WDR, Vernau controls one of the largest organizations in public broadcasting.
She is considered competent and hands-on.
In May 2019, she was re-elected to her position as Administrative Director by a large majority.
She has held the post since 2015.
Her current term of office runs until the end of February 2025. Vernau's management area at WDR is large: This includes the areas of human resources, finance, building management, IT development, internal organizational consulting, archives and canteen operations.
Compared to WDR, RBB is one of the smaller ARD broadcasters.
Before the election, there had also been voices calling for a different solution – someone who had previously had nothing to do with the system.
RBB board chairwoman Dorette König said on Wednesday in the media committee in the Berlin House of Representatives that she initially also had a candidate outside of ARD for the office.
The editorial committee and the representatives of the freelance employees of the RBB did not like the fact that there was not a choice of several candidates for the interim position.
The free agency also announced: »The actions of the WDR director in dealing with the RBB leadership crisis were viewed with great skepticism by the RBB workforce.
The mere impression that Ms. Vernau is being appointed as a representative of the WDR would be a considerable burden.«
Experience in the private sector and in higher education
Vernau, who holds a doctorate in economics and was born in Villingen-Schwenningen in Baden-Württemberg in 1973, has also gained experience in the private sector.
She was a partner at the management consultancy Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and headed the Roland Berger School of Strategy and Economics.
At times she was also Chancellor of the University of Hamburg and then the University of Ulm until 2015.
At the same time, the position of the WDR within the ARD is strengthened with the appointment of Vernau.
Director Buhrow himself had already stepped in for the important post of ARD chairman, which Schlesinger had to give up in the middle of the RBB affair.
Buhrow had been their representative and thus moved up.
Until the end of the year, the ARD boss will represent the nine houses of the broadcasting community in dealings with society and politics – a key function.
After that, the SWR will probably take over.
In an unprecedented action, Buhrow had declared on behalf of the other ARD directors that they had lost confidence in the current RBB management.
For example, the directors noticed that they first had to find out information about the RBB from the press, they lacked transparency.
In this way they isolated the ARD broadcaster and are now switching without the RBB.
In Berlin and Brandenburg, some were outraged and offended by this step.
kko/dpa
