Bavaria egg scandal

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The Bayern-Ei scandal was a food scandal in which the Bayern-Ei company and its owner Stefan Pohlmann hit the headlines in 2015 due to salmonella- contaminated eggs.

Exposure of the scandal

In May 2015, Bayerische Rundfunk and Süddeutsche Zeitung uncovered that the Bayern-Ei company was involved in a food scandal. In 2014 there was a cross-border salmonella outbreak with hundreds of sick people and at least one dead.

The owner Stefan Pohlmann is the son of Anton Pohlmann , against whom a life-long ban on commercial animal husbandry was imposed in 1996.

The public prosecutor's office assumes that Stefan Pohlmann had already known since December 2013 that his operations in the Lower Bavarian locations of Aiterhofen and Wallersdorf were contaminated with salmonella. Nevertheless, he continued to deliver eggs for around a year. There was no warning to the public.

Stefan Pohlmann was temporarily taken into custody in August 2015 on suspicion of violations of food law and animal cruelty , dangerous bodily harm and bodily harm resulting in death . The entrepreneur is accused of dangerous bodily harm in 187 cases, one of which resulted in death. According to the information, 95 victims come from Austria, 86 from Germany and six from France. There is a suspicion that he deliberately exceeded the approved number of animals at the plant in Wallersdorf in the stall period from July 2014 to August 2015 by having 523,446 instead of the approved 487,500 laying hens housed and in this way operating the stall with overstocking and therefore without a permit. The overstocking is said to have caused long-lasting pain and suffering to the animals kept in cages.

After the discovery

On August 21, 2015, Sören Mohr became interim managing director of Bayern-Ei. Shortly afterwards, SZ and BR reported that he had also violated food laws in the past and was convicted of catastrophic hygienic conditions in his company in September 2014. Then, one month after Mohr, on September 23, 2015, Peter Neugebauer became the new interim managing director.

In December 2015, an official veterinarian in the Straubing-Bogen district was arrested on suspicion that the company had warned the company about controls. In June 2017, the official veterinarian was acquitted for lack of evidence.

In February 2017, an investigative committee in the state parliament was decided to clarify the suspicion as to whether the Bavarian egg affair was "systematically covered up" in the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment. The committee, consisting of nine MPs, concluded its work in June 2018 with contradicting assessments by the CSU and SPD.

After a month-long sales ban, the company was producing again under certain conditions, but announced on December 19, 2017 that it would cease business operations in 2017/2018 and sell the fixed assets. The sale of the facility with future use as a fattening farm for 225,000 chickens met with resistance from residents and the Aiterhofen town council in mid-2018, who unanimously rejected the request of an investor.

In March 2020, Stefan Pohlmann admitted through his defense lawyer that he knew about the positive salmonella sample and still sold the eggs.

Procedure and judgment

The regional court of Regensburg opened the main proceedings against him on April 12, 2019. Since Pohlmann was charged with bodily harm resulting in death, among other things, the trial took place in front of the jury chamber. The indictment was based on bodily harm resulting in death, commercial fraud, dangerous bodily harm as well as food and animal welfare violations.

On March 16, 2020, Stefan Pohlmann was sentenced to imprisonment of one year and nine months on probation and a fine of around two million euros for 26 cases of negligent bodily harm and 190 commercial fraud. In addition, as part of the previous agreement with the public prosecutor, Pohlmann undertook not to keep any chickens in Germany in the future.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b br.de: Most of those who are sick in Germany from Bavaria ( Memento from March 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de: The egg producer Anton Pohlmann is convicted
  3. ↑ Merkur.de: Bayern-Ei: The lazy business of the Pohlmann family
  4. ↑ regio-aktuell24.de: Public Prosecutor's Office brings charges against Hühnerbaron Stefan Pohlmann - Update
  5. ↑ a b online-handelsregister.de: Bayern Ei Beteiligungs GmbH
  6. ↑ sueddeutsche.de: Salmonella scandal - the next new boss at Bayern-Ei
  7. ↑ br.de: A questionable new beginning
  8. ↑ pnp.de: Straubing: The district office veterinarian is in custody
  9. ↑ focus.de: scandal over Bayern egg: official veterinarian of the district office in custody
  10. ↑ br.de: acquittal for veterinarian of the district government
  11. ↑ focus.de: Opposition agrees on committee on the Bayern-Ei affair
  12. ↑ topagrar.com: Scandal over Bayern egg brings Minister Scharf into trouble again
  13. ↑ sueddeutsche.de: For the first time, Ms. leads the investigation committee
  14. ^ A b sueddeutsche.de: Opposition has 350 questions about the scandal at Bayern-Ei
  15. ^ Final act in the Bayern egg scandal. bayerische-staatszeitung.de, June 7, 2018, accessed on March 8, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Bayern Ei GmbH & Co. KG - Annual financial statements for the financial year from 01/01/2016 to 12/31/2016. bundesanzeiger.de, January 16, 2018, accessed on March 8, 2019 .
  17. ↑ No chicken fattening operation in the former Bayern egg facility. sueddeutsche.de, August 9, 2018, accessed on August 21, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Plea and judgment expected in the Bayern-Ei trial. March 17, 2020, accessed March 17, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Opening decision in the Bayern Ei case. Regional Court of Regensburg, April 12, 2019, accessed on April 13, 2019 .
  20. ^ Judgment in the Bayern-Ei case: In case of doubt, for the defendant. March 17, 2020, accessed March 18, 2020 .
  21. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Bayern-Ei: ex-managing director condemned. Retrieved March 19, 2020 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 49 ′ 56 "  N , 12 ° 39 ′ 11.2"  E