Günter Weigand

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Günter Weigand (* 1924 in Allenstein , then East Prussia ) is a former self-proclaimed “social lawyer” who became known through trials surrounding the death of lawyer Paul Blomert .

Childhood and professional career

Günther Weigand spent his youth in Düsseldorf , his father was a judicial officer. His parents' marriage was not a happy one, so he had a sad childhood. Weigand was in the military from 1942 to 1945. After the end of the war he passed his secondary school diploma and worked for 7 ½ years in the postal service, most recently as an inspector . In 1953, in addition to this activity, he began studying theology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University because he wanted to become a religious.

In 1954 Günter Weigand ended his postal service, dropped out of theology studies and briefly turned to the social sciences . In 1958 he acquired finally a degree in economics and a doctorate later Dr. rer. pole. (Doctor of Politics and Economics). Weigand often had arguments with his employers and changed jobs several times. He worked for Deutsche Bank , a local publisher and as a nurse.

In his spare time, Weigand was committed to helping fellow citizens who had problems with the judiciary . In order to give his private engagement a name that corresponds to a profession , Weigand appointed himself a “social lawyer”.

The Blomert case

The suicide

Paul Blomert from Münster was employed by a renowned law firm owned by the then Mayor Busso Peus . Blomert's marriage was considered broken, his wife was said to have various love affairs. Since Peus feared for the impeccable reputation of his law firm as well as his own reputation, he asked Blomert, under threat of dismissal, to put his family situation in order. Under such pressure, Blomert, who was a hobby hunter, shot himself with a hunting rifle in his apartment on August 25, 1961.

Beginning of the affair

While the case turned out to be an unequivocal suicide for the responsible investigative authorities and both the widow and Blomert's former working environment around Peus were anxious not to spread the piquant history of the suicide and to let the matter go under an "accident", Blomert's father sensed as well his brothers reported a murder case and, after their concerns and inquiries had fallen on deaf ears with the investigative authorities, turned to Günter Weigand, since they could not find a lawyer in Münster who would take up the matter. Weigand did exactly the opposite of what various Münster officials from politics and the judiciary had been working towards: in a way that was effective in the media and public, he pointed out the previous history and the investigation of the case, which he perceived as superficial.

Various leaflets initiated by Weigand with headings such as “Why did Paul Blomert have to die?” Led to public sympathy and ultimately to an autopsy , which was previously rejected by the judge, but which did not provide any evidence of a murder. Weigand adhered to the murder theory and relied on suspicions and allegations that were publicly distributed on clues that suggested sloppy police work at the crime scene and the attempt by the widow to withhold the suicide note that Blomert had left to his father, which he received late and indirectly would have. The reappraisal culminated in a short-term pre-trial detention of the widow and a friend, which, however, was lifted a short time later due to vague suspicions.

Legal proceedings and nationwide attention

The resistance that Weigand encountered in his research he met with increasingly violent attacks, slander and insults against private individuals, police officers and the judiciary, which led to various criminal charges , proceedings and finally an arrest warrant , which Weigand escaped by escaping . In April 1964 he was arrested in Berlin and held in various psychiatric clinics after he had been attested in a report that was later often criticized as unfounded as a mentally disturbed troublemaker . This process finally became known nationwide and led to reports in well-known newspapers and magazines, in which Weigand's suspicions were picked up and harsh criticism of the clumsy handling of the Münster officials with the Blomert case and the attempt to silence an uncomfortable critic like Weigand was made. Stereotypes about the Münster bourgeoisie and its "arch-conservative, Catholic morality" flowed into the dispute, which was rumored to be an essential reason for the behavior of Münster’s politics and justice and the resulting affair.

The trial against Weigand, which began in January 1965 at the Münster Regional Court , in which the processing of the Blomert case played a central role, met with broad media interest . However, interest quickly waned, which was mainly due to the fact that the murder theory, in the context of a detailed new edition of the investigations, proved to be absurd early on in the trial, which meant that a major miscarriage of justice could be ruled out. In addition, there was the realization that Weigand, who was initially met with a great deal of sympathy in large parts of the media and who had received prominent support from Heinrich Böll , had actively contributed to the escalation of the dispute and his approaches, if they still appeared at first were focused on the specific case, had become independent over time and had lost all measure.

On April 25, 1966, Weigand was found guilty on 25 counts, mainly of libel and defamation , and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, a fine of 1,100 marks and the cost of the proceedings. In the context of the reasons for the judgment, Blomert's suicide was found to be the cause of death. In November 1967, the Federal Court of Justice rejected Weigand's appeal , which made the judgment final. Weigand served his prison sentence in the prison in Siegburg near Bonn, where he also met his future wife. After the first eleven months it was eight of the remaining thirteen months in December 1968 adopted . Weigand had to pay a total of 50,000 DM of the handling costs.

Later years

After his release from prison, Weigand initially worked as a typist for Karl Rahner . Until the 1980s, as a so-called social lawyer, he attracted media attention in other cases. In 1979 he self-published the book The rule of law is not given to us on the subject of justice and society. Also in 1979 Weigand received in a comparison 13,230 DM for pain and suffering and damages for the unauthorized introduction into psychiatry.

Assessment of Günter Weigand

Weigand's work in relation to the Blomert affair since 1966 has been viewed as ambivalent. On the one hand, it is emphasized that he had justified criticism of the Münster judiciary, but on the other hand it was also pointed out that Weigand finally got lost and did not recognize an obvious complicity in the affair, which was ultimately disadvantageous for all sides. According to criminal law expert Karl Peters , Günter Weigand, together with Frank Arnau and Hans Martin Sutermeister , was, despite everything, a “bitter fighter for the law”.

literature

filming

Günter Weigand's case was filmed in the GDR in 1965 by Werner Röwekamp as a two-part television play entitled Fifth Wheel on the Car . Weigand was interpreted by Christoph Engel .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Mauz : ... kept in an institution until further notice. The Weigand Affair . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1965, pp. 32-40 ( online - 27 January 1965 ).
  2. ↑ Gerhard Mauz: A murder as everyone commits ... To the verdict against Günter Weigand . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1966, pp. 72-75 ( Online - May 2, 1966 ).
  3. ↑ Professional: Günter Weigand . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1969, p. 184 ( online - 2 June 1969 ).
  4. ↑ Professional In: Der Spiegel from June 2, 1966
  5. ^ Justice: Another fool . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1986, pp. 115-124 ( Online - Apr. 14, 1986 ).
  6. ↑ Gerhard Mauz: My goal was never to determine the murderer - Gerhard Mauz about a book by the social lawyer Dr. Günter Weigand . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1979, pp. 80-83 ( Online - Dec. 10, 1979 ).
  7. ^ Judgment: Julius Hackethal . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1979, pp. 244 ( Online - Apr. 2, 1979 ).
  8. ↑ Gerhard Mauz: I want to work as a doctor again . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1981, p. 77 ( Online - May 18, 1981 ).
  9. ↑ Karl Peters: “XIII. Combative “ In: Justice as fate: a plea for the other side . De Gruyter , 1979. Page 192. ISBN 9782010057120
  10. ↑ http://www.fernsehenderddr.de/index.php?script=dokumentationsblatt-detail&id1=16909
personal data
SURNAME Weigand, Günter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weigand, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German social lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Allenstein , East Prussia