In March of this year, Reichelt was already full in the storm. The German magazine then published a long article on “the Reichelt system”, under the revealing title Bird, promote, fire (“Bird, promote, fire”). Without giving much detail, the article accused Reichelt of abusing his power. He would invite young female colleagues and interns to dinners via Instagram. “Some got promoted quickly. They fell out of favor just as quickly.”
At his own request, Reichelt was then put on hold, after which Axel Springer instructed a law firm to investigate the case. According to parent company Axel Springer, this provided no evidence of sexual harassment or coercion. The company acknowledged that Reichelt had made “mistakes”, but that they did not outweigh Reichelt’s importance to Bild. In short, he was able to return to the head of Bild a short time later. From then on he had to share the position of editor-in-chief with a woman, Alexandra Würzbach.
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