The new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is bringing a new spokesman into the house: ARD journalist Michael Stempfle will be head of the information work department, the ministry announced on Monday in Berlin. Stempfle replaces the former ARD journalist Christian Thiels, who worked as spokesman for both Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and her predecessor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU).
However, on January 17, shortly before Pistorius was appointed defense minister, Stempfle praised Lower Saxony on “tagesschau.de” as a “full-blooded politician who gets things done” – “with a sure instinct for issues and for pragmatic solutions”. His move to the ministry was announced six days later. This raises questions: When the text was published, did Stempfle already have the offer from the Federal Ministry of Defense? And when did ARD know about the upcoming change? The CDU member of the Bundestag Matthias Hauer also asks the same thing on Twitter: “Recently still exuberant Boris
Under the tweet, other users are also wondering if everything went correctly. It is not unusual for journalists to switch from editorial offices to the press offices of companies, authorities or ministries. Stempfle’s predecessor was also a journalist for ARD before he became press spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense. What is unusual in the Stempfle case, however, is the short time between the two activities. When asked by stern, a company spokeswoman for SWR, for whom Stempfle worked in the ARD capital office, wrote: “On Monday, January 23, 2023, Michael Stempfle informed SWR about the termination of his employment contract. There was no information about this beforehand. The article at For reasons of transparency, tagesschau.de by Michael Stempfle will have an addition that explains that he was still a correspondent in the ARD capital studio at the time.” When asked by stern, the Federal Ministry of Defense did not want to comment beyond the press release on personnel.
The “Tagesschau” has meanwhile written the note under the Stempfle text: “Editor’s note: At the time this text was published (January 17, 2023), Michael Stempfle was a correspondent in the ARD capital studio. It has been known since January 23, 2023, that he will become a spokesman for the Department of Defense.”
Note: The text was supplemented by the statement by SWR and the response from the Federal Ministry of Defence.
Further source: Press release from the Federal Ministry of Defense on Stempfle.
