Well…
According to Michael Jürgs, in the summer of 1957, Springer had an… episode… where he thought he was the reborn Messiah. His family and close friends stashed him away at the family’s summer home in Sylt and screened him from the public. Apparently, fellow publisher Ernst Rohwohlt who also had a summer home in Sylt managed to talk Springer out of it.
Tangent to the tangent: in 1958, on his own initiative, Springer went to Moscow for talks with Nikita Khrushchev and tried to convince him of the benefits of a reunificated, but neutral, Germany and a social market economy. The talks didn’t go well.
