Mathias Döpfner
Photo: Max Threlfall/Axel Springer
From the BZ editorial team
“Actually, an apology is due, boss!” Marion Horn wrote in BILD and BZ on Saturday.
Is correct. I apologize for offending, unsettling or hurting many with my words. An example: “The Ossis are either communists or fascists.” That is hurtful. And literally nonsense, of course.
“The” Ossis do not exist. And of course they are not either right-wing or left-wing.
The annoyance that so many people in Thuringia and elsewhere are voting for either the left or the AfD led me to polemical exaggeration. I don’t know about you – I don’t always manage to use the correct tone of voice when writing private messages.
When I’m angry or very happy, my phone becomes a lightning rod. I then sometimes send words that are said or typed “into the impure” to people I trust very much. Because I assume the recipient knows what is meant. And because I can’t or don’t want to imagine anyone passing these words on to anyone else.
But that has now happened. There are many lessons to be learned from this. I did this. One of them remains the idea of “freedom of thought”.
By Mathias Döpfner