Heckler

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H&K AG

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN DE000A11Q133
founding December 28, 1949
Seat Oberndorf am Neckar , Germany
management Managing Director :
  • Jens Bodo Koch
  • Bjorn Krönert

Chairman of the Supervisory Board :

Number of employees 923
sales EUR 220.95 million
Branch Defense industry
Website www.heckler-koch.com
As of December 31, 2018

Heckler & Koch (abbreviated to H&K ) is a German arms company based in Oberndorf am Neckar (Lindenhof district), Baden-Württemberg . It was founded in 1949 by former employees of the Mauserwerke . H&K is currently the most important German manufacturer of small arms and infantry weapons and is one of the five largest rifle and pistol manufacturers worldwide. The company supplies, among other things, the armies of most NATO countries, numerous police forces and other security agencies.

The company has offices or offices in Virginia , Georgia and New Hampshire (H&K Inc, USA ), Nottingham , Great Britain (NSAF Ltd.) and Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche , France (H&K France SAS). The parent company is H&K AG in Oberndorf. As a subsidiary, H&K GmbH is responsible for activities in Germany.

Because H&K products and their licensed production are widespread in crisis regions despite various embargoes , violations of the German War Weapons Control Act and / or the Foreign Trade Act have repeatedly been suspected, also with the tolerance of German authorities. In 1993, an accused manager was acquitted. In February 2019, the Stuttgart Regional Court sentenced the company and former employees for illegal arms deliveries to Mexico under the War Weapons Control Act .

history

Foundation and first major order

The Königlich Württembergische rifle factory was located in Oberndorf from 1811 to 1874 and the Mauser weapons factory since 1872. Their production facilities were dismantled by the French occupying forces in 1946 as part of the demilitarization of Germany ; the development of new weapons was canceled. After the establishment of the Federal Republic in 1949 and its accession to NATO in 1952, the Allied armaments bans were incorporated into the 1954 Treaty of the Western European Union with the consent of the Federal Government .

The former engineers of Mauserwerke Edmund Heckler , who from 1936 worked as chief engineer and then as authorized signatory of the armaments company HASAG , Theodor Koch and Alex Seidel founded the company H&K on December 28, 1949 with the entry of 40,000 DM share capital , which initially produced parts for sewing machines , Tools, gauges and machine tools. The company took over the unemployed skilled workers from the dismantled Mauser works. In 1950 production began in the former Reich Labor Camp in the Lindenhof district. As one of the few smaller German companies that already manufactured weapons and spare parts for the police , the Federal Border Guard or the Allied occupation forces during the Allied armaments bans, H&K had the opportunity to work carefully on the further development of individual weapons "in a gray area of ​​legality". In 1952, the company was therefore able to offer the Blank Office to start manufacturing the 44 assault rifle , the MG 42 and the P38 after a one-year start-up period.

In the Spanish dictatorship under Francisco Franco , from May 1945 many unemployed German weapons experts and engineers were given the opportunity to continue their projects in Spain, which the allied victorious powers of the Second World War had prevented in the course of the demilitarization of Germany. At the invitation of his government in 1949, Werner Heynen , the former general director of Gustloff-Werke , put together a group of former Mauser employees, including Theodor Löffler and Ludwig Vorgrimler , who further developed the 06H assault rifle in Spain. In 1951 they built the first prototype of the CETME rifle . With the first orders, Franco H&K enabled the entry into the mass production of CETME rifles for the Spanish army from March 1954.

H&K factory, Oberndorf

The Blank office made contact with Spain for the preparation of the Bundeswehr and managed to get the German weapons experts to return. After the Bundeswehr was founded in 1955, the previous arms restrictions were relaxed. As a result, H&K expanded their defense technology offers.

The federal government initially equipped the Bundeswehr with the Belgian rifle FN FAL (called G1). She later acquired the manufacturing license for the CETME rifle in order to build up her own small arms industry, independent of foreign countries. H&K only paid CETME a fixed transfer fee for the license and contractually assured that CETME had to inform H&K about interested parties in third countries. In the following decades, the federal government issued manufacturing licenses for HK weapons to other states, especially to later regular customers of H&K. This gave the German small arms industry decisive competitive advantages on the world market, as Germany owns the patents for these weapons, the machines and spare parts required for them.

From July 1955, H&K built the CETME in series and developed it further into the HK G3 . This established the tradition of Heckler & Koch reel-lock weapons . In 1956, the company won the tender for the orderly rifle of the Bundeswehr with the G3 and received the general license for it in 1958. After troop tests in 1956 and 1957, the company received an order from the Federal Ministry of Defense in January 1959 to deliver 150,000 G3 rifles to the Bundeswehr. Delivery began in September 1959. The Federal Republic financed the development of the G3 and owns the patent rights for it.

Expansion into the USA and restructuring

Co-founder Edmund Heckler died on July 2, 1960. In 1974 the company was divided into the areas of HK police and defense technology as well as HK hunting and sporting weapons. At that time the company had 2000 employees. In 1975 the US subsidiary H&K Inc. was founded in Arlington County , Virginia (USA). At first this society consisted of only four people. As a result of a significant increase in demand for HK weapons in the USA, H&K decided in 1979 to build its own company building in Chantilly (Virginia). The company co-founder Theodor Koch also died in July 1976. Alex Seidel stayed with the company until December 19, 1980.

In 1981 the company separated the military from the civilian production and merged civil engineering and plant engineering into H&K Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH in Schramberg -Waldmössingen. This was sold to the newly founded Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH in 1995 . The plant construction served primarily to set up licensing plants for military HK weapons abroad.

The Federal Government commissioned H&K in 1974 to develop the HK G11 for the German Armed Forces and invested 84.1 million DM in it until 1989. In May 1990, however, the Federal Ministry of Defense surprisingly canceled the planned purchase of the fully developed G11 because the initial expenditure of 60 million DM no longer justified after the end of the Warsaw Pact . In 1993 the federal government finally rejected the acquisition of the G11. With a debt level of 180 million DM, H&K was facing bankruptcy in 1991 . Takeover talks with the French arms company GIAT failed. Baden-Württemberg's Economics Minister at the time, Hermann Schaufler , rejected requests from H&K for state aid and criticized the company for not having a conversion concept .

Takeover by Royal Ordnance

Then in 1991 the Royal Ordnance (RO), a subsidiary of the British arms company British Aerospace (later BAE Systems ), took over the company. Because RO had not yet sold any handguns to Germany and therefore no addition of market shares was to be expected, the Cartel Office allowed the takeover. 450 employees were laid off.

Following complaints from victims' relatives against firearms manufacturers in the USA, BAE unsuccessfully tried to sell the subsidiary it had bought in the late 1990s. The reason given by BAE was that they wanted to concentrate on higher-quality weapon systems. At the end of 1999 the long-established US arms manufacturer Colt and BAE signed a letter of intent to purchase H&K for US $ 100 million. However, it was not sold. H&K was able to book a major order in 2002; for the British Armed Forces were SA80 rifles modernized.

Takeover by private investors

In 2002, H&K was sold to a private investor group, which included the two previous managing directors Ernst Mauch and Dirk Holzknecht, the London businessman Keith Halsey and the German multi-entrepreneur Andreas Heeschen . Andreas Heeschen became the majority owner of the newly founded umbrella company H&K Beteiligungs-GmbH (HKB) with 46 percent of the shares and an option for around five percent . The HKB's business model envisages investing in high-yield projects outside of the armaments sector.

In 2002, the new owners divided the company into the divisions of defense technology / government business and civil weapons. The separated hunting and sporting weapons division has been independently managed by H&K Jagd- und Sportwaffen GmbH (HKJS) since 2003 . In the same year it was bought by the traditional company Merkel Jagd- und Sportwaffen ( Suhler Jagd- und Sportwaffen GmbH ) in Suhl , but left it to exist as an independent brand and production location. In 2007 Merkel was taken over by Caracal International ( United Arab Emirates ).

Starting in 1994, H&K had developed a new handgun system for the United States Army together with other armaments companies as part of the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) program. In 1998 they decided on the German design. From 2008 the newly developed HK XM29 should be introduced in the US Army. However, this split the OICW program into three sub-areas in 2005 and also had the HK XM8 , which was then developed, discontinued. The expected major order to equip the US Army did not materialize.

In 2008, H&K reported losses in the millions. Financial investments in loss-making deals and lending to the H&K owners Halsey and Heeschen and their companies were given as the cause. A large part of the stake of 41 million euros in the Wolf-Garten company had to be written off when it went bankrupt in January 2009.

Heeschen gave up the management of the Wuppertaler Luhns GmbH in 2008 and moved to the board of H&K. In January 2010 he initially sold 4.6 percent of HKB from his shares to his brother-in-law, the entrepreneur Alfred Schefenacker , and announced a buyback for the end of June 2010. Heeschen named family tax plans as the reason. In April 2011 Andreas Heeschen held 51%, Keith Halsey 40% and Alfred Schefenacker 9% of the company shares.

In November 2009 four hedge funds filed a lawsuit against Andreas Heeschen and Keith Halsey in a US court: The majority owners of H&K had misappropriated a loan they had given by the US bank Merrill Lynch in 2006 for EUR 100 million to the holding company HKB by they bought real estate, airplanes, helicopters and a yacht and used them privately. The plaintiffs therefore demanded the entire loan to be returned immediately, not as planned in April 2013. Heeschen had specified the company H&K as loan security. He rejected the allegations at a court hearing in April 2010: private use of company property was always paid for privately. The motive for the complaint is the plaintiff's own financial needs. In August 2010, the US court dismissed the lawsuit because the credit arranger Merrill Lynch had not sued. The HKB then considered a counterclaim for damages against individual hedge funds for reputational damage.

At the end of 2010, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the rating for H&K to CCC + (payment default can only be averted if the development is favorable), because the refinancing of a bond for 120 million euros due in July 2011 was not secured. In order to be able to settle the due loan, H&K placed high-yield bonds totaling 295 million euros in May 2011 , which run until 2018. This should also be used to replace a 2013 bullet loan of 100 million euros. An IPO planned for 2011 with the aim of reducing the company's debt was postponed indefinitely in September 2011.

To make it easier for investors to get on board, H&K Beteiligungsgesellschaft was converted from a GmbH into an unlisted stock corporation in April 2014. In July 2015, H&K was listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange . At the end of 2015, Heeschen transferred 60 million euros from his private assets in order to reduce net debt and thus encourage a better rating by rating agencies.

In February 2017, Orbital ATK sued H&K AG for at least $ 27 million in damages.

In May 2017 it was reported that H&K intends to build a new plant in the US state of Georgia for 23 million dollars to produce there for the civilian arms market.

At the general meeting in the summer of 2017, H&K decided on a strategic realignment, the so-called "Green Country Strategy". Basically, we only deliver to EU , NATO or NATO-associated countries (including Australia , New Zealand , Switzerland ), as well as to countries that share the European system of values. Countries like Saudi Arabia , Mexico , Brazil or Turkey are no longer supplied. Old contracts that were concluded prior to the strategic realignment will still be processed in accordance with the contract, provided that a valid export permit from the federal government is available.

Losses in 2018

At the annual general meeting of H&K AG on July 12, 2019, the company's CFO, Björn Krönert, stated that H & K's debt had increased from 182 million euros to 231 million euros in 2018. The auditor warned of a “risk that could endanger the company's existence” .

Sale and development in 2020

The Luxembourg financial holding CDE (Compagnie de Développement de l'Eau) has held the majority in the group since July 2020. According to media reports, this was preceded by an internal power struggle. The Federal Ministry of Economics had previously given CDE approval for the takeover. According to its own information, the CDE has been a shareholder in Heckler & Koch AG since 2015 and increased its stake to around 60 percent. The French investor Nicolas Walewski and his family's private assets are behind CDE .

On July 31, 2020, the former inspector general of the Bundeswehr, Harald Kujat, announced that he would step down as chairman of the supervisory board of H&K until the annual general meeting on August 27, 2020 . Heeschen only installed Kujat as a prominent figurehead in summer 2019 at this post. The Luxembourg financial holding CDE, which owns the majority of shares in H&K, wanted to remove Kujat from the supervisory board in December 2019.

Products

Weapons for the military and authorities

The G36, the orderly rifle of the Bundeswehr

The military product range consists of pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, machine guns, precision rifles and 40 millimeter systems.

H&K produces the current service weapons of the German police HK P10 , HK P7 , HK P2000 , HK P30 , the new HK SFP9 as well as the orderly weapons of the Bundeswehr, the service pistol HK P8 and the infantry rifle HK G36 . In June 2014 the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) and the Bundestag suspended further procurement of the G36 due to doubts about the accuracy of the hit . Investigations by a commission corroborated these doubts. A court found that Heckler Koch could not be reproached for the lack of precision and rejected claims for damages by the BMVg.

The French army decided to use the HK416 as their orderly weapon in 2017 .

Sporting and hunting weapons

The subsidiary HK Sidearms GmbH produces and sells sporting and hunting weapons and other products for the civil market. Some of the products are variants of military weapons (the HK SL7 is a version of the G3, the HK SL8 a version of the G36), so they are listed together in some company-independent product catalogs. Civil weapons are also sold to H&K Inc. in Virginia / USA.

Customers

H&K supplies its weapons directly to at least 88 countries, including the police and armies of most NATO countries. In at least 92 countries, security forces are armed with weapons developed by the company.

Around seven million G3s had been manufactured by 2012, of which around three million are still in circulation. Globally, the Kalashnikovs (70–100 million) and the US M16 (12 million) are the weapons that have been produced most frequently. G3 rifles from non-German license production are now only manufactured in Pakistan in poor quality.

Police, special forces and other security forces from at least 61 countries have used the HK MP5 submachine gun series , often for decades. H & K equipped the Bonn Security Group of the Federal, the Federal , the GSG 9 , police MEKs , police and Spezialeinsatzkommando from the states with the MP5, partly ready to fire mounted in a "special case" for personal protection.

H&K worked from at least 2006 to 2008 with the US security company Blackwater Worldwide , probably supplied it through its US subsidiary in Virginia, developed new special weapons with it and offered its mercenaries shooting courses. Since 2007, Blackwaters mercenary murders of civilians have been reported in Iraq . After critical media reports in February 2008, H&K announced that it would stop working with Blackwater.

From 2001 to 2011, H&K received over 900 direct orders and eleven research contracts from the German Armed Forces. The amount of funding made available for this is not disclosed.

At the beginning of 1999 Spain decided to procure 115,000 pieces of the HK G36 as an orderly weapon for its armed forces and received a manufacturing license for it. Overall, the G36 is said to have been delivered to 35 countries.

H&K was a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) at least until 2017 and exhibits its weapons at their trade fairs. According to the company in 2020, H&K is not a member of the NRA.

Business figures

Like other companies of the same size and legal form, H&K is obliged to publish annual financial statements in the Federal Gazette . The annual financial statements from 2006 (with comparative figures from 2005) to 2013 (in million euros) are available. Electronic publication only became mandatory in 2006; the annual financial statements were deposited with the competent local court in previous years.

Fiscal year Employees sales Net profit / loss
2005 636 140.1 −14.8
2006 597 140.5 −19.7
2007 588 124 −15.3
2008 638 162.9 −2.3
2009 657 182.1 +4.1
2010 640 203.6 +11.9
2011 626 155.2 −19.5
2012 629 202.8 −5.0
2013 645 171.8

There are only a few media information for further business figures:

  • By 1985, according to the Black Forest Bote , H&K had around 2500 employees.
  • For 1990, Die Zeit estimated annual sales at 150 million euros with 2000 employees.
  • For 1995 the management stated an annual turnover of 100 million DM (~ 50 million Euro) with 600 employees.
  • For 2006 to 2010, the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) published, with reference to internal company information, in some cases significantly higher sales and profit figures than their annual balance sheets.
  • In 2010, according to the company, H&K invested around 80 million euros in production, development and construction infrastructure, including a training center.

H&K does not announce any further business figures, for example on export orders, individual license fees and sales volumes. Company representatives justified this with competitive disadvantages due to German export regulations, which competitors were not subject to, and lack of interest in the press. Only business journalists have a chance to talk to management.

Licenses and export permits

Until the 1970s, promoted federal government , the proliferation of small arms in the sign of the Cold War , despite export restrictions. By 1988, it issued export licenses for the G3 for over 80 countries and manufacturing licenses for its reproduction to 16 countries.

The development costs of the G3 were paid back from the income from licenses and sales proceeds until the end of the 1970s. These returns were recorded in the general federal budget; According to the Federal Government of 1989, its amount is unknown.

1971 published patent DE1553874 for H&K handguns with silencers

For other of its weapons and further developments of the G3, H&K itself issued private manufacturing licenses. The MP5, HK21, HK23E, HK33, G36, G41, HK53, P7 and HK GMW guns are manufactured in the UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Greece, Mexico, Portugal, Thailand, Spain and Italy. The guideline introduced in 1982 for "end-use control" is intended to ensure that such licensed replicas are only exported to third countries with the approval of the federal government. It does not affect the licenses issued until then. As a result, there was no control of the licenses for the G3, which had largely been granted in the 1960s and 1970s.

For example, in 1971 the Federal Foreign Office approved the delivery of 40,000 HK 33, 5000 assemblies and 5000 individual parts to the Thai armed forces as a stabilization of this state against the surrounding great powers. A request from Cyprus in 1980 to be allowed to import almost 50 HK weapons to combat terrorism domestically was refused by the then federal government. In 2002 she refused an export license for HK weapons to the Indian Army because it was feared that they could be used in armed conflict. For this reason, she also refused an export license for HK weapons to Nepal . The Belgian government then allowed FN Herstal to deliver similar weapons to Nepal, breaking an EU agreement to consult the state that had refused to export.

On October 29, 2015, it became known that H&K was filing a lawsuit against the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control for not having granted export licenses for parts for the manufacture of G36 rifles in Saudi Arabia .

HK weapons proliferation

HK weapons manufactured in Oberndorf appeared more often in states for which a West German or later an all-German weapon export ban existed before 1990. Weapons legally exported by H&K were sometimes used in recipient countries for purposes controversial from a human rights perspective, for example from 1984 for executions in a maximum security prison in Thailand or in 1992 for the murder of insurgent prisoners in Brazil.

H&K says it is committed to solving crimes involving HK weapons. The company joined a UN initiative against the illegal sale of decommissioned weapons and supports the federal government and a citizens' initiative in Rio de Janeiro in identifying first-time buyers of HK weapons that have been used for crimes in local slums.

Sudan, Chad

From 1960 to 1980, H&K had delivered large quantities of the G3 to Sudan and Chad . In addition, the German company Fritz Werner Geisenheim (now part of Ferrostaal ) had built an ammunition factory in Khartoum , which was supplied by Pakistan's POF, a HK licensed factory, until at least 2007. Sudan received HK licensed weapons from Great Britain and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, and from Iran in 1992. They deployed Sudanese militias against South Sudanese rebels, whereupon their fighting escalated into the Darfur conflict in 2003 . In 2004, Mohamed Ahmed Harun, Minister of Sudan, equipped the Janjawid again with G3 rifles from Iran. As a result, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against him.

Serbia, Bosnia

In 1992, during a UN arms embargo, G3 rifles marked by the Ulm Proofing Office were delivered to Yugoslavia and used by Serbian snipers against Bosnian Muslims .

GDR

1992 discovered notes of an officer of the GDR - Ministry for State Security (MfS) made it known that the GDR had maintained covert contacts with HK representatives and bought HK weapons for years. Accordingly, the MfS offered H&K in 1989 to settle HK deliveries worth over 16 million marks with blank cartridges . Among other things, the MfS procured the G11, which was rejected by the Bundeswehr, and had it demonstrated to GDR armaments companies. The foreign exchange procurer Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski is said to have legally imported HK weapons into the GDR in 1983. In 1988 he is said to have acquired 50 MP5 cases for special units of the MfS. The GDR imported weapons, target projectors, grenades and special ammunition from H&K via third countries. According to H&K, only 39 machine tools were delivered to the GDR. In 1991 an investigation was initiated against H&K because of these GDR contacts; the company headquarters was only searched in August 1992.

Sierra Leone, Colombia, Nicaragua

An investigative committee of the Bundestag GDR government crime took place after German and British media reports from 1993 and 1994 found that the then state-owned company Royal Ordnance (RO), the then owner of H & K, in the 1980s, supplies of HK weapons to Sierra Leone and Colombia had faked. To do this, RO converted the HK weapons, repackaged them and provided them with forged papers. In fact, they were delivered by GDR ships to Rostock to the MfS, and also to the Contras in Nicaragua and states in the Middle East. In doing so, RO circumvented federal German export bans for these states.

Mexico

As of March 2004, H&K legally sold some G 36s to Mexico's Ministry of Defense . As of September 2005, the German authorities classified the human rights situation in the Mexican states of Chiapas , Chihuahua , Guerrero and Jalisco as worrying because of corruption and torture and refused to authorize further arms exports there. H&K had good connections to the German authorities and was informed which Mexican states were considered capable of delivery and which were not. H&K then submitted a new application in which only states classified as safe were declared as recipients. The authorities approved arms exports to other Mexican states, although they themselves doubted that control would be possible with the differentiation of a state into regions that can and cannot be delivered. There were also concerns under international law about domestic restrictions on use. H&K thus received further German export permits for Mexico without the Federal Security Council consulting them.

In 2005, H&K wanted to sell machines to Mexico for a license version of the G36 valued at $ 27 million. In 2006, however, Mexico introduced the new FX-05 rifle instead , based on the design of the G36 and intended to replace the Mexico-made licensed version of the HK G3 by 2012. As a result, H&K and the federal government threatened with a lawsuit for product piracy , demanded the destruction of the FX 5 and compensation. In 2007, after talking to Mexico's Ministry of Defense, H&K withdrew the threat of legal action. A connection between this step and the purchase of the G36 by Mexico's police was suspected.

In 2007, H&K applied for an export permit for spare parts for the G36 and also provided delivery addresses from the four unapproved Mexican states. The Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (Bafa) received the information on request that it was an oversight. According to testimonies and travel accounts from 2006 to 2009, however, H&K employees are said to have demonstrated G36 rifles in those four states and instructed Mexicans how to use them. H&K representatives rejected the allegations: they do not know of such documents, only legally supply the central import authority of Mexico and have no influence on the distribution of weapons there.

On April 19, 2010 the peace activist Jürgen Grässlin filed a criminal complaint against H&K for alleged illegal exports to Mexico, which a former H&K employee had also confirmed to him. The Stuttgart public prosecutor's office then started an investigation. In December 2010, Report Mainz reported that, since 2005, H&K had delivered G36 rifles to the police in those four unrest provinces in Mexico that were subject to export bans. A local police representative stated that H&K had bribed the central arms purchasing authority DCAM for this. An ex-employee of the company also stated in writing that H&K had illegally delivered rifles and spare parts to Mexico, obtained state approval for this with a false statement, the responsible officials of the DCAM with 25 US dollars for each G36 sold and 20 US dollars for each HK handgun bribed and the police in a troubled province trained in HK weapons. The public prosecutor Claudia Krauth suspected that H&K had placed a donation from 2010 to the FDP Tuttlingen "in connection with the approval of weapons to Mexico". On December 21, 2010, 20 police officers searched H & K's premises as a result.

H&K explained that they only supplied the DCAM. This had contractually assured that only the police authorities of the Mexican states listed in the end-use declaration would be equipped with these weapons. Individual states have not explicitly excluded this declaration; Mexico's federal police are allowed to operate with these weapons anywhere. There is no reason to doubt the DCAM's compliance with the law. After 2007, Mexican authorities were informed of the German export requirements. The director of DCAM denied this: Neither H&K nor the federal government nor the German embassy had ever informed Mexico about German requirements. State Secretary Ernst Burgbacher ( FDP ) declared on September 28, 2011 in response to a question in the Bundestag that there had been no export bans for individual states in Mexico. The federal government suspended further permits for H&K exports to Mexico, but held on to around 50 permits that had already been granted to H&K and only promised further individual reviews. Opposition members of the Bundestag, however, demanded an order freeze from H&K. On December 12, 2011, police officers who were armed with the G36 according to photographs and witness statements shot dead two demonstrators in the state capital Chilpancingo (Guerrero). Amnesty International used this case as an opportunity to campaign against small arms exports.

As of May 2013, the management of H&K internally accused two long-time employees of having unauthorized delivery of assault rifles without the knowledge of management to unapproved occupied states of Mexico. The Stuttgart public prosecutor's office confirmed ongoing investigations against other company employees, also on suspicion of illegal party donations for such arms deliveries to Mexico. On January 15, 2014, the Freiburg Labor Court ruled that H&K had to reinstate the two employees who have since been dismissed. In December 2013, a vigilante group in Tixtla (Guerrero) showed German journalists some G36s they had taken from the corrupt local police and testified that the police in their state were armed with these weapons everywhere; the mafia also has it.

The Cologne Customs Criminal Police Office (ZKA) determined by August 2014 that H&K had sold 4767 of 9472 G-36 assault rifles that were delivered to Mexico from 2003 to 2011 to Jalisco, Guerrero, Chiapas and Chihuahua. It cited written evidence of when and how H&K employees circumvented export bans to these states: They kept the actual recipients secret and ordered false documents from the Mexican authorities in order to deceive the German licensing authorities. The office recommended charges against five H&K executives who “brought about, promoted or at least approved” these illegal sales according to German guidelines, and the collection of company profits from these sales of three million euros. German media published this report in May 2015.

In a mass kidnapping in Iguala in 2014 (September 26), the police shot and killed six demonstrating students and handed over other demonstrators to a mafia group, which made 43 of them disappear and probably murdered them. The investigators confiscated 36 G36 assault rifles from those involved, including the mayor and the police chief of Iguala (Guerrero). Some German journalists and politicians then demanded that the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office must finally clear up the illegal export of at least 1,924 H&K weapons to the state of Guerrero and work with Mexican investigators on this. On December 25, 2014, Mexicans protested in front of the German embassy in Mexico City against the equipment of the police in the state of Guerrero with HK weapons and their use.

On September 23, 2015, the First German Television dealt with the topic in the thriller Master of Death . On November 5, 2015, the Stuttgart public prosecutor charged six former H&K employees with violations of the War Weapons Control Act and the Foreign Trade Act: They had participated in 16 deliveries of rifles and accessories to Mexico. They were aware that these deliveries were being made in Mexican states that were not covered by the German export permits. Investigations against 13 co-accused were discontinued. In May 2016, the Stuttgart Regional Court opened the main proceedings against two former managing directors, two former sales managers and a sales representative. They were accused of violating the War Weapons Control and Foreign Trade Act. After ten months of the main hearing, two of the defendants (one of the former sales managers and the clerk) were sentenced to suspended sentences and the others were acquitted.

Libya

During the civil war in Libya (2011) insurgents captured dozens of G36 assault rifles made in Germany in 2003 in Mohammed al-Gaddafi's residence in Tripoli , but with unrecognizable weapon numbers. The company announced that it would send its own team of experts to Libya to determine the origin of the weapons. According to H&K, the G36 rifles captured in Tripoli were delivered to the Egyptian Ministry of Defense in 2003 with official approval. No one knows how they got from there to Libya .

In September 2011 Jürgen Grässlin filed a criminal complaint against H&K on suspicion of illegal arms deliveries to Libya; H&K itself filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons for not having delivered any weapons to Libya. From October 2011, the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office was investigating H&K for alleged violations of the War Weapons Control Act in HK weapons that had come to Libya. The proceedings were discontinued on July 1, 2014. According to public prosecutor Claudia Krauth, there was no evidence of sufficient suspicion that the route of the weapons to Libya could no longer be clarified.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia inaugurated a factory for the G36 in August 2011, which the Saudi armaments company Modern Industries Company (MIC) had built with the license and help of H&K. Protests by some members of the Bundestag rejected the federal government and H&K with reference to the legal situation. According to Andreas Heeschen, H&K supplies the Saudi manufacturer with components that it cannot manufacture itself. That is why he cannot deliver HK weapons to crisis areas. However, the Saudi director of MIC announced to a German member of the Bundestag that MIC would produce HK weapons such as the G36 entirely by itself through imports and replicas of HK parts by the end of 2012 and possibly export them after ten years. MIC exhibits its products at arms fairs abroad.

Other

In August 2008 it became known that Georgia's troops were using G3 rifles in the Caucasus War , even though the German government had rejected an export application from H&K for a delivery of 230 G3 rifles to Georgia in January 2006. The clarification of the illegal export and, if necessary, the cessation of further arms deliveries to licensees of H&K were demanded in the Bundestag.

Importers of German HK weapons and manufacturers of licensed replicas have often sold their products to crisis areas, contrary to German requirements. The director of MKE / Turkey declared in May 1995 that the G3 and MP5 were being sold in some countries in the Middle East. In July, the Federal Ministry of Economics said that MKE had not been granted any export rights and that they had no knowledge of their exports. The Turkey delivered 1998 500 MP5 to Indonesia , as this was subject to a British arms embargo. The Iran and Pakistan had committed themselves to produce HK weapons only for their own national forces, they sold but then in other crisis countries. In addition, Iran and Myanmar produce the G3 in breach of the contract even after the license has expired and have unauthorized replicas of the MP5 made.

Critical discussion

Because H&K weapons and their license production are widespread in crisis regions despite various arms embargoes, the company and the licensing practice of German authorities are repeatedly criticized in public.

Corruption allegations

H&K was repeatedly accused of obtaining export permits by exerting unlawful influence on members of parliament. Party donations from H&K that were made in connection with export permits aroused suspicions of indirect or direct bribery.

In 1998, H&K donated over DM 40,000 to the CDU , more than twice as much as in previous years. After the donation was announced in 1999, some opposition members of the Bundestag and journalists suspected a connection with a million dollar deal, the export of material for the production of the HK33 to Turkey, which the federal government had allowed the company in 1998.

After the FDP entered government , H&K donated 5,000 euros each to the FDP district association in Tuttlingen in 2009 and 2010 . Its MP Ernst Burgbacher was appointed parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, which has to approve arms exports. According to his own statement, he is not responsible for arms deliveries. FDP treasurer Patrick Döring denied any connection between the HK donations to the FDP and export permits.

As a result of critical media reports, H&K granted donations totaling 93,000 euros for the years 2002 to 2011 in December 2011. Of these, 70,000 went to the CDU, 20,000 to the FDP and 3,000 to the SPD . CDU and FDP representatives confirmed receipt of the HK donations. Both sides deny any connection with the use of MPs for HK exports. The Rottweil district association received almost all HK donations to the CDU . Its deputy, Volker Kauder, is chairman of the CDU parliamentary group and, according to HK employees, is a reliable supporter of export orders for the company. In April 2009, H&K donated 3000 euros to the SPD district association Gotha . Its MP Petra Hess had raised the donation; At that time she was a member of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag, which among other things decided to purchase the G36 for the Bundeswehr. She admitted her fundraising, receipt of donations and contacts with a HK representative after a media report in September 2012.

In November 2011, the Stuttgart public prosecutor had the company headquarters and private apartments of board members searched by 300 police officers. The reason was the suspicion of bribing domestic and foreign public officials with cash payments for delivery contracts for many years. Internal e-mails found in the process indicate, according to the public prosecutor, attempts by the company to obtain official export permits with targeted and deliberately fragmented party donations. Such attempts are punishable under Section 334 of the Criminal Code.

In May 2018, the Stuttgart public prosecutor announced that it was conducting preliminary proceedings against former employees of H&K on suspicion of bribing political leaders. The public prosecutor said, "In 2009/2010, political leaders were said to have been bribed with the aim of influencing the subsequent decision on the approval of arms exports in the interests of Heckler & Koch." The television magazine Report Mainz had previously heard about E-mails related to the suspicion from the then H&K managing director Peter Beyerle as well as an internal KPMG audit reported. The payments to two FDP members of the Bundestag and the CDU district association Rottweil (home association of the CDU parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder ) were aimed at positively influencing or at least accelerating the decision to export several thousand assault rifles to Mexico. According to Report Mainz , Beyerle turned to Kauder three weeks after the transfer and asked him to help him get the export license to Mexico.

Criticism and protest

Various arms and military critical organizations criticize exports, licensing, uncontrolled distribution and circumvention of legal export restrictions by small arms producers. H&K has been a frequent recipient of such reviews since the 1980s. In 1989 the Armaments Information Office in Oberndorf stated: “There is hardly a third world country without G3 rifles”.

Jürgen Grässlin, chairman of the DFGVK , has been a long-time critic of the company. According to him, there is a lack of effective end-use control in the case of production licenses for HK weapons, even if they were issued abroad with the declaration of end-use required since 1982. Because if licensees violate their export requirements, H&K fails to initiate possible legal steps in order to keep follow-up orders open. The G3 in particular is used in many armed conflicts; between 1961 and 2001, "more than 1.5 million" people were killed. The G3 and its offshoot HK33 are the most common murder instruments after the AK 47 in many conflicts; statistically every 14 minutes a person is killed by a bullet from an HK weapon. Grässlin is therefore calling for the company to be closed or converted to armaments . H&K rejects Grässlin's estimates of the fatalities as not verifiable. You have to compare the numbers of people protected and rescued by HK weapons, which are just as difficult to reliably estimate.

The BITS scientist Roman Deckert makes H&K jointly responsible for the widespread use of German weapons in the Third World, because the company circumvented the restrictive German arms export restrictions with "test weapons" in smaller quantities, around 500 pieces. After such deliveries, according to Deshaw, “license producers abroad who are not subject to such strict export guidelines” usually completed subsequent large orders. German companies like H&K would have benefited from this through license fees, brokerage fees or through the sale of weapons in "individual parts to partners abroad - where everything then only has to be put together." Armaments experts from IFSH accused H&K of granting an "unusually large number" of production licenses.

Matthias John, armaments expert from Amnesty International (AI), criticized the German government in 2002: contrary to its declared human rights orientation , it approved exports of small arms, ammunition and means for their manufacture to states in which "an unsatisfactory human rights situation or internal conflicts exist" . In doing so, she disregarded warnings from political scientists that “small arms and ammunition in particular can contribute to escalating conflicts and human rights violations, even in small quantities”. Michael Naumann (SPD) in 2002 called for a "worldwide export and import ban on handguns" like that of H&K. This is a far more effective contribution to the fight against terrorism than the anti-terror war proclaimed by the USA .

In 2009 it became known that HK had bought back around 13,000 HK P7s from the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior in 2007-2008 in order to sell them further. This criticized the police union, among others.

In 2011, member of the Bundestag Jan van Aken criticized: The federal government controls arms export bans in crisis areas "so laxly ... that German weapons can ultimately be found all over the world. Once exported, there is no longer any check to ensure that the weapons are not simply resold. ” On February 8, 2011, his party Die Linke applied for an export ban on all HK weapons. In March 2012, AI began a campaign for an effective international agreement to control the arms trade, for example because of the shooting of demonstrators in Mexico with illegally distributed HK arms.

In September 2012, the Center for Political Beauty (ZPS) advertised the erection of a concrete sarcophagus modeled on Chernobyl over H & K's “death zone”, which is described as comparable. The ZPS argues that “the weapons company 'Heckler & Koch' has claimed 375 times as many human lives as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the last 25 years, apart from all the headlines, so they want the same sarcophagus that holds back the radiation in Chernobyl over the weapons factory build in Oberndorf so that no deadly 'products' can escape. "

On September 3, 2012, the amateur orchestra "Lebenslaute" protested with around 100 musicians from all over Germany in front of the company headquarters of H&K in Oberndorf against the weapons production there and for a conversion to civilian products. With an open-air concert lasting several hours, the musicians blocked the company's gates and access roads. Against the UK branch of H&K, NSAF Ltd. in Nottingham, protests have been taking place, some weekly, since 2009 with the aim of clarifying HK exports to crisis and war zones and closing the company.

In 2015, Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen stated that the suspicion that H&K was trying to prevent reports of problems with the G36 rifle with the help of the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) had been confirmed. The MAD was supposed to take action against critical journalists and their “untrue media campaign”.

In the documentary film Tödliche Exporte by filmmaker Daniel Harrich , the background to arms exports to Mexico is examined. Daniel Harrich and his team received the Grimme Prize for research into this film, which was also processed in the fictional feature film Master of Death and published in various articles for Weltspiegel and the "Report" broadcasts on BR and SWR .

Investigative and judicial proceedings

Several preliminary investigations into allegedly illegal arms exports were initiated against H&K.

  • In 1988, prosecutors investigated whether H&K had supplied weapons to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels with the help of the CIA . The incriminating documents, alleged letters from HK director Wolfhart Fritze to customers in the USA and Central America, turned out to be forgeries by a HK employee.
  • In 1993, HK Managing Director Walter Lamp was charged with delivering weapons to Dubai as kits without an export permit via H & K's British subsidiary. The court acquitted him because the incident did not violate German laws.
  • In 1994 the Federal Criminal Police Office investigated again against H&K for alleged circumvention of German export bans.
  • Since 2010, the Federal Cartel Office has been investigating H&K and other armaments companies for suspected boycott agreements against the Munich-based weapons security technology company Armatix . Together with the former head of HK development technology, Ernst Mauch, they had developed an electronic security system for HK weapons to make misuse more difficult. However, H&K did not buy the system because there was supposedly no market for it.
  • As of April 6, 2011, the Bonn public prosecutor's office was investigating H&K and the Bundeswehr on suspicion of illegal, anti-competitive agreements. In August 2010, for example, a meeting with HK representatives took place at the Ministry of Defense, at which they offered two versions for a better sniper rifle. Shortly thereafter, H&K delivered a cheaper version of the G3 DMR to the German armed forces, which the soldiers rejected. The tender for this only ended on December 15, 2010.
  • Until September 2012, H&K was not found to have violated German laws. The proceedings regarding suspected illegal deliveries to Mexico and Libya as well as alleged bribery of public officials in Germany and Mexico were unfinished.
  • In the case of the illegal arms deliveries to Mexico in question, the Stuttgart Regional Court sentenced the company on February 21, 2019 to pay a fine of 3.7 million euros. Two former employees were sentenced to 17 or 22 months probation for the conviction of the court that they had ensured that between 2006 and 2009 H&K delivered almost 5,000 assault rifles and accessories to Mexican troubled provinces, which were banned from imports. The amount of the fine is based on sales, not just profit from the business. Heckler & Koch appealed on a revision.

reception

literature

  • Joachim Krause : Germany's role in the international trade in conventional weapons and armaments: Are we the “armory of the world”? In: Sirius - Journal for Strategic Analyzes, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 137–157. ( Full text online, PDF )
  • Jürgen Grässlin : Hide when they shoot. The real story of Samiira, Hayrettin and a German rifle. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-426-27266-0 ( full text online, PDF )
  • Jürgen Grässlin: Black Book Arms Trade. How Germany earned money from the war. Heyne, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-453-60237-3 .
  • Matthias John: Tools for human rights violations. Small arms and repression technology. In: Anne Jenichen, Natascha Marks, Tome Sandevski (ed.): Arms transfers and human rights. Deals with death. Lit, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6117-1 , pp. 81-92.
  • Manfred Kersten, Walter Schmid: Heckler & Koch: HK; the official history of the Oberndorf company Heckler & Koch; Insights into the history, description of the weapon models, presentation of the technology. Weispfennig, Wuppertal 1999, ISBN 3-00-005091-4 .
  • Helmut Lorscheid : Arms dealer at the cabinet table. Lamuv, 2nd edition 1990, ISBN 3-88977-208-0 (pp. 27–42: ​​"In 50 countries in use: rifles from Heckler & Koch")

documentation

Web links

Commons : Heckler & Koch  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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  112. ↑ Statement by Heckler & Koch GmbH on the interview questions submitted on February 5, 2011 by Thomas Reutter, Report Mainz. SWR, February 10, 2011 (PDF; 99 kB)
  113. ↑ Human rights commissioner wants to ban arms exports to Mexico. SWR, March 2, 2011
  114. ↑ Plenary minutes 17/129, German Bundestag, stenographic report, 129th meeting, Berlin, Wednesday, September 28, 2011 (Annex 21; PDF; 890 kB)
  115. ↑ In 2011: Heckler and Koch stopped delivering weapons to Mexico. SWR, November 13, 2011
  116. ↑ Bund continues to buy from Heckler & Koch for the time being. SWR, December 14, 2011
  117. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Vogel: German Arms Exports: Dead in Mexico, Profits in Oberndorf. taz, March 23, 2012
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  119. ↑ Max Hägler: From top dogs and scapegoats. SZ, January 16, 2014, p. 2
  120. ↑ Jürgen Grässlin, Daniel Harrich: Netzwerk des Todes , 2015, p. 209; Wolf Dieter Vogel: Illegal arms exports to Mexico: sensitive prey. taz, December 1, 2013
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  122. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Vogel: Heckler & Koch under suspicion: The trail leads to Iguala. taz, December 10, 2014
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  124. ↑ Felix Stephan : Master of Death: Germany made of steel. Time, September 23, 2015
  125. ↑ Indictment against those responsible for a weapons manufacturer. Stuttgart public prosecutor's office, November 5, 2015
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  127. ↑ Press release of the LG Stuttgart. February 21, 2019, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  128. ↑ Gun affair: Heckler & Koch wants to send investigators. Black Forest Bote, September 4, 2011
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  141. ↑ a b c d Markus Dettmer, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister, Barbara Schmid, Christoph Schult, Gabor Steingart: General against will . In: Der Spiegel . No. 53 , 2004, p. 24 ( online - December 27, 2004 ).
  142. ↑ Arms deals for party donations? How Heckler & Koch does political landscape conservation. Report Mainz / SWR, August 28, 2012
  143. ^ Party donations: Heckler & Koch paid to the FDP. Spiegel, December 10, 2011
  144. ^ H&K: Donation list 2002–2011 ( Memento from July 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  145. ↑ CDU and FDP confirm party donations from Heckler & Koch. SWR, December 12, 2011
  146. ↑ Arms deals for party donations? How Heckler & Koch does political landscape conservation. Report Mainz, SWR, August 28, 2012
  147. ↑ Heckler & Koch donates to SPD MPs Schwäbische.de, 23 September 2012
  148. ^ Der Spiegel, November 10, 2011: Suspicion of illegal business: raid on weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch
  149. ↑ Rüdiger Soldt: Heckler & Koch: Suspicion of bribery at arms manufacturer. FAZ, November 16, 2011
  150. ↑ Investigation: Did Heckler & Koch bribe politicians? Tagesschau.de, May 22, 2018
  151. ↑ Jürgen Grässlin: Hide when they shoot. Munich 2003, p. 339f.
  152. ↑ Jürgen Grässlin: Hide when they shoot. Munich 2003, pp. 353-356. - Grässlin calculates his estimate from a statement by UNICEF , according to which almost 10 million G3 rifles (8 percent of 125 million assault rifles in total) are in circulation, and from estimates by the Red Cross that 63 percent (18.9 million) of the Fatalities in armed conflict since 1961 have been killed by such weapons. 8 percent of this would correspond to 1,512,000 fatalities.
  153. ↑ From: Joint Conference Church and Development: Annual Report on Arms Exports (January 2012) (PDF; 172 kB)
  154. ↑ Jürgen Grässlin: 60 years of Heckler & Koch: No reason to celebrate. March 7, 2009
  155. ↑ Heckler & Koch, August 31, 2012: Contribution to securing peace in freedom ( Memento from September 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  156. ^ Matthias John: Tools for human rights violations. Small arms and repression technology. In: Anne Jenichen, Natascha Marks, Tome Sandevski (ed.): Arms transfers and human rights. Deals with death. Münster 2002, p. 86f.
  157. ↑ Michael Naumann: The kingdom of the good. Die Zeit, November 7, 2002
  158. ^ Union of Police Against Arms Sales. gdp.de, July 23, 2009
  159. ↑ Hauke ​​Friedrichs: German weapons for the world. Die Zeit, March 14, 2011
  160. ↑ German Bundestag, printed matter 17/4677, 17th electoral period, February 8, 2011: All arms exports by the Oberndorfer small arms manufacturer are prohibited
  161. ↑ Amnesty starts campaign for effective control of the international arms trade Amnesty.de, March 23, 2012
  162. ^ Sarcophagus for Heckler & Koch. Südwest Presse , October 22, 2012
  163. ↑ Concert against war weapons: Protest at Heckler & Koch in Oberndorf. ( Memento of September 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Tagblatt, September 3, 2012; Gunsmiths in Oberndorf blocked: one dead every 14 minutes. taz, September 3, 2012; Protest against Heckler & Koch: "First the disobedience, then the music" taz, September 3, 2012
  164. ↑ Kirk Douglas: The gun-maker next door. Ceasefire January 9, 2009; NottsAntiMilitarism ; Nottingham's fight against the arms trade. May 27, 2010
  165. ↑ G36 revelations: Rifle manufacturer wanted to spy on journalists. Time online, May 7, 2015
  166. ↑ The theme evening "Deadly Exports" receives the Grimme Prize for "Special Journalistic Achievement". DasErste, March 9, 2016
  167. ↑ rearview mirror. Quotes, reported by Der Spiegel… In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1989, pp. 78 ( Online - Feb. 27, 1989 ).
  168. ↑ The Cartel Office searches Heckler & Koch. Spiegel, March 20, 2010
  169. ↑ Lars Winkelsdorf : Politics: In the line of fire. Tagesspiegel, April 6, 2011
  170. ↑ Focus 39 (2012): Stuttgart Public Prosecutor's Office investigates two proceedings against gun manufacturers Heckler & Koch.
  171. ↑ Arms deliveries to Mexico: Heckler & Koch has to pay 3.7 million euros. FAZ, February 21, 2019
  172. ↑ Gerhard Hegmann: Heckler & Koch employees should forego wages. In: Welt.de. March 24, 2019, accessed March 25, 2019 .
  173. ↑ Thematic evening arms trade - deadly exports: arms managers in court. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
Heckler & Koch weapons


Rifles

HK G11 • HK G3 • HK32 • HK 33 • HK G36 • HK41 / HK91 • HK G41 • HK43 / HK93 • HK53 • HK XM8 • HK416 • HK417 • HK XM29 • M27 IAR • HK433

Machine guns

MG36 • HK MG4 • HK MG5 • HK11 • HK13 • HK21 • HK23

Pistols

HK4 • HK VP70 • HK P9S • HK SP89 • HK P7 • HK USP • HK P8 • HK P10 • HK P12 • HK MK23 • HK P11 • HK P2000 • HK P30 • HK UCP • HK SFP9 • HK SP89 • HK SP5K

Submachine guns

HK MP5 • HK MP7 • HK UMP

Sniper rifles

HK PSG1 • HK MSG90 • HK G3 SG1 • HK33 SG1 • HKSL9SD

Special weapons

HK69 • HK GMW • HK P2A1 • HK AG36 • HK169 • HK XM25

Sport rifles

HK270 • HK300 • HK630 • HK770 • HK940 • HK SL6 • HK SL7 • HK SL8 • HK SR9 • HK USC • MR223 • MR308 • MR556 • MR762 • G28Z

Roller lock weapons in italics

Coordinates: 48 ° 17 '26.2 "  N , 8 ° 33' 8.6"  E