The Holtzbrinck-Verlag and the "Berliner Zeitung" feel each other to the tooth.

Apple of discord could be an article in the Holtzbrinck Group’s “Zeit” from November 2021.

In mid-January, the publisher of the "Berliner Zeitung", Holger Friedrich, attempted to obtain a counterstatement against passages of the text at the Hamburg Regional Court, as he believed the financing model of his newspaper had been misrepresented.

According to the Kress media portal, which quotes a response from Die Zeit, Friedrich recently withdrew the application after the court informed him that there was little chance of success.

Axel Weidemann

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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Even after Silke and Holger Friedrich bought the “Berliner Zeitung” from DuMont in 2019, the newspaper, which was hit by various austerity measures, did not rest.

Various allegations were made that the newspaper's reporting was also based on the publisher's economic interests and relationships.

Then the "world" made public that Holger Friedrich was listed in the GDR as an "unofficial employee" (IM) of the Stasi - an investigation by the former Stasi documents officer Marianne Birthler and the historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk exonerated him to a large extent.

The November Die Zeit article entitled "Your Redeemer.

Or their demise” painted a picture that financial hardship continued while tensions between publishers and editors mounted.

Last Saturday, the "Berliner Zeitung" published a four-page piece in the Money & Business section entitled "Beautiful & Cuddly: The Biotope Holtzbrinck", which deals in detail with the company holdings of the publisher Dieter von Holtzbrinck.

It's about companies that - such as the Berlin start-up LiveEO, which specializes in "satellite-based infrastructure monitoring" and in which von Holtzbrinck is said to be an investor - have friendly company portraits at Holtzbrinck Find the "Tagesspiegel" belonging to the group.

Holger Friedrich told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" that the report had nothing to do with the "Zeit" article from November.

"Even if the thought is obvious."

According to the SZ, however, the “Tagesspiegel” now wants to review internal processes and transparency guidelines, although it explains that “there is no known case in which there is an indirect or direct influence of the shareholders, the publisher or the management on the reporting in the Tagesspiegel “ have given.