Ernst Uhrlau

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Ernst Uhrlau (right) with Wolfgang Ischinger , 2009

Ernst Uhrlau (born December 7, 1946 in Hamburg ) is a retired German civil servant and an SPD member. He was President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from December 2005 to December 7, 2011 and has been a freelance consultant for Deutsche Bank since February 2012 .

Life

After graduating from high school in Eppendorf in 1967 , Uhrlau studied political science , sociology and economics at the University of Hamburg . In 1974 he became a teacher at the State Police School in Hamburg; From 1975 to 1981 he worked as a personal advisor and head of the Senator’s Office under Werner Staak and Alfons Pawelczyk in the Hamburg Ministry of the Interior . He then worked from 1981 to 1991 as deputy head of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Hamburg and from 1991 to 1996 as its head. In 1996 Ernst Uhrlau was appointed Hamburg Police President.

Career in Berlin

In 1998 Uhrlau moved to the capital, where, after the election victory of the SPD and the red-green takeover of government, he became Head of Department  VI (Federal Intelligence Service, coordination of federal intelligence services) in the Federal Chancellery as Ministerial Director . As the representative of the coordinator of the federal intelligence services - the head of the Federal Chancellery - Uhrlau was the interface between the Federal Government and the Federal Intelligence Service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD). One of the well-known successes of his work is the exchange of prisoners in January 2004 between Israel and the Lebanese-Shiite terrorist movement Hezbollah, mediated by Uhrlau as an “honest broker” .

Uhrlau approved the Eikonal operation of the Federal Intelligence Service and the NSA , in which data from Deutsche Telekom and possibly lines from Austria were tapped. The secret wiretapping ran from 2004 to 2008 and was based on an agreement between the US and Germany from 2002.

On December 1, 2005 Uhrlau, named by the grand coalition of CDU and SPD, took over the office of President of the Federal Intelligence Service as the successor to August Hanning . His first case in this office was the kidnapping of the archaeologist Susanne Osthoff .

In the scandal surrounding the kidnapping of the German-Lebanese Khaled al Masri , Uhrlau admitted in 2006 that the BND had been informed, but had not passed this information on immediately. The federal government decreed a reorganization of the BND leadership, through which Uhrlau has been assisted by three vice-presidents.

The role of the BND in the investigation into tax evasion to Liechtenstein and the renewed mediation in a further exchange between Israel and Hezbollah was perceived positively .

In April 2008 Uhrlau was confronted with demands to resign after the Federal Intelligence Service monitored the Afghan Minister of Trade and Industry Amin Farhang in 2006 and recorded e-mails from the Spiegel reporter Susanne Koelbl . According to Koelbl, Uhrlau apologized to her in a personal conversation. Another setback this year was the arrest of three BND agents in Kosovo after the bomb attack on the EU mission in Pristina , about which Uhrlau was not informed by his own authorities.

In connection with the investigation into the extent to which German secret service information supported the Iraq war , Uhrlau complained about the “scandalization of actions that have long been set out in the secret government report on the allegations. We have the shorter lever: The confidentiality regulations often prevent us from refuting allegations by bringing the real facts to the public. "

Uhrlau retired on December 31, 2011 due to his age. The black and yellow federal government appointed the State Secretary from the Interior Ministry Gerhard Schindler (FDP) as his successor . Uhrlau has been advising Deutsche Bank since February 2012 .

Private

Uhrlau is married and has two adult sons.

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Uhrlau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uhrlau is hired by Deutsche Bank. In: Spiegel Online. February 5, 2012, accessed on September 25, 2012 : “Since the beginning of February he has been advising Deutsche Bank on a freelance basis on the analysis of global risks. A spokesman for the institute confirmed a report by Spiegel on Sunday. "
  2. ↑ Ulrike Putz: Will Germany release three terrorists for Israel? In: Spiegel Online. January 26, 2004, accessed on September 25, 2012 : “The weekend's breather is over for secret service coordinator Ernst Uhrlau. He was only able to enjoy his diplomatic masterpiece for a short time, which he brought to a conclusion after years of secret negotiations between the Lebanese "party of God" and Israel. "
  3. ^ Fabian Schmid: Pilz: Berlin approved NSA espionage against Austria , derStandard.at , October 23, 2015
  4. ↑ Martin Klingst: The silent one . In: The time . No. 49 . Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius, Hamburg December 1, 2005 ( zeit.de [accessed September 25, 2012]).
  5. ↑ "Not decisive for the war". In: FAZ.net. June 2, 2006, accessed on September 25, 2012 : "With this admission, Uhrlau surprisingly revised earlier information according to which the German services or the Foreign Office were never informed about the kidnapping during the period of the crime."
  6. ↑ Hubert Gude: Always at your service . In: Focus . No. 44 . Focus Magazin Verlag, October 2007, ISSN  1615-4576 ( focus.de [accessed September 25, 2012]).
  7. ↑ Honest brokers between Hezbollah and Israel. In: FAZ.net. July 15, 2008, accessed on September 25, 2012 : "In the spotlight, however, was the then secret service coordinator in the Chancellery, Ernst Uhrlau, who stayed in Beirut during the entire exchange campaign - in the care of Hezbollah."
  8. ↑ Severin Weiland: The master of the spies is allowed to stay. In: Spiegel Online. April 25, 2008, accessed on September 25, 2012 : “In 2006, the BND monitored the Afghan Minister of Trade and Industry, Amin Farhang, and recorded e-mails from the reporter. According to the government, Uhrlau only found out about this a year later, at the end of 2007. "
  9. ↑ Thorsten Jungholt, Joachim Peter: Action Kuhhandel or why Ernst Uhrlau stays. In: Welt Online. April 24, 2008, accessed on September 25, 2012 : "But shortly before 3 p.m., PKG chairman Thomas Oppermann (SPD) finally announced that Uhrlau was allowed to keep his job - despite the illegal spying of a German journalist by his authority."
  10. ↑ Sandra Petersmann : Who controls the German secret services? In: DW.de. November 25, 2008, accessed on September 26, 2012 : “When the information became more and more specific in February, the journalist asked for a personal interview with BND boss Ernst Uhrlau. According to Koelbl, this conversation lasted around two hours. Uhrlau apologized to her and asked for understanding for the difficult situation of the BND. "
  11. ↑ Hans Monath: Clueless at the top. In: Der Tagesspiegel (online edition). December 8, 2008, accessed on September 25, 2012 : “According to several newspapers, Uhrlau did not find out about this from the BND, but from the Foreign Office. Only one day later, when the German offices were also being searched, did he inform the BND supervisory authority, the Chancellery, of the incident. "
  12. ↑ Andreas Förster: On demand. In: Berliner Zeitung (online edition). December 1, 2008, accessed on September 26, 2012 : “During his tenure, which has not even been three years, top sources were exposed, espionage operations became known and journalists were spied on in violation of the constitution. Time and again he turned the members of the parliamentary control body against himself through arrogance and ignorance. In the service itself, Uhrlaus' unsuccessful personnel policy and his lack of intelligence expertise cause persistent trouble. "
  13. ^ Chancellery attacks BND boss Uhrlau. In: Spiegel Online. December 7, 2008, accessed on September 26, 2012 : “Uhrlaus credibility has suffered severely as a result of the Kosovo scandal. Because, according to several newspapers, there were a number of embarrassing mishaps in the case of the arrested agents. Focus and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FASZ) unanimously reported that the agents had already sent an encrypted emergency message to the headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service on the evening of their control by a police patrol - and thus days before their arrest . This emergency call was not heeded for several days. "
  14. ^ Frank Jansen , Hans Monath: "September 11th is not repeatable". In: Der Tagesspiegel (online edition). September 8, 2008, accessed September 26, 2012 .
  15. ↑ FDP member Schindler should become BND boss. In: Tagesschau.de. October 29, 2011, archived from the original on October 30, 2011 ; accessed on September 26, 2012 : "The Ministerial Director in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Gerhard Schindler, is to become the new head of the Federal Intelligence Service on January 1st."
  16. ↑ Uhrlau is hired by Deutsche Bank. In: Sueddeutsche.de. February 5, 2012, accessed on September 26, 2012 : “The financial institution confirmed a report by Spiegel that the 65-year-old has been working as a freelance consultant for the house since February 1. He advises the bank on global security issues. "
  17. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Uhrlau, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil servant, secret service coordinator of the federal government (Germany)
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg