Overview
- stern ran the interview as a Q&A with multiple entries replaced by the note "Antwort nicht freigegeben" after the authorization round.
- The exchange included provocative prompts such as whether Chancellor Friedrich Merz is an "Arschloch," with those responses withheld in the final text.
- Politics chief Veit Medick said the magazine offered several chances to supplement answers but that Piechotta struck whole passages, including questions.
- Piechotta posted on X that she had answered in detail and had to reconstruct large parts, arguing the original replies were not fully recorded.
- Media peers, including stern journalist Miriam Hollstein, criticized Piechotta’s approach, and stern has issued no correction or retraction while defending publication to document an unusual intervention.