For a quarter century Mathias Döpfner – 6ft 7in tall, mahogany tan and collector of female nude portraits – has been Germany’s most colourful media mogul.
Now leaked text messages – denouncing Angela Merkel’s politics and praying for Donald Trump’s re-election – have added further splashes of colour to the public image of the 60-year-old billionaire chief of the Springer group, publisher of the powerful Bild tabloid.
The texts have caused ructions in Berlin and, ahead of two looming tell-all books and blowback from a sexual harassment inquiry at Bild, could revive unrest among US investors in Springer, ultimate owner of the news portal Politico.
In his texts, Döpfner – raised in Offenbach, near the western city of Frankfurt – describes eastern Germans, so-called “Ossis”, as “disgusting”.
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“They are either communists or fascists with nothing in between,” he wrote, suggesting Germany’s east become an “agriculture-production zone”.
Germany’s most prominent Ossi, Angela Merkel, is referred to as M in the Döpfner texts. In one message he suggests she has “lost her reason” and is “the nail in democracy’s coffin” because her politics allegedly boost the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
He described Covid-19 as “a flu dangerous for old people and invalids” and Germany’s pandemic lockdowns as a “collective loss of sense, a coup of emotionality ... the end of the market economy. And the start of 33,″ apparently a reference to Hitler’s rise to power 80 years ago.
Another message proposed a morning meeting of top Springer executives to pray for Donald Trump’s election victory over Joe Biden.
As for climate change, he wrote: “We shouldn’t fight climate change but adapt to it.”
In the messages, leaked to Die Zeit weekly, Döpfner insists that Springer outlets show “zero tolerance” for “intolerant Muslims” and “naturally, Zionism über alles. Israel my country.”
Founded by German publisher Axel Springer in 1946 and now Europe’s largest news publishing company, Springer demands employees sign up to core principles which include support for the transatlantic alliance and Israel.
After a rapid rise through the company ranks, Döpfner was appointed chief executive in 2002 by the founder’s widow, Friede Springer, who later transferred her controlling shareholding to him.
Now worth an estimated €1.2 billion, Döpfner has pushed rapid change at Springer, selling off print titles and selling nearly half the company to private US investors. Their cash has helped Springer exit the stock market and finance a new digital strategy.
In recent years, as Bild’s circulation plummeted to historic lows, he backed new editor Julian Reichelt’s push to make the tabloid a culture war crusader against perceived “woke” political correctness. When Reichelt was accused of abusing his authority to solicit sexual favours from young female staffers, Döpfner backed him and an internal investigation ended with the editor’s reinstatement.
When the New York Times produced further harassment allegations, Döpfner worried in a text that the article could endanger Springer’s 2021 takeover of Politico and “cost me my Netflix board seat”. Days later, he dropped Reichelt, who is now suing his former employer for wrongful dismissal.
The ex-Bild editor is just one possible leaker of Döpfner’s messages in a crowded field. Others include a disillusioned author friend, recently ditched Bild editors or journalists at the tabloid, one in five of whom will be fired as Springer shifts away from newsprint and embraces artificial intelligence.
Responding to the leaked texts in a meeting with staff, Döpfner denied he was negatively disposed to east Germans or Muslims. But he said he was “disappointed” by easterners’ support for extremist parties and described Islamist extremism as “a threat to our democratic values and security”.
Meanwhile, Döpfner insisted climate change is “real and threatening, but I reserve the right to occasionally make fun of the reaction towards it”.
