Beate Merk

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Beate Merk (2012)

Beate Maria Wish (* 1. August 1957 in Nordhorn ) is a German politician of the CSU . She was Bavarian State Minister for Justice and Consumer Protection from October 14, 2003 to October 10, 2013, and was then Minister of State for European Affairs and Regional Relations in Prime Minister Seehofer's cabinet until March 21, 2018 .

Career

Beate Merk at the CSU party conference 2015

Beate Merk is the oldest of the four children of the married couple Hubert and Waltraud Merk. In 1961 the family moved to their father's hometown in Göppingen , Baden-Württemberg . Merk attended the Freihof-Gymnasium there and graduated from high school in 1976. From 1976 to 1981 she studied law and political science at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . She spent her legal traineeship in Landshut and Regensburg ; In 1984 she passed the second state examination . In 1991 she received her doctorate at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg (subject of the legislative and judicial influence on municipalities in the tax treatment of their public institutions ).

In 1984 she joined the CSU and became a consultant in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior . From 1989 to 1994 she was the first legal clerk in the district office of the Neu-Ulm district and deputy of the district administrator. In 1994 she moved to the 'Administrative Reform Project Group' of the Bavarian State Chancellery .

In 1995, Merk won the election for mayor of the city of Neu-Ulm very narrowly with only three votes ahead. She took up this post on June 21, after the Augsburg Administrative Court rejected an appeal by the SPD. She has been a member of the Neu-Ulm district council since 1996 . On March 2, 2002 she won the election again and remained OB; when she took office as Minister of Justice, she resigned from the OB office.

Merk has also been a district councilor in Swabia since 2003 .

In 1999, Merk became a member of the CSU executive board as secretary and thus also of the CSU presidium. From 2003 to 2013 she was one of the deputy CSU chairs .

From October 14, 2003 to October 9, 2013, she was the Bavarian Minister of Justice . In the state elections in 2008 she won the CSU's only place on the list in the Swabian constituency and since October 30, 2008, she has been responsible for justice and consumer protection in the Seehofer I cabinet .

In the 2013 state elections , she was directly elected as the successor to Peter Schmid in the Neu-Ulm electoral district . From October 2013 she became Minister of State for European Affairs and Regional Relations in the Seehofer II cabinet . Her successor as Minister of Justice was Winfried Bausback . In the first cabinet of the new Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), which was appointed on March 21, 2018, Beate Merk was no longer considered. In the state elections in 2018 , she won the Neu-Ulm constituency again. Merk is currently a member of the committee for health and care and a member of the committee for economy, regional development, energy, media and digitization.

Merk is single and of Roman Catholic denomination.

Political positions and controversies

Beate Merk (June 2008)

Juvenile criminal law

In September 2009, Merk called for a tightening of youth criminal law . Among other things, she called for the maximum sentence for juveniles to be increased from ten to 15 years and that 18-year-old offenders should in future generally be sentenced according to adult criminal law. She explained that harsher punishments alone could not prevent terrible acts, but she is also "not just about deterrence ", but "of course also about atonement ".

Child abuse

In February 2010, Merk received criticism when she backed statements made by then Bishop Walter Mixa that the sexual revolution was one of the causes of the sexual abuse of children in Catholic institutions . Merk was "very grateful for this clear statement" at Mixa. You see in it "no unfortunate formulation, but an attempt to explain".

In July 2010, Merk indirectly blamed so-called killer games and the FDP for cases of abuse in a holiday camp on Ameland . The agreement of the black and yellow federal government , enforced by the FDP, to suspend the Access Difficulty Act , that is, to refrain from blocking Internet pages and attempt to delete websites with child pornographic content , was described as "grossly negligent". She advocated online searches in connection with the distribution of child pornography .

Merk was criticized by Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger for calling for cyber grooming to be criminalized, although this has been regulated by Section 176 (4) No. 3 StGB since 2004.

Data retention

After the 2011 attacks in Norway , Merk called for data retention to be reintroduced . It must be possible "over several months" to know "who is on the phone with whom, who has sent whom an e-mail or SMS". "We need a period of several months in which connection data is securely stored in reserve." Such demands, which were also made at the same time by CSU politician Hans-Peter Uhl , met with strong criticism from the SPD, the Greens and the FDP and the Left Party as well as some security experts. For example, the SPD politician Dieter Wiefelspütz describes the demand as a “macabre instrumentalization of these horrific attacks”. The Saxon Justice Minister Jürgen Martens , FDP, described the demands as "irresponsible populism".

blasphemy

Beginning of April 2006 was beaming the channel MTV a commercial for the controversial cartoon - television series Popetown out. Under the title “Laughing instead of hanging around”, this showed a laughing Christ who had risen from the cross while watching TV. The broadcast led, also in connection with the previously published Mohammed caricatures , to a public debate about the significance of blasphemy in Germany.

In the following year, Merk had a draft law drafted to tighten paragraph 166 of the Criminal Code . Merk intended to initiate a Federal Council initiative to change the paragraph. According to their submission, insulting religion and church should not first be punishable, which could disturb the public peace, but even mocking or degrading should be made a punishable offense. In her draft, Merk demanded that public peace would be disturbed in the future if the ridicule could “impair the trust of those affected in respect for their religious or ideological convictions or promote the willingness of third parties to be intolerant” of religion.

Merk is for Christian crosses in courtrooms. These should make it clear that God is above man.

Demonstration on July 27, 2013 in Nuremberg

Case of Gustl Mollath

When the Free Voters put the Gustl Mollath case on the agenda of the Bavarian state parliament on December 15, 2011, according to a report by Report Mainz , Merk pointed out that the judiciary had determined in several instances that Mollath continued to pose a threat. In 2006, the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court instructed Mollath to execute the penal system, as he had committed dangerous physical harm and deprivation of liberty on his then wife while he was in a state of culpability as a result of “paranoid symptoms” and had committed property damage in nine cases. In the years before, Mollath had informed the authorities of illicit money transactions and money laundering at Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank (HVB) in Nuremberg, in which his wife was involved, without the public prosecutor's office having investigated. The case was forwarded to the Legal Affairs Committee for assessment, before which Merk, on March 8, 2012, described Mollath's written statement in the process as an “abstruse hodgepodge” and stated that Mollath's placement had nothing to do with his criminal complaints, but that “because he has committed serious crimes because he was sick and dangerous for the general public ”. An internal audit report of HVB only provided "indications of possible criminally relevant violations by individual HVB ​​employees", "which had nothing to do with the problem reported by Mollath and also nothing to do with his wife at the time".

In November 2012, the content of the HVB audit report, which the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor had requested from the bank at the end of 2011, was made public. The report stated that all of Mollath's verifiable allegations were found to be correct. The opposition in the Bavarian state parliament then accused Merk on November 13 of not providing truthful information. At the end of October, Merk had repeated her presentation from the Legal Affairs Committee, according to the investigation by the bank that she had received, the allegations had not been confirmed.

In an interview with the ZDF morning magazine on November 28, 2012, Merk once again described Mollath as "mentally ill" and "dangerous". The next day, Christine Stahl ( Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) asked Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) to dismiss Merk in the state parliament. Florian Streibl had previously asked the Free Voters to resign.

On November 30, 2012 Merk instructed the public prosecutor's office in Regensburg to apply for a retrial after it had been reported that two years before his judgment in the Mollath case , the judge Otto Brixner said that the tax authorities were “not clear” with understanding "should have designated.

From April 2013, an investigative committee of the Bavarian state parliament examined the case. One day before Merk appeared as a witness before the committee on June 14, she was criticized for the first time by her coalition partner FDP for her behavior in the Mollath case. Merk was a Justice Minister who “explained difficultly” or “perhaps made one or the other unhappy figure”, said FDP parliamentary group leader Thomas Hacker in Munich.

On June 15, 2013, the Nürnberger Nachrichten quoted from the original version of the application for retrial prepared by Chief Public Prosecutor Wolfhard Meindl and submitted on March 18, 2013. Judge Brixner was accused of willful perversion of justice ; the conviction of Mollath for the tire stabbing was "not justifiable and devoid of any solid evidence". The day before, Merk had asserted in front of the inquiry committee in response to inquiries from the opposition about the “lower-case” and “evaporated” application: “I don't know why the application was reduced in the end.” However, she admitted that she had a meeting in hers Ministry was present on one of the versions. The Süddeutsche Zeitung also published excerpts from earlier drafts of the application.

On June 18, 2013 Christian Ude suggested resigning because of the Mollath case in an interview with the Mittelbayerische Zeitung Merk. Ude also criticized the Regional Court of Regensburg, which has had the retrial applications from the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor and von Mollath's lawyer since March ("I have always respected that politicians hold back criticizing the judiciary. But what is happening now is really incredible and Incredible. "" In a trial that stinks against the wind in so many corners and ends, the judiciary has to pull out all the stops to bring about the resumption quickly. Every day too much is an additional scandal. ")

Merk responded with the words “With all due respect: The Lord Mayor should not just keep his word, but keep his mouth shut - at least out of respect for our constitutional state.” With the phrase “keep your mouth shut” she referred to the slogan “keep your word” on Ude's election posters . Shortly thereafter, Florian Streibl renewed his allegations against Merk in an interview with Die Welt : He felt "lied to". On June 28, 2013, the Free Voters declared that the files indicated that the Unicredit Bank's audit report had been available to the Justice Department long before November 2012. The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the core sentence of the report - "All verifiable allegations (Mollaths) have been found to be correct" - had already been highlighted in January 2012 in a report by the Attorney General to the Ministry.

An extensively researched documentary by ARD (first broadcast on June 3, 2013) makes Merk serious accusations, including a. To have told a legal untruth in front of the camera despite specialist knowledge. Uwe Ritzer from the Süddeutsche Zeitung came to the conclusion in an interview: “Ms. Merk was stubborn and ignorant. It acted on the principle that a final judgment is also correct and that what cannot be in Bavaria cannot be. Your crisis management was devastating. Either she is not up to her job in such crisis situations, or she listens to the wrong advice. ”Merk's statement in the program Report Mainz on November 12, 2012, that all verifiable allegations turned out to be untrue, also became famous. Despite multiple corrections by the journalist of Report Mainz, she stuck to her false claim.

At the end of June, the Federal Constitutional Court asked Merk to comment. On July 1, 2013, it became known that Prime Minister Horst Seehofer had once again asked the judiciary to process the case more quickly. In an interview published on July 1, 2013, Merk said: "In my statement to the Federal Constitutional Court, I will make it clear that, in my opinion, the man's placement is disproportionate the longer it lasts". You perceive "that the judiciary has lost a lot of trust".

The Free Voters accuse Merk of having incorrectly or incompletely informed both the committee and the public several times, for example in February 2013.

On July 17, 2013 (on this day the parliamentary committee presented its final report on the Mollath case) media reported that Merk apparently did not have the "backing" of Prime Minister Horst Seehofer .

On August 7, 2013 - after Gustl Mollath was released from psychiatry - the Bavarian opposition again demanded Merk's release. "It is incapable, intolerable and an imposition for the Bavarian people," said SPD parliamentary deputy Inge Auris. Green parliamentary group leader Martin Runge criticized Merk regularly portraying Mollath as a "delusional and dangerous violent criminal". Minister Seehofer must dismiss them.

On September 5, 2013, the Federal Constitutional Court granted Gustl Mollath's constitutional complaint and overturned decisions by the Bayreuth Regional Court and the Bamberg Higher Regional Court, which had ordered Mollath to be kept in the closed psychiatric ward.

The SPD, Free Voters and Greens spoke of a "resounding slap" or "slap" for the minister. MdL Inge Aures criticized: “With the knowledge of the superior Justice Minister, the public prosecutor has repeatedly applied for the continuation of the detention and labeled Mr. Mollath as a dangerous lunatic. In doing so, Beate Merk has even violated the constitution. She trampled on the civil liberties ”.

Mollath's lawyer Michael Kleine-Cosack also harshly criticized Minister Merk and the justice system in Bavaria. The judges had placed Mollath in psychiatry with “irresponsible carelessness” and, despite new findings, “stuck to their wrong decisions with stupid stubbornness”. Merk had held on to the untenable accommodation decisions for too long. You have "constitutionally blind, inhuman" and "hare-hearted" ignored the new findings and human rights violations of the Bavarian judiciary.

The Bavarian Ministry of Justice assessed the decision of the BVerfG as evidence of the functioning of the rule of law and referred to the upcoming reform of the accommodation law . Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) said with a view to the status quo, "the risk of ending up in psychiatric accommodation for too long unjustly [... is] too high."

Employment affair

In the wake of the uncovering of the relatives affair , it became known that Beate Merk had employed her sister from the beginning of 2010 to February 2013 at the expense of the taxpayer - for computer and website help. Merk had not violated the applicable rules, as employment relationships with first-degree relatives were not prohibited until 2013. After the facts were published, she repaid the 52,000 euros her sister had received.

Schottdorf affair

In the course of investigations against 10,000 doctors in the so-called Schottdorf affair , who were supposed to clear up possible damage of 500 million euros, the Augsburg public prosecutor, with the knowledge of the then Justice Minister Merk , discontinued around 150 proceedings. The rest of the proceedings have now become statute-barred due to the authority's inaction.

Inhofer process

At the end of July 2015 it was reported that Merk, as Minister of Justice, is said to have intervened in proceedings against the management of the furniture dealer Inhofer in order to obtain the release of two senior bosses from custody. The allegations were rejected by Merk, the state chancellery and the responsible public prosecutor's office. The opposition in the Bavarian state parliament called for clarification and the resignation as European Minister in the event that the allegations were to be confirmed.

Publications

  • Legislative and judicial influence on the municipalities in the tax treatment of their public institutions. 1991, 174 pp.

Web links

Commons : Beate Merk  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Beate Merk  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The party executive ( Memento from April 15, 2000 in the Internet Archive ), CSU website from April 15, 2000
  2. ↑ welt.de July 29, 2003: From Nordhorn to the top of the CSU: Beate Merk draws Bavaria's attention .
  3. ↑ Beate Merk no longer wants to be CSU vice-president , Südwest-Presse , November 22, 2013
  4. ↑ State election 2018 - results for the constituency of Neu-Ulm. State Returning Officer, accessed on December 22, 2019 .
  5. ↑ bayern.landtag.de
  6. ↑ Monika Maier-Albang, Jan Bielicki: Beatings at the Munich S-Bahn station - Merk calls for complete video surveillance. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 13, 2009, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Merk calls for stricter youth criminal law after the S-Bahn. In: Saxon newspaper . September 13, 2009, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Beate Merk in the review - "That leaves you speechless". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . February 19, 2010, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Christian Stöcker: Sexual violence in the holiday leisure time: CSU Minister blames games and FDP for abuse. In: Spiegel Online . July 22, 2010, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Sexual violence in the holiday camp: CSU minister shares responsibility for killer games . In: Golem.de . July 22, 2010
  11. ↑ Jürgen Kuri: Merk: Online search necessary in the fight against child pornography. In: heise online . July 26, 2007, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  12. ↑ RTL II series: Politicians are harshly criticizing “Tatort Internet”. In: Spiegel Online . October 23, 2010, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Bavarian State Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection: Note: "Data retention is a MUST!" July 25, 2011, accessed on June 15, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Terrorism: No trace of the Oslo bomber to Germany. In: Focus . July 26, 2011, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  15. ↑ Markus Schünemann: SPD criticizes the “instrumentalized” debate after attacks in Norway. In: Märkische Allgemeine . July 26, 2011, archived from the original on February 28, 2013 ; Retrieved June 15, 2013 .
  16. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: Controversy over papal satire: "Take an example from Jesus" . In: Spiegel Online . April 24, 2006
  17. ↑ Is ridicule a criminal offense? In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 2007, p. 18 ( online ).
  18. ↑ Justice in the shadow of the cross? In: sueddeutsche.de. August 15, 2016, accessed March 21, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Man placed in psychiatry - Landtag reacts to Mollath case . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 15, 2011
  20. ↑ Note: Gustl Mollath is right in the psychiatry . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . December 15, 2011
  21. ↑ Report by the Bavarian State Minister for Justice and Consumer Protection on the urgency request by MPs Hubert Aiwanger u. a. on the allegations in the Mollath case in the Legal Affairs Committee on March 8, 2012 (Lt.-Drs. 16/10732) . (PDF; 4.6 MB)
  22. ↑ The complete interview with the Bavarian Minister of Justice Beate Merk: The Bavarian Minister of Justice Beate Merk (CSU) made a statement on November 9, 2012 to REPORT MAINZ on the "Mollath case" . In: Report Mainz . November 13, 2012; Video, 15:39 min; with Merk's opinion before the Legal Committee of the Bavarian State Parliament on March 8, 2012. (PDF; 4.6 MB) and special audit report by Unicredit Bank. (PDF; 5.1 MB)
  23. ↑ Olaf Przybilla , Uwe Ritzer : Case Mollath and Hypo-Vereinsbank - The man who knew too much. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 13, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  24. ^ Bavaria: banking scandal uncovered - instructed by his wife. In: The world . November 13, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  25. ↑ Local TV: Plenary session on the Mollath / Merk Beate case in the Bavarian State Parliament, uncensored in full . In: YouTube . December 1, 2012 (video; 1:15:40 h)
  26. ↑ a b Olaf Przybilla , Uwe Ritzer : Minister of Justice in the Mollath case under pressure - "Not up to the job". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 13, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  27. ↑ Olaf Przybilla : Remember in the Mollath case under pressure - it will be tight for the minister. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 14, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  28. ↑ Monika Anthes, Eric Beres: Internal investigation report of the Unicredit Bank confirms statements by Gustl Mollath: Justice scandal in Bavaria . In: Report Mainz . November 13, 2012; Manuscript (PDF; 20 kB)
  29. ↑ Video ZDF morning magazine: Merk - "Mollath not a victim of justice" (November 28, 2012, 6:03 min)  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on June 15, 2013. (offline)
  30. ↑ Patrick Guyton: Justice scandal in Bavaria: Mollath case comes back to court. In: Der Tagesspiegel . November 28, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  31. ^ Jörg Säuberlich: Mollath case: Landtag demands clarification . In: nordbayern.de. November 29, 2012
  32. ↑ Peter Mühlbauer : Free voters demand Merk's resignation . In: Telepolis . November 16, 2012
  33. ↑ Michael Kasperowitsch: A call to the tax authorities stopped the explosive process. In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . November 30, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  34. ↑ Uli Bachmeier: Hope for Mollath? Beate Merk wants to reopen the Gustl Mollath case from scratch . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . November 30, 2012
  35. ↑ Olaf Przybilla : Merk wants to reopen the Mollath case - court checks Mollath's judge. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 30, 2012, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  36. ^ Mollath case: FDP attacks Justice Minister Merk. In: Augsburger Allgemeine . June 13, 2013, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  37. ↑ Michael Kasperowitsch: Reopening application “light”: Reason for renewed Mollath trial was obviously defused. In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . June 15, 2013 ( excerpt from gustl-for-help.de )
  38. ↑ Olaf Przybilla : Mollath case - strange draft burdens judges . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June. 17.2013
  39. ↑ Olaf Przybilla : Allegations against Gustl Mollath - "Bar any evidence" . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 28, 2013
  40. ↑ Christine Schröpf: "The Mollath case is unbelievable" . In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung . June 18, 2013
  41. ↑ a b Mollath case: Ude calls on Merk to resign
  42. ↑ In the Mollath case, Merk gets more and more distressed . In: nordbayern.de. June 18, 2013
  43. ↑ Peter Issig: Mollath Committee: "We were lied to by Minister Merk" . In: The world . June 22, 2013
  44. ^ Olaf Przybilla : Mollath case - new allegations against Justice Minister Merk . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 28, 2013
  45. ↑ Monika Anthes, Eric Beres: The story in the first: The Mollath case. In: The first . June 3, 2013, archived from the original on June 7, 2013 ; Retrieved June 15, 2013 .
  46. ↑ Albert Schäffer: “The Mollath Case” in the First: Nobody wanted to know anything about black money. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 3, 2013, accessed June 15, 2013 .
  47. ↑ Reinhard Jellen : When justice, psychiatry and politics fail at the same time . In: Telepolis . June 22, 2013
  48. ↑ youtube-Merk is lying at Report Mainz
  49. ↑ www.augsburger-allgemeine.de June 23, 2013
  50. ↑ Seehofer strengthens Merk's back
  51. ↑ sueddeutsche.de July 1, 2013: Merk thinks about release
  52. ^ Spiegel.de: Psychiatry inmate: Bavaria's Minister of Justice apparently wants to obtain Mollath's release
  53. ↑ SZ July 2, 2013: Merk meets with skepticism
  54. ↑ Justice Minister without backing , Seehofer: Anger over Bavaria's justice . Munich Mercury
  55. ^ Opposition demands Merk's dismissal. In: Süddeutsche.de. August 7, 2013, accessed August 8, 2013 .
  56. ↑ Federal Constitutional Court: Press release No. 56/2013 of September 5, 2013 , BVerfG, 2 BvR 371/12 of August 26, 2013 (full text).
  57. ↑ faz.net ; Further reception (all September 5, 2013 and accessed on September 5, 2013): welt.de , spiegel.de , zeit.de , sueddeutsche.de ( Memento from September 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  58. ↑ Employment affair harms Union in survey . Reuters Germany. May 5, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  59. ↑ State Chancellery discloses salaries of relatives. In: Mittelbayerische . June 11, 2014, accessed June 11, 2014 .
  60. ↑ Seehofer knew about the laboratory affair. In: Handelsblatt . May 7, 2014, accessed May 8, 2014 .
  61. ↑ Merk probably intervened in criminal proceedings: Opposition calls for clarification . Augsburg General. July 25, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  62. ↑ Merk firmly rejects allegations . Bavarian radio. July 27, 2015. Archived from the original on July 28, 2015. Retrieved on September 7, 2015.
  63. ^ Inhofer trial begins - allegations against Beate Merk . Southwest Press. July 27, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Merk, Beate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merk, Beate Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CSU), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordhorn , Lower Saxony