Media director who made refugee boat into altar fired for foolish tweet

Media director, Mayer leaves Archdiocese of Cologne

He succeeded in obtaining one or another PR coup for the Archdiocese of Cologne. But then Mediendirektor Ansgar Mayer got a tweet in the headlines. At the end of the year he will give up his office.

The Media Director of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Ansgar Mayer, will left the Archdiocese at the end of the year at his own request. According to the Archdiocese on Monday, the reason was a new task in Hamburg, which he wanted to concentrate on. Mayer had only taken over in January 2016 the former staff office and converted it to the main department of media and communication. He headed three departments with around 40 employees and developed, among other things, a holistic media strategy for all platforms and channels.

The Archbishopric regretted Mayer's decision. He had succeeded in establishing a corporate communication which meets the needs of the time, said Vicar General. Dominik Meiering. In addition, the 45-year-old had a "PR coup" for the Archdiocese. Thus, media attention was attracted from beyond the German borders, when Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki used a refugee boat in front of the Cologne Cathedral as an altar.

Corpus Christi in Cologne

(see also the Linz Corpus Christi Scandal)

Negative headlines

At last, however, Mayer had drawn attention to himself with his personal negative headline. In a tweet about the many electors' votes for the Alternative for Germany in Saxony (a depressed state in former Eastern Germany), he had written after the Bundestag election: "Czech Republic, how about: We take your nuclear waste, you take Saxony?" On top of that, there were some critical reactions, which were spread over Twitter and Facebook as well as on numerous Internet portals. Later, Mayer asked for forgiveness. Whether or not his present departure from the Archbishopric of Cologne is also connected with these occurrences was not divulged by the Archbishopric.

Mayer was born in 1972 in Ellwangen. He studied political science, history, journalism and Catholic theology. Among other things he was head of the Crossmedia training at the Axel-Springer-Akademie from 2007 to 2012 and from December 2012 until his change to Cologne on the board of the "Computerbild" in Hamburg.

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