It’s the end of the ‘Die Welt’ as we know it (and ‘MD’ doesn’t feel fine). Over in Germany, continental Europe’s largest newspaper publisher, Politico owner Axel Springer, appeared to have gone full quisling Friday night when its flagship broadsheet Die Welt ran a commentary under the headline: “Zelenskyy’s behaviour threatens European security.”
At first glance, the piece, which led the outlet’s homepage on Friday night, appeared to signal a sea change, given that Die Welt and Springer have been among Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in Germany since the beginning of Russia’s all-out invasion in 2022. The Ukrainian flag even flies outside company headquarters.
The backlash wasn’t long in waiting. Dagmar Rosenfeld, a former senior editor and now publisher of another Springer affiliate, tweeted: “No, Zelenskyy is defending Europe’s freedom. That was always Welt’s position as I knew it.”
Then, Robin Alexander and Paul Ronzheimer, Springer’s two most prominent editorial voices weighed in, supporting Rosenfeld, as did Johannes Boie, a former editor-in-chief of Bild and Welt’s Sunday edition.
The whole episode threatened to devolve into what Germans have come to call der Shitstorm.
As regular readers of The Chattering Classes will know, it’s been difficult to keep up with the drama at Springer in recent weeks. After Donald Trump accused Politico of being a “LEFT WING ‘RAG’” and cancelled more than $8 million in subscriptions, Springer went into full damage control mode, culminating in CEO Mathias Döpfner’s peace offering in the FT last week, in which he characterised JD Vance’s unhinged speech in Munich as “inspiring”.
Döpfner is inspired no more. Following the backlash over Friday’s Die Welt column, the headline was changed to “A shock for Ukraine”.
Following the revision, a commentary appeared Saturday afternoon from Döpfner under the headline “Trump and the future of Europe – our world order is wobbling”. The text is part mea culpa, part call to arms.
“Many transatlanticists, including myself, wanted to believe that there was constructive concept beneath the provocative speeches and posts,” Döpfner wrote. “This hope has been destroyed,” he added. “Trump means what he says and this no longer has anything to do with the America, anchored in the rule of law, that stood by Europe's side for decades.”
It’s an extraordinary departure for the CEO and soon-to-be biggest shareholder of a company that has made supporting the transatlantic alliance one of its core values.
Watch this space.…
