Bild’s ex-editor on that leaked document: It’s a journalist’s job to publish secret info
If someone gives you a document, they’re always pursuing an agenda, says Kai Diekmann; he also discusses the paper’s unique stance on Israel and his most dramatic meeting with Netanyahu
Last week, Eli Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was indicted by the Israeli state prosecution for allegedly leaking a highly classified document in September about Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations, as part of a security documents scandal that has roiled the Prime Minister’s Office in recent weeks.
The publication to which material from the document was leaked was Germany’s Bild.
The famously pro-Israel tabloid is known for its racy reports of scandals from politics and society and for its use of large images — its name means “picture” in German. The newspaper has been the subject of scrutiny, especially in centrist and left-wing circles, due to its polarizing reporting and allegations of privacy and personal rights violations.
Still, because of its popularity — Bild’s roughly 1 million paid subscriptions make it the largest daily in Germany and one of the most widely circulated in the world — German and international politicians regularly speak to the outlet. As regards Israel, however, it is unique: All of its employee contracts, including those of its journalists, feature a clause requiring them to support the vital rights of the Israeli people.
Kai Diekmann was Bild’s chief editor from 2001 to 2015 — the longest period anyone has filled the role in the paper’s 72-year history — having started his career there in 1985 as a journalist trainee. After he retired from the tabloid, Diekmann founded a public relations agency, where he still works. He lives in Potsdam with his wife, with whom he shares four children.
In a German-language interview with The Times of Israel, Diekmann makes clear he sees the publication of the leaked IDF intel material as part of the routine work of the paper (“the business of journalists is the business of indiscretions,” he notes); discusses his many years of interaction with Netanyahu (notably his giving the prime minister the sensationally discovered Nazi blueprints of Auschwitz), and explains why he considers Bild’s pro-Israel stipulation to be “more important than ever.”
The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Times of Israel: Bild is well known for its strong support of Israel — as are you. Why is that?
Already as a schoolboy, I was very interested in Germany’s special responsibility toward Israel. I always found it contradictory that, on the one hand, we were indoctrinated by teachers that there was something like a German collective guilt for the [Nazi] crimes that were committed in the name of Germany, and on the other hand, teachers demonstrated with Palestinian scarves on the street.
The publisher Axel Springer built up what is now Europe’s largest newspaper publishing house, which also includes Bild, and demanded a clear position from his journalists on reconciliation with the Jewish people and taking a stand for the State of Israel. That’s what I found attractive about this publishing house.
Personally, I don’t believe in collective guilt, but in collective responsibility. The publishing house has taken on this responsibility, and I, too, have done my best to take it on to this day.
Since 1967, every employee of Springer, including those working for Bild, has had a clause in their contract that states they are committed to “working toward a reconciliation between Jews and Germans; this also includes supporting the vital rights of the Israeli people.” What is this doing in journalists’ contracts?
The Holocaust is the ultimate civilizational rupture. For Axel Springer, it was a moral and emotional obligation. He wanted to make a contribution to — a controversial word, I know — reparation, by ensuring that it would never happen again and standing up for Israel’s right to exist. Israel is the place where the survivors of the Holocaust came together and founded a new future for themselves.
And that is indeed the least that can be expected of Germany — that it feel a very special responsibility towards this Jewish state. Axel Springer himself had experiences with National Socialism, and he felt a personal responsibility.
He worked for a newspaper that disseminated Nazi propaganda. One of his close confidants was Ernst Cramer, a German Jew who later became chairman of the Axel Springer Foundation. But high-ranking former Nazis also worked with him.
I never had the opportunity to ask him personally why he surrounded himself with certain people; Springer died before I began to work there. The fact that the German state initially found it difficult after 1945 to define who was to blame and who was not was something we experienced not only in the media but also in many institutions. And if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, it’s always difficult to say “How could you?”
Personally, I find it impressive how Axel Springer felt about personal failure and, as a consequence, did everything in his power to ensure that his company would never again allow something like the Holocaust to happen.
Other newspapers have no employee contract clauses regarding Israel. How do you respond to accusations that this requirement promotes biased reporting?
That’s total nonsense. Fortunately, newspapers are institutions that can decide on guidelines and also demand that these guidelines are supported by the journalists.
That doesn’t mean that Bild can’t criticize the Netanyahu government. There is a lot to criticize. Think of the major disputes over judicial reform. I also find it intolerable that a large part of Israeli society — the ultra-Orthodox — are not required to make a major contribution to national defense.
The clause in the agreement is about the fundamentals, and if Israel’s right to exist is called into question, then that is fundamental. And we say no to that.
As editor-in-chief, were you ever in a situation in which you refrained from reporting on Israel because of the publisher’s position?
No, on the contrary. Having this principle does not mean that I suppress or gloss over things. When [former prime minister] Ehud Olmert was on trial or [former] president [Moshe] Katsav went to prison, we reported it as a matter of course.
We also have other clauses. After 9/11, we added a clause of solidarity with the United States to our principles. That doesn’t mean that Bild doesn’t criticize a lot of what the Biden administration is doing and what the Trump administration will do. I have never experienced a situation in which I felt that the principles I passionately signed up to would ever hinder me from doing what I want journalistically.
So, should all media outlets make their employees sign a clause like this?
That’s up to each medium to decide as it sees fit. If you look at other German media, such as the taz [Die Tageszeitung], the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the Süddeutsche, you also know what position is expected there. At Bild, it’s just black on white.
Is the clause still justified?
It is more important than ever. I would never have imagined that I would experience such a wave of antisemitism again. Even in Berlin.
I happened to be in the United Arab Emirates on October 7, and I met tourists from Israel there who were able to walk around with a kippa on their heads and visit kosher restaurants. On the same day, the Berlin interior administration had to warn Israeli tourists not to identify themselves as such in certain districts of Berlin because they might not be able to guarantee their safety. What a twisted world.
I see it as a necessity to stand by Israel today, when so many are turning away from Israel, a UN secretary-general is behaving in an impossible manner, and the International Criminal Court is making decisions that I do not understand.
How did you feel about the reporting in other media after the massacre of October 7, 2023, in which Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip?
I did not expect the international media to turn the tables on the perpetrators and victims so quickly. Sometimes the choice of words was frightening when Israel defended itself, and it was terrible how quickly even the major media outlets were willing to believe the propaganda of the Hamas terrorists.
Unfortunately, Israel is losing the propaganda war. And that is why, in my view, it is all the more important that we maintain our solidarity with Israel today.
Did you know that Bild is currently making headlines in Israel because of its publication of a classified document that was allegedly leaked as a part of an effort at manipulation?
Yes, I saw that. The business of journalists is the business of indiscretions. We don’t just work by going to press conferences. And a newspaper like Bild, which values exclusive information, has to get this exclusive information. It is then more of a problem for ministries and governments how to deal with these indiscretions.
The allegation is that Bild was used for political purposes — that the leaked information was intended to help Netanyahu’s line regarding a hostage deal.
If someone in political Berlin gives me a paper, then, of course, it will always be leaked because someone is pursuing an agenda, because someone wants to destroy something. That’s part of the political and journalistic business. It is part of a journalist’s job to publish secret service information and internal government documents.
And then it also means that at one point or another you’re going to get your hands dirty.
Diekmann did not want to comment further on the incident, noting that he was not familiar with the details because he no longer works at Bild.
You have met with Benjamin Netanyahu several times. What was that connection like?
Of course, the most exciting moment was when I handed him the blueprints of Auschwitz in 2009. Until then, it was assumed that the Nazis had destroyed all the documents that could incriminate them there. But they overlooked a shack where the blueprints were kept.
At some point, they came into the possession of the East German secret police and, somehow, into the hands of people who wanted to make money from them. So one day someone turned up at my office with a supermarket bag containing the blueprints, of watchtowers and everything. They even still had Heinrich Himmler’s blue signature on them. A journalistic sensation.
But one that was officially supposed to remain in Germany.
From the beginning, I was of the opinion that the blueprints should go to Yad Vashem [Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem] to be exhibited there. However, the German government claimed the blueprints for itself. I was given the warning that if I tried to leave the country with these plans, I would be arrested upon departure. Then we thought about it for a long time: Who would not be arrested if he left with these plans? Who doesn’t have to smuggle them out of the country, but can come on an official mission? And then it was absolutely clear: the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
We then made the handover very publicly at a large press conference at the Axel Springer publishing house in Berlin. It was important to us that it was public and not underhanded, to show that this was legitimate. Netanyahu’s wife was also there.
There was a huge outcry from the German Federal Archives. But I got a call from the Chancellery saying, officially, we cannot take a different position than the one we have taken, but we really like what you did. I have probably met with Benjamin Netanyahu more than with any other foreign head of government — because he has been in office for a very long time, of course.
What is your sense of Netanyahu after all those meetings?
I found him to be a strong political leader whose central promise to his country was security. In my view, October 7 was a very personal catastrophe for him, for which he also bears a great deal of responsibility, because he has torn the country apart with the political debate that we have witnessed before. The security forces were distracted. The warnings were not taken seriously. He may have underestimated Hamas and believed he had them under control. And this responsibility will also be discussed at some point.
At the same time, since October 7, he has shown that the terrorists can be defeated militarily. And he is succeeding in maintaining the fragile coalitions, including with Arab countries. In this respect, he is at least not doing everything wrong in this difficult situation.
Was the Axel Springer publishing house a frequent port of call for him when he traveled to Germany?
I’m not in a position to say. I only met him once at the Axel Springer publishing house and then again in 2016 when I opened an exhibition with Yad Vashem, “100 Works on the Holocaust,” together with [former German chancellor] Angela Merkel. Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on a state visit to Germany at the time, also came.
Did he have any messages he wanted to convey to you at the meetings?
No, the exhibition was about the works. I think he always greatly appreciated the work of remembrance we have done — and of course, the solidarity we have shown. And that was, of course, something that a head of government from Israel must like, whether it’s Netanyahu or not. I also met with Ehud Olmert before and with others.
How strong are these contacts today? It was Bild deputy editor-in-chief Paul Ronzheimer — who also wrote the article based on the leaked document — to whom Netanyahu gave one of his few interviews after October 7.
If you meet a head of government who has been in office for a very long time over a period of years, then, of course, there are contacts that work. You know each other and you trust each other.
There was also a situation a year or two after I left Bild in which Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to get a message across, and he knew that I was in Israel because I had just worked with Yad Vashem on something. And then, together with a colleague from Bild who happened to be there, I also interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu. As a journalist, you would be foolish to reject this contact.
You still work closely with Yad Vashem. What do you do there?
Yes, I was approached by Yad Vashem in connection with the Auschwitz blueprints and asked if I would consider holding a seminar for German-speaking journalists. That was in 2012, the first seminar for German-speaking journalists ever at Yad Vashem, because the central place of remembrance of the Holocaust has had a hard time dealing with German companies. It was a success and we have repeated it many times.
And at some point, Yad Vashem expressed the wish that, when I am no longer at Axel Springer, I would consider taking on the role of chairing the German Circle of Friends. I took on the role in 2017 and now, a few days ago, I was reelected as chair for another two years. And this is a task that is more important than ever at the moment.
