| Mathias Döpfner | |
| Birth Date: | 15 January 1963 |
| Alma Mater: | University of Frankfurt (PhD) |
| Occupation: | Businessman, Author, Journalist |
| CEO, Axel Springer SE | |
Mathias Döpfner (born 15 January 1963) is a German businessman, author, art collector, and journalist. He is the CEO and 22% owner of media group Axel Springer SE. From 2016 to 2022 he was president of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV).
After working as editor-in-chief for several newspapers, he joined the management board of Axel Springer SE in 2000. Friede Springer, head of the media group and widow of founder Axel Springer, designated Döpfner as her successor in 2020 and gave voting rights and shares valued at over 1 billion Euros to him in 2021.[1]
Döpfner grew up in Offenbach am Main. His mother was a housewife and his father, Dieter C. Döpfner, was a university professor of architecture and director of the Offenbach College of Applied Arts from 1966 to 1970.[2]
Döpfner studied musicology, German literature and theater science in Frankfurt and Boston. He obtained a Ph.D. in musicology in 1990 from the University of Frankfurt.[3] A committee of the university found in 2023 that he had engaged in scientific misconduct by using a number of blind quotations and unchecked literature references.[4] The committee found a significantly lower plagiarism count than the original complaint alleged. Because of this, the findings were not sufficient to revoke his doctoral degree.
Döpfner began his career in 1982 as the music critic of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) supplement. In 1992, after working as the FAZ correspondent in Brussels, Döpfner moved to Gruner + Jahr – initially working under board member Axel Ganz in Paris, then as an assistant to CEO Gerd Schulte-Hillen.
In April 1994, Döpfner became editor-in-chief of the Berlin weekly newspaper Wochenpost, and in 1996, he assumed the role of editor-in-chief of the Hamburg tabloid Hamburger Morgenpost.
In March 1998, Döpfner became editor-in-chief of Axel Springer SE's national daily newspaper Die Welt. He was a member of the management board and head of the newspaper division of Axel Springer SE in 2000, and rose to CEO in 2002.[5]
As CEO, Döpfner initiated a two-stage digital transformation strategy, beginning in 2006, focusing on organic growth and digital acquisitions to transition the company towards digitization.[6] By 2013, under his leadership, the company had total revenues of $3.9 billion, and EBITDA of $625 million.[7]
In 2020, Friede Springer appointed Mathias Döpfner as her successor through a combination of gifting, selling, and transferring voting rights associated with her shares in the company. As part of this transition, Springer sold a 4.1% share directly to Döpfner and gifted him an additional 15%, thereby increasing his direct ownership to 22%. Furthermore, Springer transferred to Döpfner the voting rights for her remaining 22% stake in the company.[8]
In February 2023 The Economist reported on Döpfner's plans to expand the Springer group's media presence in the United States.[9]
Döpfner is also known for his activism and outspoken views on media, socio-political, economic, and cultural issues. He has been involved in public debates with figures such as Nobel laureate Günter Grass.[10] [11] Döpfner considers himself a "non-Jewish Zionist."[12] These discussions have covered a range of topics, from the challenges posed by Islamic fundamentalism to perceptions of the United States in Germany, and evaluations of the 1968 movement's legacy. In his essay for WELT, titled The West and the mocking laughter of Islamism, Döpfner articulated his concerns about Islamism's threats.
In 2010, as a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge, Döpfner delivered a series of lectures entitled "Freedom and the Digital Revolution." These talks explored the complex relationship Germans have with the concept of freedom, the worldwide decline of freedom, and how the digital era represents a significant cultural shift impacting press freedom, privacy, and journalism.[13] In the letter, he highlighted Google's substantial share in internet searches and advocated for transparency in search result algorithms based on qualitative criteria.[14] [15]
In 2014, Döpfner wrote an open letter to the executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, where he voiced apprehensions about Google evolving into a "superstate" beyond regulatory reach.[16]
Döpfner's contributions to discussions on media policy speeches at events like the NOAH Conference Berlin 2015[17] and the SPIEGEL Publishers Forum,[18] focusing on the monetization of online content and the distinction between private and public media in the digital space.
Döpfner publicly supported German satirist Jan Böhmermann in 2016 following controversy over Böhmermann's satirical poem about Turkish President Erdoğan, which led to legal challenges.[19] [20] Erdogan subsequently applied for an injunction against Döpfner in May 2016 at a German Court. The request was rejected in the first and second instance.
Döpfner condemned Kuwait Airlines in 2017 for barring an Israeli passenger from a flight.[21]
In 2019, Döpfner sat down with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to discuss the importance of quality journalism in fostering an informed society, the guiding principles that Facebook uses to prioritize reputable news, and implications of internet regulation and the future of social networking.[22]
In 2021, Döpfner sat down with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shortly before he passed to discuss the COVID pandemic’s impacts on global politics, China’s prominence as a world power, and implications for the future of the European Union.[23]
In 2022, Döpfner visited Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California to interview with Elon Musk. The interview covered Russia’s Ukraine invasion, space travel, and implications of human existence.[24]
Döpfner regularly speaks out on media and socio-political, economic and cultural issues. Particular attention was given to his debate with Nobel laureate Günter Grass, documented by Der Spiegel (June 2006). Döpfner surprised with the confession: "I am a non-Jewish Zionist". Alongside the topics of threats from Islamic fundamentalism and the image of the United States in Germany, the discussion also focused on the achievements and the failings of the 1968 movement. Döpfner published his opinion on the threat from Islamism in his WELT essay "The West and the mocking laughter of Islamism".
In July 2009, ARD TV broadcast Döpfner's film "My friend George Weidenfeld". Döpfner sees the film portrait, in which he accompanies Lord Weidenfeld on his travels and at meetings and interviews prominent companions such as Daniel Barenboim, Helmut Kohl, Angela Merkel or Shimon Peres, as "a very subjective approach to a great European".
He has repeatedly commented on the subjects of freedom and digitization, particularly in the fall of 2010 as a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge. Under the title "Freedom and the Digital Revolution" Döpfner held three lectures, which addressed Germans' difficult relationship to freedom, the global erosion of freedom and its causes, and digitization as the fourth major cultural revolution and its impact on the freedom of press, privacy, and journalism[25] as well as in his book "Die Freiheitsfalle – The freedom trap" published by Propyläen Verlag in 2011, in which he focuses on the West's growing tiredness of defending freedom. Taking three watershed events as examples – the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nine Eleven and the financial crisis – Döpfner analyzes the triumphs, threats, and excesses of liberal societies and argues that freedom needs to be fought for, defended and answered for daily, and that democratic societies have not been sufficiently resolute in this regard. They risked falling into the freedom trap and either losing freedom through inaction or betraying it by defending with the wrong means. Alongside the power of freedom in politics and business, Döpfner reflects upon the spirit of freedom in music, literature and painting on the basis of three central works by Richard Wagner, Thomas Mann and Gustave Courbet. The book closes with an analysis of the digital world, in which Döpfner emphasizes the ambivalence of the Internet as a platform critical of authority at the same time as being a monitoring tool controlled by authority.
Döpfner's contributions to media policy include keynotes, for example at the NOAH Conference Berlin 2015[26] or at the SPIEGEL Publishers Forum,[27] the focus of which were the establishment of paid online content and the differentiation between private and public media in digital channels.
For the occasion of the centenary of Axel Springer's birth in 2012, Döpfner gave his personal view of the founder in his New Year's speech. The "Ceremony" in May 2012 was a surprise in itself, as Döpfner converted the entire event into a tongue-in-cheek and entertaining revue without a single speech. He made his own debut as an actor, reciting a fictitious letter to the publisher wearing a hoodie jacket and jeans. The F.A.Z described the revue as an event, in which "pathos, flippancy, understatement and exaggeration, self-righteousness and self-irony were mixed together in a wondrous, sometimes uplifting way, a milestone in the history of the Springer Group."
In an open letter to the executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, he criticized the search engine company,[28] thus triggering a public debate.
In April 2016, Döpfner showed solidarity with German satirist Jan Böhmermann in an open letter.[29] In his show "Neo Magazine Royale", Böhmermann had previously illustrated the difference between satire and insulting criticism with profane a poem about the Turkish President Erdoğan, which led to resentment in the Turkish government as well as a public prosecution in Germany. Erdogan subsequently applied for an injunction against Döpfner in May 2016 at a German Court. The request was rejected in the first and second instance.[30]
In November 2017, Döpfner condemned Kuwait Airlines for barring an Israeli passenger from a flight.[31]
In February 2023 The Economist reported on Döpfner's plans to expand the Springer group's media presence in the United States.[32]
In September 2023, Döpfner published The Trade Trap: How To Stop Doing Business With Dictators, which shares his perspective on reconstructing global trade, strengthening democracy and protecting individual freedoms..[33] In the book, he analyzes Western dependency on China and Russia and suggests an approach to free trade based on establishing a values-based alliance of democracies. Döpfner shares his encounters with individuals such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, George W. Bush, Angela Merkel, and Jack Ma.[34]
During the compliance procedure involving Julian Reichelt, Döpfner sent a text message to a writer in March 2021,[35] characterizing the Federal Republic of Germany as a "new, authoritarian GDR-State".[36] This message, exposed by New York Times journalist Ben Smith, was interpreted as endorsing right-wing conspiracy theory on COVID-19 restrictions. This incident led to discussions comparing the public perception of Axel Springer SE in the United States to that of Fox News in terms of political alignment.[37]
Döpfner addressed Axel Springer employees in a private video, encouraging the reporting of power abuses and promoting open dialogue. He criticized The New York Times for publishing his private text, arguing it was taken out of context and not meant for public discourse.[38]
In September 2022, the Washington Post disclosed an email from Döpfner to executive colleagues before the 2020 US presidential election, praising specific policies of President Donald Trump and expressing a desire for Trump's re-election.[39] He described this email as an "ironic gesture" aimed at those critical of Trump, highlighting his concern about journalism's increasing polarization.
Die Zeit reported in April 2023 on leaked personal communications from Döpfner, revealing his positions on various issues, including climate change, Zionism, COVID-19 measures, and political figures and movements within Germany.[40] [41] Following the leaks, Döpfner publicly expressed regret for any offense his remarks may have caused, acknowledging the impact of his words on others.[42] [43]
In 2010, Döpfner was visiting professor in media at the University of Cambridge and became a member of St John's College. In addition, he holds a variety of paid and unpaid positions.
Döpfner is married to Ulrike Weiss, who is the daughter of Ulrich Weiss, a former executive of Deutsche Bank AG. The couple has three sons, with one of them serving as chief of staff to entrepreneur Peter Thiel.[58] In 2016, Döpfner also had a child with billionaire art collector Julia Stoschek.[59]
In addition to his professional endeavors, Döpfner is an art collector, particularly known for his comprehensive collection of female nude paintings spanning over 500 years.[60] [61] Furthermore, he is a co-owner of Villa Schoningen, in Potsdam, where he organized the exhibition “Andy Warhol—Early Works” in collaboration with the Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur e.V. Bonn.[62]