Helmut Roewer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helmut Roewer (* 1950 ) is a German lawyer and publicist . From 1994 to 2000 he was President of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution . During his tenure, the right-wing extremist scene in Thuringia grew and became radicalized , among other things with financial and logistical support from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for V-people like Tino Brandt . 1998 of dived undercover agents surrounded subsequent right-wing terrorists of the National Socialist Underground from Jena from. Since his retirement, he has published in right-wing and new- right publishers ( Ares Verlag , Kopp Verlag ), on similar Internet platforms, and gives a lecture on invitations from the same spectrum ( Compact ).

Life

Apprenticeship and first years of employment

After training to be an officer in the armored forces of the Bundeswehr, Roewer began studying law , history and economics , which he completed with the second state examination in law. In 1982, he was with a thesis on rights and responsibilities of young people between parental rights and government intervention - The development of the Empire from 1871 to 1980 at the University of Konstanz doctorate . After the state examination, he initially worked as a lawyer and after some time entered the civil service. He found use in the Federal Ministry of the Interior in the area of ​​the protection of the constitution , in which he rose to the Ministerialrat .

Thuringian President of the Protection of the Constitution

In 1994 Roewer was appointed President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution by Interior Minister Franz Schuster (CDU). The handover of the certificate of appointment took place under circumstances that could no longer be reconstructed either in an Erfurt inn, where it was put in the pocket of Roewer, who was drunk at the time , which he later could only vaguely remember, or shortly before midnight on August 15 1994 in an anteroom of the Ministry of the Interior.

His administration was considered eccentric. So he stepped z. B. at a public event as part of the Weimar program as European Capital of Culture in a Ludendorff costume with a pickled hood (Roewer claimed in the Thuringian NSU investigation committee that he wanted to portray General Max Hoffmann , Ludendorff's critic), another time as Walther Rathenau costumed on.

Under Roewer's responsibility, the state office recruited various V-men in the right-wing radical scene in Thuringia, including a. Tino Brandt , at that time leader of the Thuringian homeland security and member of the national board of the NPD . Between 1994 and 2001, Brandt received more than 200,000 DM for his work - money that, according to his own statements, went into building up the Thuringian homeland security. Brandt was temporarily switched off as an undercover agent by Roewer himself, but three members of this scene went underground in 1998. As the National Socialist underground , they were responsible for a series of murders among Turkish and Greek migrants , the police murder in Heilbronn , explosives and numerous bank robberies in the following decade .

Roewer explained this on November 15, 2011 to the effect that at that time "due to the numerous processes and the recorded material, individual indications may not have been recognized". He suspected links between the terrorist cell and the Jena police, who had prevented an arrest in 1998. In February 2013, Roewer stated that his agency had therefore started investigations against the police. According to Roewer, the files were probably destroyed after his term in office.

The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution weighted the dangers of left-wing extremism under Roewer's leadership much higher than the dangers of right-wing extremism . For example, in the instructional film Youth Extremism in Central Germany from the year 2000, which was shot for school lessons, left-wing autonomists were characterized as willing to use violence, while parades of right-wing comradeships were shown in the film without corresponding comments. The statement by right-wing extremist Tino Brandt "We are [...] against violence in principle" also went uncommented. The film was produced by the CDU young politician Reyk Seela on behalf of the Heron Verlagsgesellschaft founded by Roewer under the code name Stephan Seeberg . Roewer justified the film by saying that it served to get to the right-wing radical scene in order to get sound and image recordings.

In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution created an extensive collection of material about the Thuringian opposition leader Bodo Ramelow from 1996 to 1999. The surveillance of Ramelow was found to be unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court in October 2013 .

On behalf of the Thuringian Interior Minister Christian Köckert (CDU), the former Hessian State Secretary of Justice Karl Heinz Gasser (CDU) examined Roewer's administration in 2000 and came to a devastating result in his report: Gasser found serious errors in the selection, structure and management of staff, so that he described the realignment of the state office in the years 1994 to 1999 as a failure. The hiring of young college graduates as executives led to constant arguments between veteran intelligence officers and their new bosses. For example, a civil servant who criticized a decision made by his boss as nonsensical was soon obliged by Roewer to submit an hourly written report on his work. Technical supervision by the Ministry of the Interior was practically disabled for years, as Roewer insisted on only reporting to Köckert's predecessor Richard Dewes (SPD) without informing the responsible supervisory department about the content of the discussions. Even Dewes' successor Köckert did not react to the chaotic situation in Roewer's office despite a fire letter from the staff council.

While the committee of inquiry was meeting in the Thuringian state parliament on the NSU, Roewer's administration of office was repeatedly criticized. If he did not get along with a head of department, he is said to have dissolved his department without further ado.

Retirement and criminal proceedings

In 2000, Roewer was suspended from duty due to a series of affairs. A 2005 begun against Roewer criminal because of infidelity during his time as President Protection of the Constitution in 2008 because of continued unfitness and provisionally in March 2010 final against payment of 3,000 euros cash circulation to a charitable organization set .

Role in coming to terms with the NSU affair

In an interview for Junge Freiheit , Roewer compared his two surveys in the NSU investigative committee of the Thuringian state parliament in the summer of 2012 with a “ Stalinist show trial ”. He filed a criminal complaint against two former colleagues who gave testimony there for alleged false statements .

When Roewer was asked as a witness in the first Bundestag NSU investigative committee in 2013 what the receipts for payments to an undercover agent “Günther” found in a vault of the state office after his departure were all about, Roewer replied to the MPs: “What's up Do you announce that? ”Roewer testified before the committee of inquiry that attempts had been made to supply Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe with forged passports in order to arrest them when they were leaving Germany. Roewer stated that constitutionalists got drunk with right-wing extremists to get information. Roewer rejected allegations that he had protected the perpetrators of the NSU. The committee chairman Sebastian Edathy (SPD) described Roewer's statements that he could not remember as "simply not credible".

Working as a speaker and publicist

Roewer publishes a. a. in Jürgen Elsässer's Compact Magazine and in Ares-Verlag . To the accusation that this was a platform for right-wing extremists, anti-Semites and crude history revisionists , Roewer replied that he had discovered his first constitutional law teacher Ingo von Münch on the list of authors , so that the publisher was also good for him. He also publishes in Junge Freiheit and is a speaker for the Veldensteiner Kreis .

In December 2015, Roewer said in an interview with Michael Vogt's YouTube channel QueroughtTV that there would be an “overthrow” if the security authorities were given the order to “take action against their own people”. They would not obey such orders, and then “there will be no more talk of elections”. With regard to the Pegida demonstrations in Dresden , according to Roewer, the counteractivities are “publicly funded”. The authorities “dragged” “violent criminals known in the city or from the country” to demonstrate against Pegida. It is about "state-paid, arriving criminals". In addition, a “conglomerate” of “good-for-nothing and talkers” dominates the parties and the “public space”. If the people no longer vote, “this system is at an end”.

In December 2016, Roewer said in another edition of QuerrechenTV that a right-wing extremist motive for the murders attributed to the NSU was "extremely unlikely". Rather, the acts are caused by ethnic conflicts between Turks and Kurds. If a government agency was involved, it was more Turkish than German. Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos would only be considered contract killers. However, neither committed suicide, but were murdered.

In 2015 Roewer lectured in front of the extreme right fraternity of Thessalia Prague and in 2016 was on the invitation list of the fraternity Normannia Jena, which was classified as right-wing extremist fraternity by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution . In 2018 he gave a lecture at the invitation of AfD politician Udo Hemmelgarn at the so-called citizens' talk in the Bundestag and appeared as a speaker at the annual conference of the AfD-related study center in Weikersheim .

Private

Roewer lives in Weimar.

Publications (selection)

  • Intelligence service law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Heymann, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-452-20630-0 .
  • Radiation protection precautionary law. Heymann, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-452-21310-2 .
  • Editor with Fritz-Achim Baumann and Helmut Rannacher : Claudia Timpel and Stefan Schäfer: I burn you myself. Buchenwald - focal point for extremists. Heron Verlag, Erfurt 1998, ISBN 9783980608039 .
  • with Stefan Schäfer and Matthias Uhl : Lexicon of the Secret Services in the 20th Century . Herbig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2317-9 .
  • Unscrupulous. The machinations of the secret services in Russia and Germany 1914–1941. Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-936618-46-1 .
  • In the sights of the secret services: Germany and Russia in the Cold War. Lübbe, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7857-2326-5 .
  • The Red Chapel and other secret service myths. Espionage between Germany and Russia in World War II, 1941–1945. Ares-Verlag, Graz 2010, ISBN 978-3-902475-85-5 .
  • For official use only - as the head of the protection of the constitution in eastern Germany . Ares-Verlag, Graz 2012, ISBN 978-3-902732-09-5 .
  • Kill the huns - kill the huns! Secret services, propaganda and subversion behind the scenes of the First World War . Ares-Verlag, Graz 2014, ISBN 978-3-902732-27-9 .
  • Why England started World War I and America won it. (= On the way to world domination , Volume 1), Scidinge Hall, Zurich 2016, ISBN 9783905923230 .
  • 1918-1945: Why an Anglo-American alliance attacked Germany for the second time and the Red Army invaded Berlin. (= On the way to world domination , Volume 2), Scidinge Hall, Tübingen 2017 ISBN 9783947020027 .
  • Why the US empire was successful with us for so long, but failed to re-educate the East Germans. (= On the way to world domination , Volume 3), Scidinge Hall, Tübingen 2018 ISBN 9783947020058 .
  • Spygate. The establishment's coup against Donald Trump , Kopp Verlag March 26, 2020

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Dirk Reinhardt: Protection of the Constitution with memory gaps. In: Zeit Online. Zeit Online GmbH, July 10, 2012, accessed on December 25, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Self-portrayal of a secret service agent . In: zeit.de
  3. ↑ a b Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution: Roewer files charges against ex-employees. In: Spiegel Online , July 19, 2012.
  4. ↑ a b Harald Lachmann: Helmut Roewer's double life: The protection of the constitution as madhouse . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . November 16, 2011.
  5. ↑ Elmar Otto: Ex-officials: Thuringian constitution protection was like a madhouse . In: Thüringische Landeszeitung . July 10, 2012, accessed October 31, 2018
  6. ↑ Axel Hemmerling: “A question of internal security. In competition: 'Construction workers East' Helmut Roewer and Uwe Kranz. ”In: Matthias Meisner , Heike Kleffner (Eds.): Extreme Sicherheit. Right-wing extremists in the police, the protection of the constitution, the armed forces and the judiciary. Herder, Freiburg 2019, p. 290
  7. ^ A b Steffen Winter: Secret Services: Code name Rubicon . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 2005, pp. 48-49 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Stefan Aust , Dirk Laabs : Heimatschutz. The state and the NSU series of murders. Pantheon Verlag Munich 2014, p. 434
  9. ^ A b Christian Bergmann, Heiner Hoffmann, Inga Klees & Marcus Weller: What role does the protection of the constitution play? In: fact . Broadcast of the MDR , November 15, 2011 ( manuscript as PDF; 57 kB )
  10. ↑ MDR : Former federal judge Schäfer should clarify the role of the authorities ( Memento of November 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). November 15, 2011
  11. ↑ Hans Leyendecker : Ex-Verfassungsschutz chief Roewer and the neo-Nazi murders - his name stands for chaos . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 17, 2011
  12. ↑ Ex-Verfassungsschützer Roewer makes serious allegations to the state police . In: zeit.de , February 21, 2013
  13. ↑ Constitutional Protection Instructional Video . In: jg-stadtmitte.de , November 30, 2011
  14. ↑ That's scum. In: sueddeutsche.de , February 21, 2013
  15. ↑ M. Neller & M. Bewarder: Helmut Roewer: An eccentric defends spy mishaps of his time . In: Die Welt , November 16, 2011
  16. ↑ Gasser report: Roewer was received by Dewes and out of the Thüringische Landeszeitung from June 6, 2012
  17. ↑ "After Christmas 1999 Roewer banned me from the house, after which I was at home until 2005 with full salary." heise.de from July 10, 2012
  18. ↑ Andreas Förster: The ex-secret service agent Helmut Roewer tells: The enemy is everywhere . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 13, 2008
  19. ↑ Claus Peter Müller: Erfurt Constitutional Protection: Terrorheimstatt Thuringia . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 15, 2011
  20. ↑ NSU committee chairman rejects allegations. In: Thüringer Allgemeine , January 10, 2013.
  21. ↑ That's scum . sueddeutsche.de of February 21, 2013
  22. ^ NSU trial: Witness André K .: "I know that I suddenly had three empty passports" . In: thueringer-allgemeine.de , February 5, 2014
  23. ^ Helmut Roewer - eccentric in the NSU committee . In: mz-web.de , February 22, 2013
  24. ↑ Ex-Verfassungsschützer Roewer makes serious allegations to the state police . In: zeit.de , February 21, 2013
  25. ^ NSU committee: Roewer complains about earlier "unfortunate" personnel situation . In: welt.de , February 21, 2013
  26. ^ Dossier: The war guilt lie - Germany and the First World War. to Christopher Clark's book “Die Schlafwandler” ( Memento from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ^ Paul Wrusch: Protection of the Constitution and the Nazi Scene: Thuringian Comrades . In: the daily newspaper , November 14, 2011
  28. ↑ Thorsten Denkler: Ex-Verfassungsschützer Roewer presents book - A man, a scandal . In: SZ-Online , from October 5, 2012
  29. ↑ Axel Hemmerling: “A question of internal security. In competition: 'Construction workers East' Helmut Roewer and Uwe Kranz. ”In: Matthias Meisner , Heike Kleffner (Eds.): Extreme Sicherheit. Right-wing extremists in the police, the protection of the constitution, the armed forces and the judiciary. Herder, Freiburg 2019, p. 291
  30. ↑ Andrej Reisin: Ex-Constitutional Guard Roewer: "Then there will be an overthrow". In: The first. April 4, 2013, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  31. ↑ No more funny: The overthrow of Helmut Roewer In: Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung , from January 4, 2016 (paid content)
  32. ↑ Konrad Litschko: Ramelow criticism of ex-chief of the secret service "complicity in the NSU". In: TAZ , January 3, 2016
  33. ^ Konrad Litschko: Helmut Roewer's steep theses. In: TAZ , from December 16, 2016
  34. ↑ Axel Hemmerling: “A question of internal security. In competition: 'Construction workers East' Helmut Roewer and Uwe Kranz. ”In: Meisner / Kleffner, p. 292
  35. ↑ Wolf Schmidt: Der Verfassungsbeschmutzer In: TAZ , from July 10, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Roewer, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and journalist, Thuringian President of the Protection of the Constitution (1994–2000)
DATE OF BIRTH 1950