RBB dismisses the last directors of Schlesinger's management

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) has separated from the last remaining members of the controversial management around the director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice: the former head of administration Hagen Brandstätter and the production and operations director Christoph Augenstein. This emerges from a message on the broadcaster's intranet on Friday, which is available to the Evangelical Press Service (epd).

Director Katrin Vernau describes the step as a turning point that will help with the new start in the station. According to the RBB research editors, the payments for the controversial consulting work of the former editor-in-chief Christoph Singelnstein were stopped in December 2022.

The intranet also says that for legal reasons, RBB does not comment on the reasons and details of the separation of Augenstein and Brandstäter. From now on, the tasks at the top of the production and operations management will be shared by three people until further notice. Andreas Owsinski, Head of the Media Production Department, will take over management. Dirk Lüdemann is responsible for the affairs of the production and technology commission at the ARD level. Thomas Kruithof's duties as acting head of the media systems and IT department remained unaffected by the changes.

The RBB did not want to comment on reports from the "Business Insider" portal about RBB consultant fees of around 15,000 euros for the former partner of Berlin's former Senator for Economic Affairs, Ramona Pop (Greens). The employment of consultants is part of the official investigation, said RBB spokesman Justus Demmer: "We are currently not commenting on this."