Chief political journalist leaves Europe’s biggest newspaper over LGBT policy

The sentences with which Ralf Schuler says goodbye to the Springer Group, the publisher behind Bild, are tough: “I’m not willing to work for a political movement and under its flag,” he writes in a letter to Bild editor-in-chief Johannes Boie and the Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. This reports the Catholic German paper Die Tagespost. The complete letter of resignation is available to magazine Cicero.

According to Schuler, any discrimination is bad. However, “speaking out against discrimination does not mean embracing the LGBTQ movement’s agenda, as we are currently doing”. “In the spirit of Axel Springer”, Schuler continues, “we, of course, stand up for the rights of the individual to live free of discrimination in the best liberal and civil sense, as long as it does not restrict anyone’s freedom. However, that does not mean that we are firmly on the side of the LGBTQ community in the ironclad fight for human rights and against discrimination, as a deputy picture editor-in-chief wrote in the daily briefing these days. Apart from the Stalinist bombast of the formulation, I am not ‘firmly on the side’ of any political movement. I also fundamentally do not consider this to be the task of journalists.”

Schuler, a member of the German Protestant Church (EKD) referred in his letter to Axel Springer, who founded the Springer Group. Springer himself formulated five core values which every employee of the Springer Group must sign. These values include standing up for freedom, a united Europe, supporting the Jewish people, and the existence of a Jewish State.

In early June, scientists and physicians asked in an article in the German daily Welt why children on public broadcasters ZDF and ARD are “indoctrinated and sexualized”. Like Bild, Welt is published by Axel Springer. An appeal accompanying the article, with around 100 first signatories, demanded that public service broadcasters “represent biological facts and scientific findings truthfully”. Springer boss Döpfner sharply criticised Welt’s decision to bring the op-ed. His contribution also appeared in “Welt”. According to Döpfner, the op-ed is “intolerant and full of resentment”.

It is not clear what Schuler plans to do next. According to German media journalist Stefan Niggemeier, Springer and Schuler are fighting over the date on which Schuler may leave the company. “Schuler finds the publisher’s treatment of him “unfair and surprisingly hostile”.

In the German media, the gender issue is quite a sensitive issue nowadays.