On Thursday, the newly elected Broadcasting Council of RBB (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg) met for its first, constituent meeting. This was reminiscent of the first parents' evening: You don't know each other yet, but you should immediately elect a speaker (insiders sign up as minute takers so that the choice does not fall on them). Actually, nobody wants to. If someone does, that's suspicious (nerds, slimes, or both).

You want to get to know each other first

The RBB Broadcasting Council made the best of it and did not elect a new chairman. This will be done at the next meeting, said Moshe Abraham Offenberg, who chaired the meeting. They wanted to get to know each other first. This is not a bad idea, as 18 out of 30 broadcasting councils are new to the board.

The only astonishing thing is that the old and new broadcasting councillors then knew that Martina Zöllner was the right boss for the RBB programme. The former head of culture was unceremoniously elected "with the necessary majority" to succeed the resigned director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus, who left RBB with a severance payment of two annual salaries (around 215,000 euros each), but without bonus and "pension".

Schulte-Kellinghaus belonged to the top of the station of the era of the director Patricia Schlesinger, who had been dismissed without notice, but who was unable to control the previous Broadcasting Council, but rather in the middle of the network. We remember: Until August 2022, the RBB Broadcasting Council was led by the former provost Friederike von Kirchbach, who had married the acting administrative director of the station, Sylvie Deléglise, with the now dismissed legal director Susann Lange. Perhaps the future Broadcasting Council should refrain from such close relations. After getting to know each other better.