By Michael Sauerbier
“We are all very upset,” complains one employee. “The really ugly things are yet to come. If we continue like this, I see black for our station.” After the leave of absence of director Patricia Schlesinger (61), the anger boils up among the employees of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB).
“I think everything that happens here sucks.” Deputy director Hagen Brandstätter (63) described the situation of the state broadcaster so drastically on Tuesday in front of around 1000 employees. The mood at the staff meeting: between anger and despair.
The director announced her resignation on Sunday, and on Monday the public prosecutor’s office initiated corruption investigations against Schlesinger, her husband and RBB chief supervisor Wolf-Dieter Wolf (78). The distribution of the transmitter to NDR and MDR is already being discussed.
“We need humility and not top salaries at the top”
Employees demanded the immediate resignation of Brandtäter and program director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus (53). Reason: the failure of the house management. A freelance editor: “You made our job pretty difficult. I no longer have confidence that you can help restart.”
“The management drove it up against the wall,” said a staff council employee, “now they have to resign.” Both RBB bosses declined. And then they had to explain what they were receiving high bonus payments for – including cost-cutting measures!
RBB director Patricia Schlesinger (61) has been on leave since Monday. The public prosecutor is investigating them for corruption Photo: picture alliance/dpa
An outraged employee. “We need humility and not top salaries at the top and bonuses in the tens of thousands!”
Schlesinger’s right hand, artistic director Verena Formen-Mohr, was surprisingly released by the broadcaster on Tuesday. Without notice to the staff. She had made a lightning career at RBB and also approved the expensive massage chair in the executive office.
“Now everything has to be on the table”
“Now everything has to be on the table,” demanded one employee, “otherwise others will do it: BILD, BZ and Business Insider.” A colleague demanded that the guest lists of the expensive “working lunches” in Schlesinger’s private apartment be looked at: “We have to ask ourselves: Is that true or is that a scam?”
RBB editor-in-chief David Biesinger (48) announced a journalistic research team on the station, saying: “We need our own facts, we have to come first in reporting.”
On Monday evening, the RBB “Abendschau” reported critically for the first time and showed Schlesinger’s luxury office. An employee: “It looked like a visit to GDR television in the bigwigs’ settlement in Wandlitz after the fall of Egon Krenz.”