Christian Koeckert

Christian Köckert (born October 13, 1957 in Dölzig ) is a German CDU politician .

Life

After studying Protestant theology , he took over the position of pastor in Stedtfeld near Eisenach in Thuringia in 1987 . The place was on the edge of the restricted area of ​​the inner German border. This was also a psychological burden for the young pastor Christian Köckert.

Rise as a local politician

With the change in late autumn 1989, the committed “new citizen” of Stedtfeld became a beacon of hope for the local population. Since he had no SED past, he was elected the first freely elected mayor of the municipality in 1991 . His church contacts also in the old federal states and the “lawless time” at the beginning of the 1990s helped him to realize numerous infrastructure projects and business settlements for the place in an astonishingly short time. Large parts of the Opel Eisenach plant and its suppliers are located in the Stedtfelder Flur, the new Eisenach sewage treatment plant, the GIS start-up and innovation center and the first residential areas on the outskirts were decided and implemented with Köckert's help. During his time as local mayor, Stedtfeld became a model village for the successful rise after the fall of the Wall, and so he was often present in the media. In 1994 Köckert became a member of the Eisenach city council and a member of the Thuringian state parliament . In his place, his wife took over the parish of Stedtfeld. Köckert was directly elected member of the constituency Wartburgkreis II - Eisenach and since the founding of the CDU-Kreisverband Eisenach, which emerged from the CDU-Kreisverband Wartburgkreis in 1998 when the city of Eisenach became free .

Promotion as a state politician

From 1995 to 1999 he was chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament. He was elected a member of the budget and finance committee of the state parliament. Within the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament, Köckert was seen as difficult and independent in many ways, as he did not always bow to the opinion of the majority parliamentary group, but instead represented his own opinions, and he also represented the West Thuringian economic area, which was already hard hit by the beginning Opel crisis. This was sometimes seen as problematic because the CDU Thuringia, which ruled alone until the 2009 state elections, only had a majority of two votes ahead of the SPD and PDS / Die Linke. He did not stand for the state election in 2009 .

From 1999 to 2002 Christian Köckert was Interior Minister of Thuringia . He resigned in November 2002 after a series of allegations. In September 2009 Christian Köckert was elected honorary councilor and first honorary deputy to the mayor of the independent city of Eisenach. For the new election of the board of the CDU district association Eisenach in November 2010, he no longer stood for its chairmanship, but took over one of the three deputy positions of the new chairwoman Regina Müller. His mandate in Eisenach ended on December 31, 2011 because he now wanted to work as a freelance consultant .

Bribery of parliamentarians and acceptance of benefits

In the consultancy contract concluded on July 28, 2010 with the project development company Juwi , which is building a wind farm in the Eisenach area and in neighboring Mihla, he undertook to represent the contractual partner's economic interests for a fee of € 700 per working day. In December 2011, he received a consultancy fee of € 4,000. The consultancy contract ended together with his mandate on December 31, 2011. In total, he received a consultancy fee of more than € 80,000 for his consultancy work during his time as honorary councilor of the city of Eisenach and member of the regional planning assembly for wind turbines.
Until August 31, 2012 he was head of the Thuringian branch of Juwi Holding AG in Eisenach.

In March 2011, Köckert concluded a further consultancy agreement with another company regarding support in the land-use planning with regard to the planned establishment of a specialist electronics store in Eisenach. He undertook here to vote for a change in planning and for the repeal of a resolution to the contrary. Accordingly, he voted in the vote of the city council on June 24, 2011.

Reasons to resign as minister

Allegations that led to his resignation were, on the one hand, a lost CD with confidential data, including protocols from the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Parliamentary Control Commission. Koeckert gave the data carrier to his press officer so that he could compare the data with a report in the newspaper Freie Wort . Then Köckert put the CD back under lock and key - but later it disappeared. Furthermore, the Thuringian secret service several years had long the neo-Nazi Thomas Dienel as V-man out. This began much earlier, under Köckert's predecessor Richard Dewes , but was discovered by the opposition in 2001 and Köckert was blamed. Köckert was also accused by the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Helmut Roewer, who was suspended by him, of allowing the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to spy on two local politicians from a free voter community in Blankenhain in order to increase the CDU's chances of voting. An investigative committee of the Thuringian state parliament was able to determine that information about the two local politicians had been obtained from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but not who was the client.

On September 15, 2002, he was stopped with his company car on the federal highway 4 near Gera at extremely high speed, after he had previously inaugurated a new police building there.

Public prosecutor's investigation 2012

On February 23, 2012, by order of an investigating public prosecutor, the offices of Christian Köckert and the Eisenach city administration and other people were searched. Eisenach's alderman Christian Köckert is said to have passed on confidential data to a wind power company. In the same context, criminally relevant processes in the Eisenach-Erbstromtal drinking and wastewater association were named, so searches were ordered there and in the relevant companies and offices at the same time. During the search of Köckert's house, the investigators also unexpectedly came across documents from the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior. On January 8, 2014, the Meiningen Regional Court sentenced him to 15 months probation for accepting benefits and taking bribes. On March 17, 2015, the Federal Court of Justice confirmed the judgment for bribery of members of parliament and the acceptance of benefits, but referred the proceedings back to the Meiningen Regional Court due to an error in the sentencing.

literature

• Short biography for:  Köckert, Christian . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rita Specht: Christian Köckert says goodbye to local politics. Thüringische Landeszeitung (local editorial office Eisenach), December 31, 2011, accessed on December 31, 2011 : " The new work will take up his time budget in such a way that" I can no longer responsibly carry out voluntary local political tasks, "Christian Köckert justified his decision . Associated with this is the resignation of his mandate in the city council, which he performs for the CDU. At the same time, the move releases him from his duties as a volunteer councilor for municipal participations. This office in particular was controversial. One of the main criticisms of the opposition in the city council was that private and political interests are inadmissibly linked. He is also giving up his position on the board of the CDU district association Eisenach, where he is still one of the deputies of the current district chairwoman Regina Müller. " 
2. ↑ The conviction against the former Thuringian interior minister for bribery of parliamentarians and acceptance of benefits is legally binding. ra-online GmbH, March 18, 2015, accessed on March 18, 2015 : “ On July 28, 2010, he concluded a consulting contract with a company that dealt with project development in the field of renewable energies. In it, he undertook to represent the contractual partner's economic interests for a fee of 700 euros per working day. In an oral supplementary agreement, the defendant had these advantages promised not only for private activities, but also for an overlapping exercise of duties. " 
3. ↑ The conviction against the former Thuringian interior minister for bribery of parliamentarians and acceptance of benefits is legally binding. ra-online GmbH, March 18, 2015, accessed on March 18, 2015 : “ The Lord Mayor gave the defendant the task of conducting negotiations with the Thuringian Ministry of Building and Environment in the period from October to December 2010, in which it was a question of expanding the so-called wind priority areas went. The defendant carried out this mandate and influenced a corresponding draft resolution from the city council of Eisenach. He billed these and other activities to his contractual partner as consulting activities. With an agreement dated December 20, 2010, the consulting contract, originally limited to December 31, 2010, was extended to December 31, 2011. In this contract, the defendant was promised benefits in the form of a consulting fee for his duties as well, by means of an at least tacit additional agreement. " 
4. ^ Sarah Nitsche: Juwi im Zwielicht: More than an immoral offer? FRANKFURT BUSINESS MEDIA GmbH, July 8, 2013, accessed on March 18, 2015 : “ The former Minister Köckert should in earlier official functions - as a voluntary alderman of the city of Eisenach and member of the regional planning assembly for wind turbines - the interests of the project developer for renewable energy systems Representing energy sources, the CDU politician collected a total of more than 80,000 euros. " 
5. ↑ Ralf Heidenreich: Background: Visit from the public prosecutor - documents at Juwi in Wörrstadt secured. (No longer available online.) Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main GmbH & Co. KG, February 28, 2012, archived from the original on November 3, 2013 ; Retrieved on February 28, 2012 : “ According to reports, the authorities are primarily targeting the former advisor and current head of the Thuringia branch in Eisenach, Christian Köckert, who worked for the CDU interior minister in Thuringia until 2002. Juwi also wants to expand in Thuringia and in 2011 was looking for a suitable regional representative. Finally, Köckert was hired as a consultant and "door opener" - and received a consultant fee for this, for example in December, according to reports, over 4000 euros. This fee, so the suspicion, was possibly a hidden bribery, since Köckert, who at that time was honorary alderman of the city of Eisenach, is supposed to have passed on confidential documents for the tendering of a wind farm in Eisenach to Juwi. “ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ The conviction against the former Thuringian interior minister for bribery of parliamentarians and acceptance of benefits is legally binding. ra-online GmbH, March 18, 2015, accessed on March 18, 2015 : “ In addition, in March 2011 the defendant concluded a remuneration-based advisory contract with another company, the object of which was to support the site planning with regard to the planned establishment of a specialist electronics store in Eisenach . According to an additional verbal agreement, the "advisory" service owed by the defendant also included that the defendant should vote in a future vote of the city council for the repeal of an earlier resolution that was contrary to the interests of his client and for a change in planning that would reflect these interests corresponded. In a vote by the city council on June 24, 2011, the defendant voted accordingly. " 
7. ↑ Steffen Winter: SECRET SERVICES: ammunition for the minister . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 2002 ( online ).
8. ↑ https://www.ariva.de/forum/christian-koeckert-cdu-hat-ein-problem-133856
9. ^ Raid in Eisenach: LKA searches city administration. Thüringische Landeszeitung (local editorial office Eisenach), February 24, 2012, accessed on February 25, 2012 : “ We are looking for findings in three procedural complexes with a total of seven suspects, said public prosecutor's spokesman Hannes Grünseisen on request. Three people are being investigated for bribery or corruption as well as breach of trust and fraud in connection with the Eisenach-Erbstromtal drinking and waste water association. One of these accused is said to have concluded business to the detriment of the association in connection with his managerial activity with employees of two companies and received consideration for this, said Grünseisen. The same man is said to have embezzled 600,000 euros during his work. In a third complex four people are investigated for corruption and bribery. According to information from the public prosecutor's office, these are two employees of the city administration and two employees of a company that is involved in setting up and operating wind turbines. The specific allegation here is that in the Eisenach area to conceal bribe payments, consulting contracts were concluded and documents intended exclusively for business use were passed on, for which advantages were granted. " 
10. ↑ Ludwig Kendzia and Axel Hemmerling: Ex-Minister kept ministry documents privately. After a house search at Köckert. (No longer available online.) MDR Thuringia, February 28, 2012, archived from the original on March 9, 2012 ; retrieved on February 28, 2012 : “ The LKA investigators are said to have been amazed last Thursday: In the house of the former CDU interior minister Christian Köckert near Eisenach, at least a thousand loose sheets of paper lay in front of them. Documents and documents, all of which should come from the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior. According to information from the MDR THÜRINGEN, some of the documents are classified as confidential. One investigator said there was so much that a moving box was two-thirds full. The documents should also include documents related to the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution and its former President Helmut Roewer. In addition, the investigators are said to have found confidential personnel records. On Friday, July 5th, 2013, the Erfurt public prosecutor brought charges of corruption against the former Thuringian Minister of the Interior, among others. “ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ http://www.rp-online.de/politik/deutschland/christian-koeckert-zu-15-monaten-haft-auf-bewaehrung-veretzungt-aid-1.3932379
12. ↑ http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&Art=pm&pm_nummer=0033/15