Helaba scandal

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Poster of the CDU Hessen 1976 on the Helaba scandal

The Helaba scandal was a financial scandal in the 1970s . The Hessische Landesbank (Helaba) was in considerable distress due to a number of questionable equity investments, in particular real estate projects. The affair resulted in the resignation of the then Hessian Prime Minister Albert Osswald (SPD) on October 3, 1976.

Background and events

In the first half of the 1970s, the Hessische Landesbank participated in speculative risk business, including the real estate projects Schwabylon in Munich and Sonnenring in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen . Particularly high losses accumulated at the “Investitions- und Handelsbank” (IHB), the majority of which has been owned by Helaba since 1973. In total, Helaba had made losses in the billions. On December 17, 1973, the President of Helaba Wilhelm Hankel (SPD) resigned on the charge that he had not informed the Board of Directors about the problems in good time. At the end of 1974, Helaba was close to bankruptcy , which could only be averted by loans from the State of Hesse and the Sparkassen .

The then Prime Minister of Hesse, Osswald, was Chairman of the Helaba Board of Directors at the time and was thus involved in the business. Further details subsequently came to light, which ultimately led to the political pressure on Osswald to step down as Prime Minister, increasing. On October 3, 1976, shortly after the polling stations for the federal election were closed , he resigned as Prime Minister and also resigned from the office of Hessian SPD chairman. On October 12, 1976, Holger Börner (SPD) was elected as his successor as Prime Minister. Börner prevailed against Alfred Dregger from the CDU in the state parliament with 57 to 53 votes . The investigations against Osswald were closed in 1978 without anything being proven. The representatives of the Sparkassenverband and the Sparkassen on the Board of Directors of Helaba managed to survive the bank's scandal unscathed.

The Helaba scandal was picked up by the then CDU opposition in the election campaign for the 1976 federal election and the local elections in Hesse in 1977 . In the federal election, the Hessian CDU gained 4.5 percent. That was significantly more than the federal party with 3.7 percent and the best result of a CDU regional association. Only the sister party CSU did better in Bavaria. In the local elections on March 20, 1977, the CDU gained 10 percent and came to 47.9 percent. The SPD slumped from 51.4 to 42.3 percent.

swell

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel: Social Striptease , June 12, 1978
  2. ↑ Bernd Heidenreich and Werner Wolf: The way to the strongest party 1945–1995: 50 years CDU Hessen , Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-8046-8827-6 , pp. 77–78

See also

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