Julian Reichelt

In March 2021, a report by Spiegel announced that Reichelt would have to face an in-house investigation. Among other things, it described a "Reichelt system" of institutionalized abuse of power and the exploitation of relationships with young female employees. In response, Bild publisher Axel Springer SE released a statement explaining that it was investigating "accusations of abuse of power in connection with consensual relationships and drug consumption in the workplace."[12][13] In March 2021, Reichelt acknowledged having a mixture of professional and private relationships.

On October 17, 2021, The New York Times reported the Springer media group's plans to take over Politico, and the testimony of a female employee to investigators from Freshfields law firm whom Springer had hired for the internal inquiry. "If they find out that I'm having an affair with a trainee, I'll lose my job," Reichelt told her in November 2016, according to her testimony. Just before the editor spoke, another woman at the paper lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him. He continued the relationship, even after he was promoted to chief editor in 2017. He had her come to a hotel room near the Axel Springer high-rise in Berlin and promoted her to a management role. She felt overwhelmed role. After she was transferred to another position, another editor told her that he was tired of employing women with whom Reichelt had relationships.[14][15]

The New York Times article also dealt with allegations against Reichelt that had become known in the spring and described research that the Ippen Investigative Team (Frankfurter Rundschau, Münchner Merkur, TZ) had carried out and thereby gained access to internal documents. The New York Times article revealed new details of the Reichelt case. Reichelt married in 2016, and apparently forged divorce papers in order to convince one of his employees of his availability. In addition, he had instructed an additional payment of 5,000 euros for an employee, with the request not to discuss it.[16] However, publisher Dirk Ippen stopped the publication without giving legal or editorial reasons.[17] Following the New York Times article, Reichelt was fired, because of new allegations folllowing the compliance proceedings.[18][19]

In 2021, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported "Döpfner's role in the Reichelt affair and his suitability as President of the Bundesverband Digitalpublisher und Zeitungsverleger will have to be examined very carefully."[20]

From July 2022, Reichelt went online with the show “Achtung Reichelt” on YouTube. It was initially unclear where Reichelt got the financing for the elaborate studio productions.[21] Later it get known, that the businessmen Frank Gotthard, who has close ties to CDU is financing Reichelt and his projects.

Gotthard is also the financie of the right populist media portal "Nius" of Reichelt.[22] The “Nius” portal went online at the beginning of July 2023. Jan David Sutthoff is responsible for an editor-in-chief who is not part of "Achtung Reichelt". The ex-Bild journalists Sebastian Vorbach and Willi Haentjes complete the editorial team. The 30-person editorial team also includes the former Bild editors Ralf Schuler, Giovanna Winterfeldt and Julius Böhm, who worked with Reichelt on media projects before "Nius", as well as Judith Sevinç Basad, Jan Karon and Anabel Schunke.