Express owner 'in Nazi outburst'

Desmond recently sold off his adult magazine stable

Express newspapers owner Richard Desmond branded all Germans as "Nazis" in an outburst against Daily Telegraph executives, it has been claimed.

Mr Desmond started singing "Deutschland uber alles" as he mocked a German group's bid for the Telegraph.

One of the Telegraph bosses has told the BBC: "It was beyond parody."

The paper's executives were apparently so disgusted they walked out of Thursday's meeting of the board of jointly-owned West Ferry print company.

Severe abuse

A spokesman for Mr Desmond, responding to the story on the Guardian website, said only: "I have just read a very entertaining interpretation of what was a very productive one-and-a-half hour meeting."

Telegraph bosses say Mr Desmond made comments about the prospective Telegraph buyers, German newspaper group Axel Springer.

"I don't think that there was a swear word in the language that wasn't used at some stage Jeremy Deedes Daily Telegraph chief executive

Daily Telegraph chief executive Jeremy Deedes headed a delegation at the meeting.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We got abused pretty severely.

"We were greeted in German by Mr Desmond and his fellow directors, which I ignored, and shook hands.

"He then said 'How did we fancy being taken over by a lot of 'effing Nazis?'"

'Step outside'

Asked if Mr Desmond had called him "a miserable little piece of excrement", he said: "I think people can fill in the asterisks, it was a bit stronger than that.

"I don't think that there was a swear word in the language that wasn't used at some stage."

Mr Deedes said it became clear within minutes that the meeting would not be productive.

Richard Desmond's an eccentric. For most people he's just medicine that's too strong to take Jeff Randall BBC Business editor

He said: "It was when we got up to leave that Mr Desmond said, words to the effect of, 'come on chaps' and they then all began to sing 'Deutschland uber alles'.

"One or two of them were giving 'sieg heil' salutes and he was placing the two fingers of one hand in the style of a Hitler moustache as we left.

"My fear is that people are going to read this and think it was all quite amusing.

"It was actually extremely unpleasant. This wasn't just banter."

'Average meeting'

The tirade came despite the fact that the Frankfurt-based Commerzbank backed Mr Desmond's takeover of the Express titles.

BBC Business editor Jeff Randall said one of Mr Desmond's camp told him: "I don't know what all the fuss is about, it sounds like your average meeting with Richard Desmond."

Mr Randall said: "He's a maverick, he's eccentric, there's none like him. For most people he's just medicine that's too strong to take."

He suggested Mr Desmond was bitter about having to pull out of the race for the Telegraph.

Mr Randall said it seemed he was sending a warning to other prospective buyers that they would have to handle such behaviour because of the joint stake in the print works.

Mr Desmond pulled out of the race for the Telegraph stable last month amid talk that the asking price has gone beyond £600m - his estimated bid for the was £550m.