Horst crossbow

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Horst Armbrust (born February 2, 1933 in Łódź , Poland ) is a former German politician ( FDP ). He became known nationwide in the 1990s for the misappropriation of a double-digit million amount from the assets of the Baden-Württemberg community of Neckarwestheim , of which he was mayor from 1960 until his impeachment in 1995.

Life

mayor

Armbrust was elected mayor of the then 1,400-inhabitant community of Neckarwestheim in 1960 as the successor to Hermann Göldenbot. During his tenure, he was able to increase the number of inhabitants to around 3,200, and in 1976 he was able to locate the Neckar community nuclear power plant in an old quarry. This and the second GKN block, which went into operation in 1988, brought the community treasury a total of DM 126 million (around 63 million euros ) in trade capital tax in the following 20 years , making it the richest community (per capita) in Germany.

Crossbow also achieved the construction of a new town hall in the center of the village as well as a golf course below Liebenstein Castle ; the construction of a swimming pool, which would have been partly on the border of the neighboring community Gemmrigheim , was prevented by a referendum by the citizens of Gemmrigheim. As compensation for this, all residents of Neckarwestheim received free entry to the surrounding swimming pools as well as free travel options.

Money speculation, impeachment, and further life

Between 1987 and 1995, Crossbow speculated a total of 41 million DM (22 million euros) from the assets of the Neckarwestheim community and the Neckarwestheim community foundation. After becoming aware of these transgressions, he was removed from office on 8 February 1995, placed in custody and finally on 24 January 1996 by Business Trial Chamber of the District Court of Stuttgart sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for embezzlement and forgery crossbow. He had to begin his sentence in the Singen branch of the Konstanz correctional facility .

On May 17, 1999 he was allowed to leave the prison prematurely on probation by decision of the Constance Regional Court .

Today Armbrust lives in the neighboring municipality of Talheim in Neckarwestheim . He does not receive a pension, but only a pension of around 25 euros per month and thus lives, as he once said, "by the grace of his wife."

The crossbow scandal

Beginning in 1987, Armbrust bought real estate in Germany for a total of DM 11 million. For this he borrowed money, which he wanted to repay with speculative profits from the municipal assets. Crossbow also founded several companies in the US, including the Suabian Realty Corporation ; He invested 35 million DM (17.9 million euros) from the municipal reserve and 6 million DM (over 3 million euros) from the capital of the community foundation in financial assets in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, where he hoped for high returns. He transferred half a million DM to his own account.

The businesses did not produce the profit Crossbrust had hoped for, but instead made the money disappear into dark channels. He announced this to the local council on February 7, 1995, around a year before his planned retirement. The following day he was arrested in the town hall and taken to Stuttgart-Stammheim prison for pre- trial detention . Despite the loss of money, the place was still liquid due to the large reserves. After Armbrust's impeachment, the deputy mayors Martin Hofelich and Hans Wiedemann took over management of the administration. A new mayor, Mario Dürr, was not elected until a year later; he was then busy for the following 13 years to recover the majority of the misappropriated money in eleven legal proceedings against various banks at home and abroad.

By January 2003 Neckarwestheim had received back 2.5 million euros, by 2005 a total of 17.8 million euros, of which almost 4.3 million euros were interest. Legal and court costs were around 3 million euros. In 2008 the municipality was able to increase its reserves to 50 million euros, most of which, however, was not the money from Neckarwestheim, but rather resulted from compensation payments from banks. The original money from Neckarwestheim could no longer be traced. In addition to Crossbow, other people have also been convicted of doing illegal business with the money stolen from Crossbow.

By April 2009 Neckarwestheim was able to win back around 16 million euros in capital and interest, which are offset by around 2.8 million euros in legal and court costs. As a last resort, the lawsuit against the US bank JP Morgan Chase was dismissed by the Federal Court of Justice due to a lack of prospects of success. The community has recovered the former DM 5 million from the capital of the community foundation, partly through court judgments and partly through settlements.

In the 1990s, what became known as the Crossbow Scandal, was a big media topic.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Main State Archives Stuttgart , entry on Horst Armbrust in the finding aid of holdings J 191, newspaper clippings collection on personal history
  2. ↑ a b c d Philipp Mausshardt: Insider tip: Bring your money to Nauru . In: The time . No. 9 , 1995 ( from zeit.de [accessed on March 9, 2011]).
  3. ↑ a b c d : Philipp Mausshardt become humble . In: The time . No. 5 , 1996 ( from zeit.de [accessed on March 9, 2011]).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Page no longer available , search in web archives: Balance sheet of the investment@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.neckarwestheim.de affair in the report of the municipal council meeting of April 29, 2009. From: neckarwestheim.de, accessed on March 10, 2011
  5. ↑ a b c d In the spotlight: The Horst Armbrust affair began ten years ago . In: Heilbronn voice . February 8, 2005.
  6. ↑ Neckarwestheim: Fraudsters take out mayors , rnz.de, accessed on September 25, 2018
  7. ↑ a b c page no longer available , search in web archives:@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.suedwest-aktiv.de
  8. ↑ I was there. Broadcast on Südwestrundfunk on November 22, 2010
  9. ^ Arnold Rieger: Blessing for the atomic village . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten . January 4, 2003 ( from neckarwestheim.antiatom.de [accessed on March 10, 2011]). at neckarwestheim.antiatom.de ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / neckarwestheim.antiatom.de
  10. ↑ Uwe Mundt: The court grants the community almost one million euros . In: Heilbronn voice . October 8, 2008 ( from Stimme.de [accessed March 8, 2011]).
  11. ↑ Reto Bosch: Community takes back 16 million euros . In: Heilbronn voice . April 4, 2009 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 10, 2011]).
personal data
SURNAME Crossbow, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (FDP) and Mayor of Neckarwestheim
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Łódź , Poland