The headwind became too massive: The rbb director Patricia Schlesinger (61) resigns with immediate effect, according to a statement from the public broadcaster on Sunday evening. She is no longer the head of the broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. Already on Thursday she gave up her job as chair of the ARD community. Hagen Brandstätter (63), the previous deputy director and administrative director, will take over the management of the rbb.
In explanation, Schlesinger stated that the "journalistic and publicistic performance of the station was no longer in the foreground", but "only possible and alleged misconduct on the part of the director": "I very much regret that and I apologize to the employees of rbb for this development." Recently, after the allegations against Schlesinger, there were also calls for his resignation from politics.
In the last few days and weeks, Schlesinger has had to deal with a whole flood of allegations that have resulted in various media investigations, including the "Business Insider" and the "Bild" newspaper. Among other things, it is about questionable consulting contracts, horrendous sums for office conversions, an expensive company car with a strangely high discount or huge salary increases.
Schlesinger always rejected the accusations and also spoke on Sunday of "personal allegations and defamation". The allegations are currently being investigated by an external company. For this purpose, a so-called whistleblower system was implemented at rbb, which enables employees to give anonymous tips. Results are not expected for a few weeks.
