Gerwald Claus-Brunner

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Gerwald Claus-Brunner (2013)

Gerwald Claus-Brunner (born as Gerwald Claus , called Faxe ; born May 19, 1972 in Dissen am Teutoburger Wald ; found dead on September 19, 2016 in Berlin ) was a German politician of the Pirate Party and a member of the Berlin House of Representatives . On September 15, 2016, he killed a 29-year-old friend and took his own life two to three days later.

Life, education and work

Claus-Brunner's parents were members of the anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist classified Ludendorffianer . He had four siblings and grew up on a farm in the Strang district of the Bad Rothenfelde community . According to his younger brother, Claus-Brunner's childhood was accompanied by a right-wing environment and experiences of violence. The children were sent by their parents to the Bund Heimattreuer Jugend . The family's house was searched several times for sedition. A brother committed suicide , a sister was killed in a car accident, and Gerwald Claus-Brunner is said to have been abused by a farm worker. According to his own statement, he was repeatedly the victim of bullying and was conspicuous through fights, damage to property and animal cruelty. His parents and brother later immigrated to Canada. He broke off contact with them. Claus-Brunner described himself as bisexual and “95 percent gay”. This was not accepted by his parents.

Claus-Brunner attended the secondary school of the Christian Youth Village Association in Germany in Versmold until 1988 and completed an apprenticeship as a telecommunications technician at Telekom.

From 1992 to 1995 he was a temporary soldier . After he felt drawn to a non-commissioned officer there and the latter mocked him for it, Claus-Brunner hit him. He was then released without notice in accordance with Section 55 (5) of the Soldiers Act . According to his own statements, he then worked as a mechatronics technician at Alptransit and Siemens Gebäudetechnik Ost. From 1997 he lived in Berlin , where he studied mechanical engineering at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences from October 2011 to June 2014 .

On September 15, 2016, Claus-Brunner killed an acquaintance and was found dead in his apartment on September 19.

Political career

Gerwald Claus-Brunner at the Federal Party Conference of the Pirate Party 2012 in Bochum (center)

In 1998, according to his own statements, Claus-Brunner took part in the Absolute Majority project by joining the FDP Berlin for about two months in order to infiltrate the party together with 3000 students.

In October 2009 Claus-Brunner joined the Pirate Party in Berlin . In May 2011 he ran unsuccessfully as general secretary and as an assessor at the party's federal convention. On September 18, 2011, he stood as a direct candidate of his party in the constituency of Steglitz-Zehlendorf 1 in the 2011 parliamentary elections and was elected to 13th place on the state list in the House of Representatives. In his parliamentary activities, he was perceived as a down-to-earth politician close to the citizen and grassroots, who represented his positions uncompromisingly and gave transparency a special priority. However, he was later considered isolated within the group.

From October 27, 2011 to July 2012, Claus-Brunner was a member of the main committee and, from October 27, 2011, a member of the petitions committee and the special committee on water contracts , where he was particularly committed to the issue of the Berlin water table . Until November 2013 he was also a member of the Districts subcommittee. In the meantime he held the function of the traffic policy spokesman for the pirate faction and advocated in particular a ticket-free public transport system .

After inviting all members of the House of Representatives to an annual reception in the Red City Hall in 2012, he described the Federal Association of Gay Executives, the Völklinger Kreis , as an “elite group of better-offs”, with which he wanted nothing to do.

In September 2012, Claus-Brunner ran surprisingly as chairman of the state board at the state party conference of the Berlin pirates and received the second-best result with 104 votes or 35.4 percent. In 2013 he ran for election in the Berlin-Steglitz - Zehlendorf constituency . Within the parliamentary group, Claus-Brunner was considered controversial and, according to statements by his party colleagues, was verbally abusive towards other members of the Pirate Party and employees. Claus-Brunner was then gradually withdrawn from all relevant committees.

In March 2014, he opened a citizens' office in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district of Berlin , where residents could raise and discuss issues.

In November 2014, after the resignation of Christopher Lauer , he ran for the state chairmanship; was elected Bruno Kramm . For the 2016 parliamentary elections , his party voted him 27th on the state list.

Controversy

headscarf

At the beginning of November 2011, Claus-Brunner was criticized in an open letter from Charlotte Knobloch , the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , for wearing the Palestinian shawl (keffiyeh). Claus-Brunner rejected the criticism and allegations of possible anti-Semitic attitudes. In response to the criticism, Claus-Brunner temporarily wore a Star of David pendant on a necklace. During a minute's silence for two deceased members of parliament in Berlin in 2011, he demonstratively kept his headscarf on, contrary to custom. In addition to the headscarf, he was always dressed in worker's overalls.

Internal party conflicts

In 2012, Claus-Brunner caused a party internal dispute when he tweeted that the proponents of a women's quota in the Pirate Party wanted “only positions with a boob bonus”. In January 2016, eight members of the Berlin pirate faction requested that Claus-Brunner be expelled from the faction for verbal abuses against members and employees of the party. However, the motion was rejected with nine votes in favor and three abstentions and three no votes.

Sixt advertising campaign

In 2012 the car rental company Sixt used a photo of Claus-Brunner for an advertisement. The picture was once shown on the left side of the ad, with the slogan “Totally popular. And nobody knows why. (The Pirates: Favorable Breeze) ”, and again on the right as a photomontage, on which Claus-Brunner can be seen laughing with a pilot's hat on a steering wheel, with the slogan“ Totally popular. And everyone knows why. (Sixt Cabrios: low prices) ”. Claus-Brunner had not been asked for permission in advance or informed about the campaign. He criticized the car rental company's approach and complained that the Star of David he was wearing had been retouched, which Sixt denied. Claus-Brunner took no legal action.

Criminal case

On September 19, 2016, a farewell letter reached Claus-Brunner's constituency office, whereupon the police were notified. Claus-Brunner and 29-year-old Jan Mirko L. found them dead in Claus-Brunner's apartment on Schönhauser Strasse in Berlin-Steglitz . A homicide squad and the Berlin public prosecutor opened an investigation. The autopsy revealed that Claus-Brunner died by suicide .

The victim Jan Mirko L. was himself a member of the pirate party, had known Claus-Brunner for several years and worked for a while in his constituency office. Claus-Brunner is said to have felt romantically drawn to the 29-year-old. He lived in a relationship with a woman and apparently did not reciprocate Claus-Brunner's feelings. Jan Mirko L. filed a complaint against Claus-Brunner for stalking in the spring of 2016 , which is said to have not been pursued further because L. had not responded to questions from the police in this regard. In addition, there was a complaint by Claus-Brunner against L. for defamation . The police determined that on the evening of September 15, 2016, Claus-Brunner killed L. in his apartment in Berlin-Wedding by blunt force against the upper body or by strangling. Claus-Brunner is said to have brought the body to his apartment.

Five days after the two bodies were found, the police were given a package that Claus-Brunner had sent to a former partner before his suicide and that had not reached the addressee. It contained a document in which Claus-Brunner confessed to killing the 29-year-old, as well as personal belongings. This document contained information about the "highly personal" motive according to the public prosecutor's office. The public prosecutor's office then closed the investigation because the dead are not investigated and other perpetrators have been excluded.

In his last plenary speech on June 23, 2016, Claus-Brunner had addressed the MPs that they would be allowed to "stand up in the current legislature [...] at the beginning of some plenary session and be silent for a minute", which in retrospect was a hint was interpreted as his subsequent suicide. According to the then chairman of the Berlin Pirate Party , Bruno Kramm , Claus-Brunner claimed to be suffering from a chronic illness that led to organ failure. According to a doctor, he still has a life expectancy of about one year. The Berlin public prosecutor announced that the autopsy had not revealed any evidence of such an illness.

Press coverage and obituaries

In connection with the killing of his employee and his suicide, the press speculated, among other things, about the identity of the dead, their relationship to one another, the situation in which they were found and the way in which corpses were transported from one apartment to another. In addition, relatives were quoted in some press articles with statements about Gerwald Claus-Brunner.

The first obituaries were initially benevolent, but after the killing offense of his former employee became known, they were partially withdrawn (for example in the case of the Berlin pirate faction and the BZ) or provided with an explanatory passage. After the withdrawal of the first obituary, the Berlin Pirate Party asked on its website to refrain from press inquiries.

Forensic doctor Michael Tsokos dedicated a chapter in his book The Signs of Death to the criminal case .

Web links

Commons : Gerwald Claus-Brunner  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Holzapfel (Ed.): Berlin House of Representatives, 17th electoral period. (PDF; 6.6 MB) Kürschner's People's Handbook , NDV GmbH & Co. KG, 2011, p. 7 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved September 19, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c Kerstin Herrnkind , Dominik Stawski: Interview with Claus-Brunner brother: "Alarm signals run like a red thread through Gerwald's life". Stern 40/2016, September 30, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016 .
  3. ^ A b Lorenz Vossen: Dietwald Claus, brother of Claus-Brunner: "As a child he tortured animals" . In: Berliner Morgenpost from September 28, 2016, accessed on September 28, 2016.
  4. ^ A b Jan Herrmann and Tasja Klusmeyer: Pirate politician attended the CJD secondary school. Gerwald Claus-Brunner killed a man and himself. In: Haller Kreisblatt . October 6, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .
  5. ↑ A Childhood Between Beatings and Conspiracy Mania - Die Welt, October 4, 2016
  6. ↑ Kirsten Küppers, Svenja Bergt: Politics in dungarees. In: taz.de. May 5, 2012, accessed September 22, 2016 .
  7. ↑ "Faxing was never easy and never had it". Welt.de, September 20, 2016, accessed on September 26, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Candidate Interview - # 11 - Gerwald Claus-Brunner. In: Message in a bottle. Pirate news magazine. Pirate Party Germany, April 19, 2011, accessed on October 17, 2016 .
  9. ↑ a b CV: Gerwald Claus-Brunner, Piraten. Berlin House of Representatives, archived from the original on October 6, 2016 ; accessed on September 22, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Peter Rossberg, Axel Lier: Pirate politician Gerwald Claus-Brunner (44) found dead. BZ Berlin , September 19, 2016, accessed on September 19, 2016 .
  11. ↑ The Pirates - excerpt from Gerwald Claus Brunner from Markus Lanz 20 09 11 In: YouTube. September 20, 2011, accessed September 21, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Federal Party Congress 2011.1 / election results . Pirate Wiki, accessed September 19, 2016.
  13. ^ Radioeins: The Claus-Brunner case. In: rbb media library. September 22, 2016, archived from the original on September 25, 2016 ; Retrieved September 25, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Pirate implied thoughts of death in parliamentary speech. In: Spiegel Online . September 19, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Robust means. Pirate Claus-Brunner harshly refuses the invitation. Der Tagesspiegel May 16, 2012.
  16. ↑ Gerhard Anger is the new boss of the pirates. In: Welt.de. September 15, 2012, accessed September 26, 2016 .
  17. ^ Antje Lang-Lendorff: Dead Berlin pirate politician - Claus-Brunner under suspicion of murder. In: Taz.de. September 20, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Pirate politician Claus-Brunner dead. In: Spiegel Online. September 19, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Pirate politician Claus-Brunner: Now terrible details from the past emerge. The Huffington Post, September 24, 2016, accessed September 26, 2016 .
  20. ↑ a b Werner van Bebber, Ronja Ringelstein, Sabine Beikler, Sidney Gennies, Hannes Heine, Johannes Schneider and Lisa McMinn: The Claus-Brunner case - Before all eyes. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 22, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Andreas Wilkens: Musician Bruno Kramm takes over the chairmanship of the Berlin Pirate Party . Heise online , November 17, 2014, accessed on February 7, 2015.
  22. ↑ Frederik Bombosch: Gerwald Claus-Brunner: Death of an Unadjusted. Retrieved September 19, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Open letter: Pirate should take off his headscarf. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . November 4, 2011, accessed September 21, 2016 .
  24. ^ Further dispute over the headscarf by Claus-Brunner. In: Berliner Morgenpost. November 9, 2011, accessed September 21, 2016 .
  25. ^ Johan Dehoust: Second plenary session: This is how pirates tweet from the House of Representatives . tagesspiegel.de , November 10, 2011, accessed on September 19, 2016.
  26. ↑ Pirates leave their scarves on their heads when there is a minute of silence. Der Tagesspiegel November 10, 2011
  27. ↑ Pirate politicians: What we know about the Claus-Brunner case - and what not. Berliner-Zeitung September 21, 2016.
  28. ↑ Vincent Streichhahn: Debate: “Tits dispute” among the pirates. taz , May 22, 2012, accessed September 19, 2016 .
  29. ^ Application for the exclusion of Claus-Brunner fails. Der Tagesspiegel, January 13, 2016, accessed on September 22, 2016 .
  30. ↑ Sixt campaign: Dungarees pirate is "not enthusiastic". horizont.net, accessed September 20, 2016 .
  31. ^ Gerwald Claus-Brunner: Dungarees pirate angry about Sixt campaign. In: Welt.de. Retrieved September 20, 2016 .
  32. ↑ a b c Second body in Claus-Brunner's apartment has been identified. In: rbb-online.de. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016 ; accessed on September 23, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Suicide after killing - joint report by the police and the Berlin public prosecutor's office. Berlin.de, September 20, 2016, accessed on September 20, 2016 .
  34. ↑ A search for traces: Who was Gerwald Claus-Brunner? In: BZ September 22, 2016, accessed on April 11, 2018 .
  35. ↑ a b Investigations against Claus-Brunner discontinued - "No investigation is carried out against the dead" rbb-online.de, archived from the original on October 18, 2016 ; accessed on September 23, 2016 .
  36. ↑ Dead pirate politician Gerwald Claus-Brunner: case solved, questions unanswered. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved September 25, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Pirate politician Gerwald Claus-Brunner - Second man died by "blunt violence". Spiegel Online , September 20, 2016, accessed September 20, 2016 .
  38. ↑ Johannes Schneider: On the death of Gerwald Claus-Brunner: "One minute of silence". In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 19, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Suspected abuse and murder against pirates Claus-Brunner , WAZ.de
  40. ↑ Berlin: Pirate politician Claus-Brunner dead . Spiegel Online , September 19, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016.
  41. ↑ On the current development in the Gerwald Claus-Brunner case . Pirate Party Berlin, September 20, 2016, accessed on September 30, 2016.
  42. ↑ Ute Elisabeth Gabelmann: Seasons in the Sun (A personal obituary) . September 19, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016.
  43. ↑ Tsokos, Michael: The Signs of Death. New cases from Germany's most famous forensic doctor . Droemer, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-426-27617-4 .
personal data
SURNAME Claus-Brunner, Gerwald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Claus, Gerwald; Brunner, Gerwald; Faxes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (Pirate Party), MdA
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Dissen in the Teutoburg Forest
DATE OF DEATH between September 17, 2016 and September 19, 2016
Place of death Berlin