Garski affair

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The Garski affair or Garski scandal was a political affair in West Berlin in the early 1980s that ultimately led to the failure of the Stobbe II Senate .

Garski's construction businesses

The Berlin building contractor and architect Dietrich Garski planned real estate projects in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s . In 1978 he applied for a first guarantee from the State of Berlin, which the Senate also approved. The amount of the guarantee was later increased in several steps and came to DM 112 million in the end (123 million euros in today's purchasing power).

The last increase of 25.8 million DM was preceded by an executive talk. In this conversation with the Governing Mayor Dietrich Stobbe ( SPD ), in which Finance Senator Klaus Riebschläger (SPD) and former Economic Senator Wolfgang Lüder ( FDP ) also took part, the guarantee increase was agreed.

Guarantee claim and dealing with the scandal

At the end of 1980 Garski became insolvent and the state of Berlin was called upon from the guarantee. On December 11, 1980, the process was discussed in a meeting of the Berlin House of Representatives . Dietrich Stobbe stated that "he was informed by the responsible senators last summer and last Tuesday" and warned of a "scandal". However, Stobbe's coalition partner FDP already distanced himself at this meeting. The leader of the FDP parliamentary group, Horst Vetter , spoke of the need for a parliamentary committee of inquiry and called for a supplementary budget the following day .

On January 7, 1981, Wolfgang Lüder had to resign under pressure from his own parliamentary group. Lüder, who had also been chairman of the FDP Berlin since 1971, also had to give up this office. Even Harry Ristock and Klaus Riebschläger (both SPD) lodged on 8 January 1981 resigned as, Riebschläger was elected on the same day for the SPD parliamentary group chairman.

In two oral inquiries on January 15, 1981, the CDU Berlin, as the opposition, addressed the matter. The delegate Ekkehard Schmidt asked about the personal responsibility of the governing mayor and the delegate Uwe Ewers about the costs for the country. In the answer of the Senate, costs of 124.27 million DM as well as unknown costs at the Berlin construction company were named.

Government crisis

Stobbe did not want to see any personal responsibility in himself and used the resignations for a comprehensive reshuffle of the cabinet. Compared to the previous Senate, five new Senators should be elected. According to the Berlin constitution , each senator had to be individually confirmed by the House of Representatives. The vote turned into a fiasco for Stobbe.

Although the social-liberal coalition had a majority (61 seats for the SPD Berlin , 11 seats for the FDP and 63 seats for the opposition CDU), only Guido Brunner was confirmed with 70 to 64 votes.

Peter Ulrich (67 yes, 68 no), Rainer Papenfuß (67 yes, 67 no), Jürgen Egert (60 yes, 73 no) and Jürgen Brinckmeier (66 yes, 68 no) missed the necessary majority of 68 votes. After an interruption of the session, Stobbe resigned as governing mayor.

On January 23, 1981, Hans-Jochen Vogel was elected to succeed Stobbe. The Vogel Senate remained in office for only a few months and was replaced by the Weizsäcker Senate after the election to the Berlin House of Representatives in 1981 .

literature

  • Sven Thomas: The informal coalition. Richard von Weizsäcker and the Berlin CDU government (1981–1983). 2005, ISBN 3824446146 , p. 19 ff.
  • Benedict Ugarte Chacón: Built on sand. How Berlin fell for the "good reputation" of a building contractor and sunk millions in Saudi Arabian construction projects. In: Benedict Ugarte Chacón / Michael Förster / Thorsten Grünberg: Inquiry committees: The sharpest wooden sword of parliamentarism? Selected Berlin political scandals . Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-8305-5005-1 , pp. 93–118.