The intensive discussions that the ARD promised after the criticism of the appointment of Thilo Mischke as the new presenter of the cultural program “Titles, Theses, Temperaments” (“ttt”) became very loud must have increased enormously in intensity on Friday evening: Thilo Mischke will not be Max Moor’s successor as “ttt” presenter after all.
The ARD announced on Saturday in a joint statement with Mischke that it would “refrain” from his moderation work.
The heated discussion about personnel overshadowed “the topics that are central and relevant to us, which we want to convey with the show and brand ‘ttt’ and discuss together with the community, so that this is no longer possible,” the statement says. Now it’s about “avoiding further damage to the reputation of ‘ttt’ and Thilo Mischke.”
ARD’s lurching course
In fact, according to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, according to various unnamed sources, there were heated discussions internally at ARD: between the editorial team of the cultural magazine, which partially resisted Mischke as a moderator, and the ARD program directorate responsible for culture, which reporters wanted to enforce. In retrospect, ARD’s lurching course over the Christmas period makes sense.
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Shortly after Mischke’s appointment, the podcast “Feminist Shelf Control”, run by Annika Brockschmidt and Rebekka Endler, showed in an episode the sexist and misogynistic statements the reporter had made in his past. In his books “Around the World in 80 Women” from 2010 and “The Woman for Life Doesn’t Need Big Breasts” from 2013 and years later in a podcast with Caroline Rosales.
The “ttt” social media team responded on Instagram with reassuring statements (“We take your criticism seriously,” “We won’t sit through it”) and promised intensive discussions to examine the allegations against Mischke. Which indicated how little was known about Mischke’s books, among other things.
However, after Christmas, ARD said that they were convinced of Mischke, that he was an award-winning journalist and extremely competent and that they were looking forward to his “view of culture”. In general, he critically examined his previous work. In short: victory for the ARD superiors against the “ttt” editorial team.
Protests from culture: “ttt” without us
Was it the open letter signed by 200 cultural workers shortly after the New Year that persuaded ARD to move away from Mischke? Addressing by name the responsible program directors of ARD, Björn Wilhelm from BR, Julia Krittian from HR, Jana Brandt from MDR, Katrin Günther from RBB and Andrea Schafarczyk from WDR, the signatories from the cultural sector concluded a collaboration with Mischke and others Appearances at “Titles, Theses, Temperaments” stand out for themselves.
This is because, in their opinion, Mischke did not distance himself from his books and his first book “Around the World in 80 Women” was, contrary to his claims, not a work of fiction (“This trip took place, I don’t have to justify myself”) and only last year he described this as a “preliminary stage” for his later foreign reports.
It sounds both cute and revealing when ARD now wants to avert “further reputational damage” from its cultural program “ttt” and Thilo Mischke. The damage is already almost impossible to repair and ARD alone is responsible for it. On the one hand, the broadcaster apparently wanted to hire a reporter who was not known to anyone in the cultural sector and who had not previously been there.
When he was appointed, Mischke advertised his “undercomplex concept of culture”. And he thought he had to prove his suitability by being the son of a bookseller couple and therefore being able to sell culture.
Misogynist Prosaversuche
On the other hand, ARD didn’t seem to know anything about Mischke’s misogynistic prose attempts – or the program managers didn’t care. The main thing is that he’s a tough guy, still comparatively young in his mid-40s and so possibly a magnet for a younger audience; a man who should not only announce and moderate contributions, but also possibly investigatively research cultural histories, a second Jan Böhmermann.
The society and morals that we have spread over the last 2000 years of Christianization in Europe have weaned us off the habit so much that we no longer rape.
Thilo Mischke in a podcast
The damage is also great for Thilo Mischke. The entire republic now knows about his books. He wrote them in his late twenties and mid-thirties and they can hardly be described as “youthful sins”. Especially not in conjunction with his strange prehistoric sexuality and rape theses that he later expressed in the podcast with the author Caroline Rosales.
“Male sexuality,” he raved, is “perhaps based on rape. And the society and morals that we have spread over the last 2,000 years of Christianization in Europe have weaned us off the habit to such an extent that we no longer rape.”
Excellent reports
In addition to reports such as “Under Stranger Blankets – Looking for the Best Sex in the World” (2012/2013), Mischke is also responsible for very good reports such as “Rechts. German. “Radikal” (2020) or those about German people joining and leaving IS or about the situation in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal, all of which were honored with prizes.
And all for the broadcaster Pro7, which immediately jumped to Mischke’s side on make.”
ARD wants to “process everything journalistically”
Mischke himself has so far remained silent about the debate surrounding himself. The ARD statement said he was in a “process of coming to terms with the events and will comment on the matter himself in due course.” According to program director Christine Strobl, the ARD itself now wants to “work on the topic journalistically” with him in the next few days.
However, the broadcaster should do this primarily in-house. Because the failure in the Mischke case is symptomatic. It is representative of the unfortunate way ARD, the public broadcaster, deals with art and culture: from the formatting and tabloidization of the cultural waves on the radio, the cancellation of criticism and cultural programs right up to the impasse with the cultural broadcaster 3Sat in the course of the upcoming Reforms.
At least one thing has been decided after Mischke was renounced, and one wonders why not like this: In 2025, “Title, Theses, Temperaments” will be moderated by Max Moor’s previous co-moderator Siham El-Maimouni.