Who was on Axel Springer’s list of comedy suspects?

Our investigation into how Axel Springer handled allegations against its star editor, Julian Reichelt, left one mystery that has since been picked over on German social media.

Who were the suspected comedian conspirators?

As we wrote, Axel Springer chief executive Matthias Döpfner and his confidants believed a “leftwing bubble” may have worked behind the scenes to push allegations that Reichelt, editor of the publishing group’s tabloid Bild, had mistreated female colleagues.

Axel Springer had told the FT that it had “clear indications” that third parties attempted to oust the editor and harm the company, “including a list of persons named by Julian Reichelt”.

Senior staff hired an external lawyer and discussed a number of people to be investigated, including two satirists.

A person familiar with the publisher’s internal discussions told the FT that Döpfner was not himself aware of the targets’ identities and added that the probe petered out quite quickly.

For space reasons and because their names do not resonate outside Germany, we did not reveal the probe’s targets in our investigation.

Two hours after our story was published online, Jan Böhmermann, a comedian with 2.4mn followers who hosts ZDF’s “Magazin Royale”, went into overdrive on Twitter, firing a fusillade of tweets and asking: “Dear @ft, would you please kindly check with your sources whether one of those “two German satirists” by any chance goes by the name “Jan Böhmermann”?

So, here are the names we can provide . . . 

Former Bild editor-in-chief turned PR man, Kai Diekmann, who is apparently suspected of having an anti-Reichelt agenda. Diekmann declined to comment.

Friedrich Küppersbusch, from the ZDF satirical news programme, the “Heute Show”. He opened a segment on March 5 pretending to snort cocaine (an accusation that initially featured in the compliance case, which Reichelt denied and which the Axel Springer investigation did not substantiate) and saying he was inviting a Bild colleague over “but I’m too old for sexual assault” (an allegation that was never even raised against Reichelt). Küppersbusch did not respond to an FT request for comment.

And then, of course, there was indeed Jan Böhmermann. The Jon Stewart of Germany, he attracted Axel Springer’s suspicion after hinting on March 5 that he knew a probe was coming into Reichelt — his longtime nemesis — before it was made public. Böhmermann declined to comment.

This is only a minor skirmish for Böhmermann. In 2016, he caused a diplomatic row between Germany and Turkey when he published a satirical poem that said Recep Tayipp Erdogan fornicated with goats. Erdogan filed criminal charges against the comedian — and threatened to shoot down a refugee deal with Germany. (Prosecutors later closed the case without filing charges).

It’s a serious business making jokes in what Böhmermann calls “the motherland of fun and laughter”.

Related Links:
Women spoke up, men cried conspiracy: inside Axel Springer’s #MeToo moment -- FT