The MDR Broadcasting Council makes ex- “Spiegel” boss Klaus Brinkbäumer the new program director in Leipzig. Jana Brandt becomes the program director in Halle.
The former “Spiegel” editor-in-chief Klaus Brinkbäumer Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
Klaus Brinkbäumer, the former editor-in-chief of Spiegel, becomes the new program director of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Leipzig. The MDR Broadcasting Council decided on Monday with a large majority in a closed session. Jana Brandt, the station’s previous TV film director, will be the new program director of the MDR in Halle. With its election, the Broadcasting Council followed the suggestions of MDR director Karola Wille. Brandt and Brinkbäumer will start their new positions on January 15, 2021.
The two personalities could hardly be more different: Jana Brandt is a television plant and has long been at home in the MDR. Born in Potsdam, she began her career in the 80s with GDR television, switched to ARD in 1991 and to MDR in 1999. There she oversaw many of the films and series that were famous for MDR and ARD, such as “In allerfreund”, “Weissensee” or the film adaptation of the GDR classic “Naked Amongst Wolves”.
Klaus Brinkbäumer, on the other hand, has hardly any radio experience and comes to the MDR from outside. He has been with the for 25 years Spiegel worked, almost three of them as editor-in-chief. He had to vacate this post because the shareholders of the Spiegel did not trust him to carry out the digital remodeling of the magazine. Brinkbäumer then became the author of the time and recently reported from the USA. The personnel had caused a surprise last week, also at the broadcasting council of the MDR.
The local press commented on Brinkbäumer’s move in advance with suspicion: The citizens of East Germany would perceive his lack of radio experience and his West German origins as “a sign”, wrote the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. In the debate about Saxony-Anhalt’s approval of the increase in the broadcasting fee, the argument that public broadcasting has too few East German management staff has recently been raised – the MDR, with its east / west balance at management level, is not doing badly .
However, Klaus Brinkbäumer already seems to be working on his Eastern expertise: Im Daily mirror, where he writes a weekly language column, he pondered on the weekend, i.e. shortly before his election, about the “perfect word”. He began his text with the tender Leipzig insult “Du Hutblume” and the word “Schnitzelfriedhof”, which the Pirna biathlete Michael Rösch apparently uses to describe his stomach.
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