Silke and Holger Friedrich: Was it a mistake to buy the Berliner Zeitung?
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Berliner Zeitung, publishers Holger and Silke Friedrich take stock – and take a critical look at the media industry.
Dear readers, partners, and friends of the Berliner Zeitung, more than five years ago, we acquired Berliner Verlag and, with it, the Berliner Zeitung. This week, the newspaper is celebrating its 80th anniversary. This is a wonderful occasion to honor this venerable Berlin institution, its loyal customers, its employees, and its partners. We are proud that the acquisition of Berliner Verlag has enabled us to celebrate this anniversary together, as the Berliner Zeitung was on the verge of going out of business in 2019.
In a major effort, under diverse, often malicious attacks and under the strict scrutiny of our readership, we have reorganized Berliner Verlag, modernized products, integrated technologies and brought together a team that ensures that the Berliner Zeitung lives up to what we set out to do with the takeover: to be an independent, critical voice that questions the status quo, that keeps an eye on politics, that offers readers a space for constructive debate in a discourse-oriented and unbiased manner.
Many expected us to fail, and few believed we were capable of what we ultimately achieved together: The Berliner Zeitung is in excellent shape for its 80th anniversary. It earns the money it needs to operate independently, because our idea of critical journalism has a growing fan base. Most importantly, though, we take great joy in our work, which is reflected in our products and their quality. And we're growing! On May 20, 2025, Die Weltbühne was relaunched, another publication in which we offer space for our country's critical, intelligent voices to publish their thoughts on current social developments and stimulate peaceful discourse.
We would like to thank our team, our many loyal companions, our readers and partners for everything we have achieved!
Hubris and the double standards of powerful peopleDespite the pride in the results of our work, disillusionment is nevertheless setting in five years later. While in 2019 we still believed that critical journalism and freedom of expression were important attributes of a free society, we had to learn that criticizing and expressing one's opinion sometimes takes a heavy toll. The question of how free our society actually is has occupied us greatly in recent years, because we know from our own life experience that freedom is a precious asset that must be constantly defended. In many conversations, we heard the same argument: Of course we live in a free society; you aren't imprisoned for your opinion. That's certainly true and a value in itself. And at the same time, we see that imprisonment is repeatedly replaced by exclusion. Once denounced as a conspiracy theorist, Putin sympathizer, coronavirus denier, anti-democracy, conspiracy believer, or pacifist, one quickly runs the risk of social ostracism. In recent years, we sometimes thought: We shouldn't have done it, the takeover of the Berliner Verlag was a mistake. A different investment, with less time, less money, and less passion, would have provided more benefits for us, our family, and our colleagues. Because, completely unexpectedly, as newspaper owners, we had to learn something we had hoped to have left behind with the GDR.
We have learned that hubris, double standards, and, even more seriously, the large number of those indirectly turned into collaborators through subsidies create an atmosphere that fosters a division in society, hampers economic activity, makes success seem suspect, and thus limits options for the future. An atmosphere that increasingly restricts creativity, individuality, and social advancement—the great, globally attractive promise of the free world.
The role of the press in a liberal democracy, which defines freedom of expression, travel, and capital as its core values, must therefore be to monitor , not to collaborate with , those in power. This task must not be lost sight of. The Berliner Zeitung has accepted this responsibility for its own, but also for critically monitoring social change after intensive internal discussion. This was a multi-year and often painful process. We cannot be grateful enough to the staff and management team for this courage. We will continue to address all controversial topics and accompany Germany's transformation in the context of increasingly tense political and economic conditions: with critical commentary, careful classification, and multi-perspective explanations. We have a duty for future generations to ensure a functioning education system, an efficient but also performance-based social structure, fair incentive systems for high achievers, stable public security, and peaceful relations with all neighboring countries in Europe – stretching from Lisbon to Yekaterinburg and even to Jerusalem. We will not cease to openly address even uncomfortable topics and initiate debates. Even if the price is high and, with today's knowledge of the resistance of established structures to change, we might have made a different decision. But only maybe. For now, things are what they are, and we are here. We will also remain curious and accompany what comes next – independent, anti-authoritarian, non-violent. For the brave.
Silke and Holger Friedrich are publishers of the Berliner Zeitung .
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