Jürgen Schneider (building contractor)

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Jürgen Schneider on the occasion of a book presentation on Sylt, around 2001

Utz Jürgen Schneider (born April 30, 1934 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a former German real estate entrepreneur who made a name for himself primarily through the extensive renovation of historic properties in Frankfurt am Main, Munich , Leipzig and Berlin . After a sensational billion bankruptcy in 1994, Schneider 1995 was arrested and charged with fraud , credit fraud and forgery to a term of imprisonment convicted of six years and nine months. He was released from prison in 1999.

Life

Ascent

Villa Andreae in Königstein im Taunus , former residence and company headquarters of Schneider

Jürgen Schneider, son of Richard Schneider , the largest medium-sized building contractor in Hesse at times after the Second World War , studied civil engineering in Darmstadt . Like his father, he became a member of the Corps Hassia Darmstadt . He later received his doctorate in political science at the University of Graz . From 1963 the qualified engineer worked in his father Richard Schneider's company; when he refused to hand over the management of the company to him, Jürgen Schneider resigned his employment in 1982. As a result, the father is said to have asked the banks he knew not to lend his son any money and so tried to get him to agree to the regulations of the To move management. For Schneider, however, obtaining loans was not a problem, as he had a good reputation as a civil engineer and his wife Claudia Schneider-Granzow (* 1944/45) came from a wealthy family (Granzow Elektrohandel). In the course of the next decade Schneider rose to become one of the most important and respected construction investors in the country. From the listed company headquarters Villa Andreae in Königstein im Taunus (built in 1891 by the architect Franz von Hoven for the private banker and Commerz- und Disconto-Bank co- founder Albert Andreae de Neufville ), he has ruled his billion-dollar empire of over 150 properties and one barely since 1989 Manageable company network of at least 130 subsidiaries in Germany and abroad.

Mädlerpassage in Leipzig

At that time, Schneider was highly valued - not least because he mainly devoted himself to historic properties in prime inner-city locations in major German cities, which he had painstakingly restored. In contrast to investment companies customary in the industry, he and his wife were personally liable in their GbR . In Leipzig alone he invested in 15 monuments such as the legendary Mädlerpassage and the Barthels Hof . In addition, there was the takeover of the large Leipzig construction company Bau- und Planungsunion (BUP) and the gravel and natural stone operations Leipzig (KNL). The expensive showcase projects were financed by various banks that got infected by Schneider's enthusiasm for restoration and reconstruction in the course of German unification and gave him generous loans .

Schneider affair

Deception and gullibility of the commercial banks

Zeilgalerie

As a result of his first, successfully refurbished major project, which was resold at a considerable profit, Schneider came up with the idea of buying, refurbishing and then marketing further pieces of cream in top locations in major German cities. In the absence of sufficient equity capital , the huge investments were only possible through borrowing of DM 5.5 billion from around 55 different banks. New projects were always added. The rental income has always remained well below the forecasts - on the one hand due to an overly optimistic market assessment, on the other hand due to deliberately exaggerated space information and rental forecasts. Added to this was the stagnation and decline in real estate prices after the reunification boom subsided in 1994.

One of its defenders later said it was an empire of hope values that only seemed to work while further expansion was possible. Because his projects were almost without exception unprofitable and due to the turnaround in the real estate market that was overheated in the wake of reunification, Schneider needed ever larger loans to absorb the losses from his investments. Schneider was only able to achieve success with his approach because of the gross negligence of the banks in granting loans. An employee of the mortgage subsidiary of Deutsche Bank is said to have given him the idea of ​​incorrectly calculating numbers in favor of a higher loan amount , namely to increase the lending value of an object (the Golden Cross in Baden-Baden) through embellished information. Schneider got the loan and took advantage of the negligence of the credit institutions in checking his information.

For example, for a loan, Schneider increased the information for the new construction of the Zeilgalerie , a large commercial building on the Frankfurt Zeil , for the usable area from actually 9,000 square meters in the documents to an alleged 22,000 square meters. Financing reports did the rest. During the check, the employees of Deutsche Bank failed to see that the usable area was correctly stated as 9,000 square meters on the construction sign (not far from their headquarters). Her Munich colleagues across from the Bernheimer Palais did not notice that two floors were missing, which is a few thousand square meters.

Collapse of the company

At the end of February 1994, a critical article appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about problems with tenants of Schneider properties . Schneider's system could only continue as long as his liquidity was assured, the credits continued to run, and money came in through sales or new credits. The banks now recognized the risk, and when he informed his main lender Deutsche Bank of the impending insolvency at the beginning of April, the ball got rolling. Every believer wanted to be the first to exploit the tailor's empire. Schneider supposedly wanted to direct the fortunes of his difficult to understand enterprises from abroad and therefore went into hiding with his wife Claudia. While the Schneiders were being sought with an international arrest warrant , the damage incurred began on April 14, 1994 with the opening of insolvency proceedings (according to the legal situation at the time, bankruptcy according to the bankruptcy code) before the Königstein District Court . Schneider's bank debts amounted to around 5.4 billion DM (in today's purchasing power 3.9 billion euros). In total, there were claims against Schneider in the amount of 6.7 billion DM.

The largest single creditor of Schneider was the Deutsche Bank with its own mortgage bank Centralbodenkredit, which accounted for around a quarter of the bank claims with a sum of 1.2 billion DM. At a press conference , Hilmar Kopper , the spokesman for the board at the time, assured that the bank would pay the craftsmen hired by Schneider for the property financed by Deutsche Bank for damages of around DM 50 million. The fact that he called these amounts " peanuts " seriously damaged the reputation of Deutsche Bank, which was accused of contributing to the billion-dollar bankruptcy. As a result, peanuts became the bad word of 1994. In addition to this damage to its image, Deutsche Bank also suffered financial damage, which in 1994 led to value adjustments of around DM 500 million.

In the course of the bankruptcy of Schneider's company, besides handicraft businesses, numerous retail shops and businesses as well as catering and hotel companies in Schneider's real estate got into financial difficulties, which in turn often led to bankruptcy. In addition, in many cases after the takeover of the Schneider property by new investors, retail stores, e.g. In some cases, long-term rental contracts were terminated, which also led to numerous organizational and financial difficulties.

Escape

Schneider reappeared much later. The international manhunt did not end until May 18, 1995, when Jürgen and Claudia Schneider were arrested in Miami , Florida . Schneider spent the time leading up to his trial, initially in US custody and, after extradition in February 1996, in German custody .

On June 30, 1997, a high-profile white collar criminal case began in Germany. Representatives from over 50 banks were summoned to appear before the Frankfurt district court as witnesses . Schneider was represented by the renowned white-collar criminal lawyer Prof. Franz Salditt . In the course of the process, which lasted 41 days, the criminal chamber, chaired by Heinrich Gehrke , found that the banks were complicit in the bankruptcy of billions - primarily because the employees of the credit department accepted the false information without checking, although in several cases they even received bank-internal warnings templates. The Federal Banking Supervisory Office also found that Deutsche Bank alone had violated the provisions of the Banking and Mortgage Bank Act in 15 cases . It was this complicity on the part of the credit institutions that brought Schneider on December 23, 1997, a relatively mild sentence of six years and nine months despite the large amount of damage. There was no criminal prosecution of employees of the banks involved in the scandal. But Deutsche Bank in particular had to struggle with image problems for months.

Schneider after 1999

After Schneider was released from prison in December 1999 (taking into account pre-trial detention, he served two thirds of the prison sentence), he became an author. With the help of the ghostwriter Ulf Mailänder, he published three books, including the autobiography Confessions of a Building Lion and an overview of his real estate under the title All my houses. Modern monuments in Germany . The proceeds are to flow into the aid fund set up by Schneider to support craftsmen who have gone bankrupt.

Schneider's father Richard Schneider died while in prison. With regard to the inheritance, there was a preliminary investigation into tax evasion; this investigation has been discontinued.

Schneider's former company headquarters, Villa Andreae in Königstein im Taunus , was not sold by foreclosure because the highest bid of 9.5 million DM and the estimated value of 15 million DM were too far apart. In 1997 the software entrepreneur Hartmut Lademacher bought the villa; his asset management company SMM moved in there. At the end of 2009, the property was offered for 9.8 million euros.

Another process

Because of the suspicion of triple fraud , Schneider had to answer again in 2010. In two cases it should have remained with the attempt, in the third case he should have raised 67,000 euros. According to the indictment, Schneider had pretended to want to invest a substantial fortune in 2008 and 2009, but previously demanded security payments and processing fees. In 2014 he was charged with "commercial fraud in six cases" in this matter, but the proceedings were discontinued by the Bonn Regional Court due to the defendant's inability to stand trial.

Other objects renovated by Schneider

Schneider affair in the film

In 1996, the "Jürgen Schneider case" in the comedy film Peanuts - The Bank pays everything by Carlo Rola was satirically processed. The building contractor played by Ulrich Mühe is called Dr. Jochen Schuster , instead of Deutsche Bank, Germanische Bank is the lender. The documentary TV film Der Auf-Schneider - Rise and Fall of a German Building Lion with Reiner Schöne in the leading role followed in 2018 .

See also

literature

  • Marc Frey: The Schneider files. Piper, Munich 1996, ISBN 3492038832
  • Udo Frank, Beate Thorn: Palaces, bankruptcies, peanuts. The Schneider banking scandal. Hoffmann and Campe, 1996, ISBN 3455111807
  • Jürgen Schneider: Confessions of a building lion. Ullstein, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3898340058
  • Jürgen Schneider: All of my houses. Modern monuments in Germany. Verlag Bildung und Wissen (VAW), Bad Homburg 2000, ISBN 3932366107
  • Jürgen Schneider: Top or Flop - What distinguishes good business from bad. Eichborn, Frankfurt a. M. 2001, ISBN 3821816473

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Erwin K. Scheuch and Ute Scheuch: Managers in megalomania . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 2003, ISBN 978-3-499-61481-1 . , Excerpt from google books
  2. ↑ Granzow company
  3. ↑ Spiegel issue 28/1996: Success with great bluff SPON , online, accessed on March 19, 2016
  4. ^ The Schneider objects in downtown Leipzig
  5. ↑ Roland Stimpel: Real Estate Market : Ein Trümmerfeld, in: Wirtschaftswoche No. 17/1994, p. 46.
  6. ↑ cf. Information in BGH , judgment of December 12, 1996, Az.IX ZR 76/96, NJW 1997, 866, 866.
  7. ↑ Tarik Ahmia: thieves hurt business . In: the daily newspaper , July 5, 2006.
  8. ↑ Bankruptcies - The Most Spectacular Cases . In: Stern , August 12, 2002.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Schneider writes another book . ( Memento from June 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , May 3, 2000.
  10. ↑ o. V .: Schneider creditors: quota of eight to ten percent? , in: Immobilien Zeitung of May 18, 1995, p. 1.
  11. ↑ top v .: Schneider's “Angel of Innocence Declaration” meets incomprehension - Deutsche Bank, craftsmen and bankruptcy administrators defend themselves against the role of victim of the Königsteiner . In: Immobilien Zeitung , June 1, 1995, p. 6.
  12. ↑ Focus .de: Jürgen Schneider - The "Peanuts" bankruptcy , accessed on February 28, 2014
  13. ↑ Jens Koch : The letter of comfort . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-16-148674-6 , p. 538 . , Excerpt from google books with the wording of the declaration
  14. ↑ top v .: Deutsche Bank: Bernheimer Palais, Konsort.-Streit , in: Manager Magazin No. 8/1994, p. 12.
  15. ↑ cf. o. V .: Fahning: With Dr. Schneider went bankrupt , in: TextilWirtschaft from August 18, 1994, p. 18.
  16. ↑ cf. N / A : Schneider bankruptcy: bankruptcies without end. In: Neue Gastronomische Zeitschrift , No. 7/1994, p. 10.
  17. ↑ cf. Sören Jensen: In Grund und Boden Short title: Wave of bankruptcies in real estate , in: Manager Magazin No. 5/1996, p. 154 ff.
  18. ↑ cf. z. B. o. V .: Berlin site poker at Ku'damm / Tauentzien . In: TextilWirtschaft , April 27, 1995, p. 6.
  19. ↑ "Chronicle of a Disappearance" , Focus , 1995, No. 35
  20. ↑ Hasnain Kazim: "Billion fraudsters Jürgen Schneider" , Spiegel / einestages , December 20, 2007.
  21. ^ WORLD: Jürgen Schneider releases funds in Geneva . In: THE WORLD . February 9, 1996 ( welt.de [accessed October 15, 2018]).
  22. ↑ bild.de
  23. ↑ a b Jürgen Schneider again accused of fraud , FAZ, August 3, 2010
  24. ↑ a b Ex-Baulöwe is unable to negotiate. No new proceedings against Jürgen Schneider , General-Anzeiger Bonn, September 30, 2015. Accessed October 23, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Schneider, Jürgen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneider, Utz Jürgen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German building contractor and bankrupt
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main