It took Axel Springer’s Mathias Döpfner three days and £575m in cash to achieve his dream of buying The Daily Telegraph - and take a step toward building a new conservative-leaning global media brand.

How times have changed.  

In 2004, when Canada’s bon vivant Conrad Black was forced to sell the Telegraph Group, billionaire Döpfner ran into a wall of anti-German prejudice in London.

Goose-stepping Daily Express owner Richard Desmond - who had dropped out of the Telegraph auction on price grounds - declared that Germans were “all Nazis” and ordered fellow executives to sing “Deutschland uber ales”, accompanied by “Sieg Heil” salutes.

Late last week, I contacted Desmond, who has relocated to Dubai on tax grounds but now finds himself in the middle of Gulf War III. I asked him how he felt about one of Britain’s oldest newspapers falling to German ownership. 

Richard pronounced himself safe and well, and extended his congratulations to Döpfner, a good guy who will take the Telegraph “to the next level.”

His anti-Nazi outburst in 2004, he explained, was aimed at Black’s “pompous, self-righteous emissaries” on the then-Telegraph board.

Fast forward to 2026. Eminent journalists, led by ex-Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson, are paying tribute to Springer and Döpfner, with not a whiff of Germanophobia. They single out the group’s anti-Nazi past, iron-cast support of Israel and free speech.

Nelson described the Springer bid as ‘The Great Escape’ from the clutches of Wall Street private equity firm RedBird and Abu Dhabi’s IMI. A campaign led by Telegraph Editor Chris Evans against foreign state ownership torpedoed two RedBird-IMI offers last year.

Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail group then stepped in with a £500m bid, which was referred to the competition authorities. But rumours persisted that Rothermere had cold feet, mindful perhaps of the size of his cash outlay.

Döpfner saw an opening and ditched his idea of a consortium bid with oddball partners, including the New York Sun’s Dovid Efune and British hedge fund steam-engine buff Jeremy Hosking. He financed the deal in three days.

So what will Döpfner do? He wants to go big on digital and go global, particularly aiming at the US market, where he owns Politico and Business Insider.

There is speculation that he may be looking for a new Telegraph editor. (He’s still to name a new Politico editor-in-chief) Coincidentally, a few self-promoting tweets have appeared from various quarters (no names, Anne, no packdrill). 

Some would like to see a cull of Brexiteer columnists like Alistair (“Mr Apocalypse") Heath to shift the Telegraph to the centre ground. But ex-Sunday Times Editor and Spectator Chair Andrew Neil has warned about Springer’s europhile tendencies.

Döpfner was studiously diplomatic in his message to Telegraph staff late last week.  After his experience more than 20 years ago, he will be doubly aware of Perfidious Albion.