In an interview, the former RBB director Patricia Schlesinger commented on the allegations made against her for the first time – and regrets that she did not recognize the anger of her employees earlier. At the same time she was “shocked” by the impact of the reporting.
The ousted director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Patricia Schlesinger, spoke in detail in an interview with “Zeit” about the allegations of infidelity and taking advantage. Schlesinger resolutely resisted the claim that she had had the executive floor of the broadcasting house in Berlin renovated in her luxury frenzy. It was about “an urgently needed pollutant remediation”. The furniture came from her predecessor. “I sat at her desk, in front of her bookshelves.”
According to Schlesinger, the fact that her company car was equipped with massage seats was not her own initiative. “I didn’t configure the car myself. I don’t need massage seats, that’s superfluous for me,” said the 61-year-old. However, she also acknowledged omissions. The modernizations in the broadcasting house, which she initiated with the management, turned the day-to-day work of many employees upside down.
“From my point of view, the displeasure and anger in the station are so strong that I blame myself for not seeing it,” says Schlesinger. “I’m sorry for that.” However, she was particularly struck by the fact that the allegations came from her closest environment, “it hurts me to this day,” said Schlesinger. She is still “shocked” by the impact of the reporting, “it was like a tsunami”.
Schlesinger denied the accusation that she had given her husband a job for her own benefit. She did not violate any compliance rules, but she wished “from today’s perspective that I had asked my husband not to accept the job,” she said. The allegations against Schlesinger include consulting contracts for an RBB construction project, bonus payments and a hefty salary increase for Schlesinger.
The public prosecutor’s office in Berlin is currently investigating against Schlesinger, the resigned station chief controller Wolf-Dieter Wolf, and against Schlesinger’s husband, the ex-“Spiegel” journalist Gerhard Spörl, on suspicion of infidelity and accepting benefits. The background is that Spörl received orders from the state-owned Messe Berlin – Wolf had also been head of the supervisory board there in personal union until his resignation in the RBB affair.
