Frank Henkel

Frank Henkel (2016)

Frank Henkel (born November 16, 1963 in East Berlin ) is a German politician ( CDU ). Since 2001 he has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives . From 2008 to 2016 he was state chairman of the CDU Berlin and from 2011 to 2016 mayor and senator for interior affairs and sport of the state of Berlin .

Life

education and profession

Frank Henkel graduated from the Polytechnic High School in East Berlin in 1980 and began an apprenticeship. In April 1981, the Henkel family's application to leave the country in 1977 was approved and the family was able to move to West Berlin . Frank Henkel trained there as a wholesale and foreign trade clerk and then worked for two years (1984 to 1986) in the Berlin branch of the Krupp Group . In 1987 he obtained the advanced technical college certificate. In 1994 he completed a degree in economics and social sciences at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences . He worked for the private Berlin radio station Hundert, 6 , which was politically close to the CDU.

Party career

Frank Henkel joined the Junge Union (JU) in 1985 and became a member of the CDU a year later. Between 1987 and 2005 he held various political offices in the CDU. From 1996 to 2001, Henkel worked as a consultant in the management staff of the district mayor of Berlin- Reinickendorf , from January to June 2001 as head of the personal office of the Governing Mayor of Berlin Eberhard Diepgen and from June to October 2001 as head of the office of the CDU parliamentary group chairman Berlin House of Representatives.

From May 2005 to September 2008 he was Secretary General of the Berlin CDU. Since the early election on October 21, 2001 , he has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives. At the end of March 2007 he was elected chairman of the Berlin-Mitte district association.

On September 11, 2008, the then CDU parliamentary group chairman Friedbert Pflüger was voted out of office by more than two-thirds of the CDU parliamentary group after he had made clear ambitions for the state chairmanship. Henkel, who was previously the parliamentary group’s first executive director , was elected as his successor with 89.2 percent. As a result of the crisis in the Berlin CDU triggered by Pflüger's unexpected fall, its chairman Ingo Schmitt also resigned from his office. He was temporarily replaced by Joachim Zeller before Frank Henkel was elected party leader of the Berlin CDU on November 18, 2008 with 85.5 percent.

CDU top candidate for the Berlin House of Representatives election 2011

Henkel at the state members' meeting of the CDU Berlin (2010)

On January 10, 2011, he was nominated by the CDU state executive as the CDU top candidate for the office of Governing Mayor of Berlin and confirmed by the party congress on February 12. While the focus in the election campaign before the election to the House of Representatives on September 18, 2011 was initially on the SPD office holder Klaus Wowereit and the green top candidate Renate Künast , Henkel was only able to distinguish itself more strongly against the competition as the top candidate at the end.

On the evening of the election, he and his party achieved 23.3 percent with his party, despite a strongly negative national trend for the CDU, an increase of 2.0 percentage points compared to the 2006 parliamentary election , in which his predecessor Friedbert Pflüger had the worst CDU result with 21.3 percent in Berlin. The CDU was also above the survey figures previously determined by opinion research institutes and, as the second strongest force, shortened the gap to the SPD from 9.5 to 5.0 percentage points. In the west of the city, the CDU even became the strongest political force before the SPD. There was no majority for a new edition of the red-red Senate .

After the election success was undisputed, on September 20, 2011, Henkel was elected parliamentary group leader of the now 39 members of the CDU parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives with 100 percent of the votes. In addition, Henkel accepted the invitation of the election winner SPD to an exploratory discussion on the possible formation of a grand coalition . Nevertheless, the SPD decided to offer the Greens coalition talks, which, however, failed on October 5, 2011 after only one round of talks due to Green resistance to the controversial extension of Berlin's A100 urban motorway . On the same day, the SPD state executive unanimously made the decision to offer coalition talks to Frank Henkel's CDU. On November 16, 2011, the SPD and CDU agreed on a coalition agreement and on November 24, 2011 elected Wowereit as governing mayor. Florian Graf was elected as Henkel's successor as parliamentary group leader of the CDU on December 1, 2011 .

Henkel as interior senator

Henkel himself took over the office of Interior Senator in the red-black Senate , in which both governing parties received four senatorial posts, and was also appointed mayor by Klaus Wowereit .

The most important question for Henkel in the office of Interior Senator was initially filling the vacant post of Police President. This position was advertised again on April 27, 2012. On December 17, 2012, Klaus Kandt was finally appointed Police President of Berlin by Henkel.

As CDU state chairman and member of the Senate, Henkel came under pressure mainly because of the resignation of the CDU Senator for Justice and Consumer Protection, Michael Braun , just eleven days after the red-black coalition and the independent Senator for Economics, Technology and Research took office. Sybille von Obernitz , who was appointed to this position at the suggestion of the CDU and asked to be dismissed by Klaus Wowereit on September 8, 2012, who complied with her request on September 10, 2012. In the case of Braun, Henkel proposed Thomas Heilmann as the new Justice Senator. According to surveys, he quickly developed into one of the most competent Senate members rated. On September 12, 2012, Henkel proposed former pharmaceutical lobbyist Cornelia Yzer to succeed Sybille von Obernitz as Senator for Economic Affairs.

During his tenure as Senator for the Interior, Henkel was one of four representatives of the State of Berlin on the Supervisory Board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH .

On November 14, 2012, he accepted the resignation from the head of the Berlin State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Claudia Schmid . As the senator responsible for the authority, she had not informed Henkel about the destruction of files that would have been important for the investigation into the National Socialist Underground case .

During the refugee protests on Oranienplatz in January 2014, Henkel worked hard to get them to leave the square. He saw the contract negotiated for this, on the basis of which the refugees vacated the place, as not binding for himself. He was of the opinion that it was not Senator for Integration Dilek Kolat , but he himself should have signed the paper, especially since it was not Kolat, but he and the Governing Mayor Wowereit who had presented the Oranienplatz Agreement Paper at a press conference in March 2014.

After Klaus Wowereit's resignation from the office of Governing Mayor on December 11, 2014, his successor Michael Müller continued the coalition with the CDU and Henkel remained in the office of Interior Senator. However, increasing tensions between Müller and Henkel and between their parties and parliamentary groups shaped the rest of the legislative period. Before the House of Representatives election in 2016 , Müller hinted at his refusal to continue the grand coalition. After the election, in which the governing parties lost their previous majority after a significant loss of votes, the SPD held coalition talks with the Left and the Greens.

Henkel's tenure as Interior Senator ended on December 8, 2016 with the election of Michael Müller as governing mayor of a red-red-green state government and the confirmation of the new Senate.

CDU top candidate for the Berlin House of Representatives election 2016

On April 8, 2016, at a party congress, Henkel was voted the top candidate of the CDU for election to the Berlin House of Representatives in September 2016. In view of the refugee crisis in Germany from 2015 , he spoke out in the election campaign for a burqa ban and against dual citizenship .

In the election on September 18, 2016 , the SPD lost 6.7 points to 21.6 percent, the CDU 5.7 points to 17.6 percent and the government alliance lost its absolute majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. In the west of the city, the CDU around Henkel lost its top position to the SPD, in the east the party slipped behind Die Linke, SPD and AfD to fourth place.

Due to the electoral debacle, Henkel announced on September 19, 2016 that it would give up his position as state chairman of the CDU Berlin and would no longer run for the regular election of the state executive committee. During the transition period, it was planned that Henkel would remain in office until an early party conference in spring 2017. On October 14, Henkel surprisingly announced that it wanted to draw conclusions from the disastrous election result in 2016. As a result, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and current Deputy Chairwoman of the CDU Berlin, Monika Grütters , was nominated by the Presidium and State Executive as successor to Henkel on the following day , and a small party conference was scheduled for December 2, 2016. On this, Grütters was finally elected regional chairman of the CDU Berlin with 78.4 percent.

Henkel ran for the direct mandate in the Berlin-Mitte constituency in the 2017 federal election , won 18.6% of the first votes and was defeated by Eva Högl from the SPD (23.5%). Since he was also not included on the state list, he did not move into the Bundestag.

Positions on green-black coalitions

In December 2009, against the background of current polls that saw the Greens clearly ahead of the CDU, Henkel did not rule out a green-black coalition after the 2011 parliamentary elections, even if the Greens actually received more votes than the CDU.

In the course of the election campaign, the polls shifted in favor of the CDU and at the expense of the Greens. In addition, if the green top candidate Künast initially seemed to be open to a coalition between her party and the CDU, she rejected a black-green government at the end of the election campaign. On the evening of the election, the CDU was with 23.4 percent clearly ahead of the Greens with 17.6 percent; it was not enough for a black-green majority.

In the run-up to the 2016 parliamentary elections, Henkel advocated a ban on dual citizenship. This brought him into conflict with the Greens' top candidate, Ramona Pop , who, as a German-Romanian, is herself a double pass holder. For this reason, among other things, Pop ruled out a coalition with the "Henkel CDU" from the outset. After the election on September 18, 2016, there was no mathematical majority for a black-green alliance.

Memberships

Like his party colleague Klaus-Rüdiger Landowsky, Henkel is a member of the optional Borussia Berlin singers in the German Singers' Union .

Political positions

Salafists

In May 2012, Henkel responded to a request made in the news magazine Der Spiegel by its Lower Saxony colleague Uwe Schünemann (CDU). After attacks by Salafists on police officers, the latter had demanded that the Federal Constitutional Court should examine whether the expression of opinion by hate preachers who acted aggressively against the German constitution could be restricted. Henkel was cautious about the proposal. In this context he declared: "We cannot defend freedom by giving up important basic values ​​ourselves". In addition, he added that those who engage in confrontations with police officers and pull the strings in the background represent a considerable threat that must be fought with all legal means.

Cannabis use

In 2012, Henkel, together with CDU Senate colleagues Mario Czaja (Health) and Thomas Heilmann (Justice), pushed an initiative in Berlin to reduce the unpunished personal consumption of cannabis from 15 to 6 grams. The health expert, Thomas Isenberg , the SPD, who was in coalition with the CDU at the time , saw “no need for action” and stated that the 15-gram rule had proven its worth, and that the coalition agreement between the two parties did not provide for a corresponding reduction . He emphasized that it was "imperative" that the CDU senators do not make the decision among themselves, but involve the SPD. In addition to the SPD, pirates and leftists also spoke out in favor of maintaining the Berlin line.

Folsom Europe

In 2005, the Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit wrote another greeting for the Folsom Europe Festival of the BDSM and fetish scene. In this context, Henkel described the participants of the event as a group of people "who see their purpose in life in practicing abnormal sexual methods" and underlined his view that the event had nothing more to do with tolerance and a cosmopolitan city, but one Act of self-staging a scene. The chairman of the board of Folsom Europe e. V. Daniel Rüster rejected the criticism in a press release. He emphasized that the event was not a “Sado Maso festival”, but a street festival for the leather and fetish community in Europe. He emphasized that this particular scene had been "active in socio-political terms" since the 1970s and had "made a significant contribution to the development of many Aids aid programs at home and abroad" in the 1980s. He vehemently rejected the accusation of glorifying or even promoting racist rape pornography.

Extreme left violence

As the Senator for the Interior, Henkel claims that it is following “a consistent line against left-wing extremist violence in Berlin”. With regard to the evacuation of a partially occupied house at Rigaer Straße 94 , Henkel stated in a reply to Christopher Lauer (PIRATE) that he would not tolerate any “retreats for violent criminals” and would not “question the use of the police against violent criminals”. On July 13, 2016, the Berlin Regional Court found that the eviction had been illegal. A special meeting of the Interior Committee then dealt with Henkel's role in the police operation. The opposition accuses him of having deliberately ignored laws as a Senator for the Interior and of campaigning at the expense of the police without creating more security.

Controversy

Allegations of sexism

When the young Berlin CDU politician Jenna Behrends published an open letter with allegations of sexism against her party in the feminist online magazine Edition F , Henkel also came into the public eye nationwide. Behrends stated that she would be systematically excluded as a career changer in politics. This led to defamation, rumors of alleged affairs and sexism. Henkel described her as a “big, cute mouse” and asked a colleague: “Are you going to fuck her?”. Henkel did not deny the statements, but was disappointed with the content and style of the letter. On October 17, 2016, Henkel apologized to Jenna Behrends in front of party friends during the district assembly center of the CDU parliamentary group. He did not mean the salutation "big sweet mouse" annoying, but nice. Regarding the second allegation, that he asked his fellow party member Sven Rissmann, "Do you fuck her?", He said that this was not part of his language usage.

Private

Henkels is married to the teacher and district councilor of Marzahn-Hellersdorf Kathrin Henkel (née Bernikas), with whom he has a son (* 2012).

literature

• Frank Henkel , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 05/2012 from January 31, 2012, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Commons : Frank Henkel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography on the website of the Berlin House of Representatives for the 18th electoral term
• Frank Henkel on the website of the CDU parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives
• Berlin CDU Frank Henkel: The inevitable top candidate , portrait of Werner van Bebber in Tagesspiegel , January 10, 2011

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wiebke Hollersen, Dirk Kurbjuweit: Terrible hope . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 2009, p. 46-48 ( online - 4 May 2009 ).
2. ^ Spiegel Online : Power struggle: Berlin CDU overthrows parliamentary group leader Pflüger . September 11, 2008
3. ^ Spiegel Online : Election: Frank Henkel is the new CDU leader in Berlin . November 18, 2008
4. ↑ Berlin CDU: Henkel was elected parliamentary group leader with 100 percent , on morgenpost.de
5. ↑ Focus : Red-Green does not come together in Berlin . October 5, 2011
6. ↑ Wowereit re-elected. In: sueddeutsche.de. November 24, 2011, accessed March 15, 2018 . 
7. ^ Berlin CDU and SPD have new parliamentary group leaders
8. ↑ CDU Vice Braun is to become the new Justice Senator
9. ^ Morgenpost.de: Berlin's Justice Senator Michael Braun resigns
10. ↑ morgenpost.de: Berlin's Senator for Economic Affairs von Obernitz resigns
11. ↑ morgenpost.de: dismisses von Obernitz from her position
12. ↑ morgenpost.de: Unanimously - CDU proposes Heilmann as senator
13. ↑ welt.de: Wowereit continues to lose popularity
14. ↑ berliner-zeitung.de: Pharmaceutical lobbyist Cornelia Yzer is to become the Senator for Economic Affairs
15. ↑ Daniel Delhaes, Silke Kersting: The advice of the clueless . In: Handelsblatt . No. 7 , January 10, 2013, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 46 .
16. ^ Shredder affair around NSU: Berlin's top constitutional protector throws down Spiegel Online, November 14, 2012. Accessed November 15, 2012
17. ↑ Berlin Senate cheats O-Platz refugees. In: TAZ . September 2, 2014, accessed September 2, 2014 . 
18. ↑ http://berliner-zeitung.de/berlin/henkel-zum-cdu-spitzenkandidaten-fuer-abenkenhauswahl-gewaehlt-23855304
19. ↑ Berlin's Senator for the Interior, Henkel, for the burqa ban and against dual citizenship
20. ↑ Loser CDU Henkel wants to take responsibility - but not resign
21. ↑ http://mobil.berliner-zeitung.de/politik/cdu-wahlniederlage-berliner-cdu-chef-henkel-will-parteivorsitz-abhaben-24770754
22. ↑ Berliner Zeitung: Henkel's successor: Presidium nominates Monika Grütters for the CDU chairmanship in Berlin , accessed on October 15, 2016
23. ^ Berliner Kurier: Direct mandates Berlin
24. ↑ Lorenz Maroldt: Berlin election 2011: Green-black speculoos . In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 30, 2010
25. ↑ Ulrich Zawatka-Gerlach: Berlin election 2011: Renate Künast - hope for the CDU? In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 30, 2009, accessed December 19, 2010 . 
26. ↑ BZ : Henkel thinks black and green are possible . December 28, 2009
27. ↑ Criticism of membership in a striking association Sharp sword against Interior Senator Frank Henkel , Der Tagesspiegel April 26, 2015
28. ↑ http://www.borussia-berlin.de/
29. ^ Minister: Restrict the freedom of expression of radical Salafists augsburger-allgemeine.de, May 13, 2012
30. ↑ Henkel is critical of repression against Salafists welt.de, May 14, 2012 , accessed on June 4, 2012.
31. ↑ Grass broadside against Kiffer taz.de, May 22, 2012 , accessed on June 4, 2012.
32. ↑ CDU is considering tougher action against cannabis consumers - SPD and opposition reject lowering the exemption limit from morgenpost.de, May 24, 2012 , accessed on June 4, 2012.
33. ↑ The hemp debate in Berlin-Can it be a little less? taz.de, May 29, 2012 , accessed June 4, 2012.
34. ↑ cf. Christian Scheuß: Frank Henkel (CDU) , queer.de, September 2, 2005, online at queer.de .
35. ↑ cf. Norbert Blech: Wowi defends fetish world , queer.de, September 1, 2005, online at queer.de .
36. ↑ Minutes of the Committee on Home Affairs, Security and Order of the Berlin House of Representatives from January 25, 2016, p. 27
37. ↑ Rigaer Straße Autonome celebrate the departure of the police
38. ↑ Rigaer Straße 94 Interior Senator Henkel knew about the police operation
39. ↑ Berliner Zeitung - Police officers feel abused by politics , by Lutz Schnedelbach and Jan Thomsen, published July 22, 2016, accessed on August 19, 2016
40. ↑ THE LEFT. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg: Rigaer Straße: Escalation with announcement. (No longer available online.) In: www.dielinke-friedrichshain-kreuzberg.de. Archived from the original on August 29, 2016 ; accessed on August 29, 2016 . 
41. ↑ André Görke, Karin Christmann, Sabine Beikler, Ulrich Zawatka-Gerlach and Robert Ide: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/nach-der-berlin-wahl-cdu-politikerin-wirft-senator-henkel-sexismus- before / 14591096.html. September 23, 2016, accessed January 24, 2020 .  , on wz.de
42. ↑ Sexism and the CDU: Sweet mice are dangerous. (PDF) October 2, 2016, accessed January 24, 2020 . 
43. ↑ Sabine Rennefanz: Sexism Frank Henkel, Jenna Behrends and the thing with the mouse. November 20, 2017, accessed January 24, 2020 .  , on archiv.berliner-zeitung.de
44. ↑ Melanie Berger and Karin Christmann: CDU debate about Jenna Behrends All are silent - one speaks. September 27, 2016, accessed January 24, 2020 .  , on tagesspiegel.de
45. ↑ Jenna Behrends sexism indictment: "Henkel's career was already over" . In: FOCUS Online . September 25, 2016 ( focus.de [accessed January 24, 2020]).
46. ↑ Jenna Behrends in the star interview: "I was warned about certain politicians" . In: stern.de . September 28, 2016 ( stern.de [accessed January 24, 2020]).
47. ^ Mariam Lau : Sexism: The sexual identity of the CDU . In: Zeit Online . September 28, 2016 ( zeit.de [accessed January 24, 2020]).
48. ↑ ^{a b} Frank Henkel wants to apologize to Jenna Behrends . October 16, 2016 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed October 21, 2016]).
49. ↑ Harald Ritter: Kathrin Bernikas dared. July 20, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2018 .