Jenny Böken

Sail training ship Gorch Fock

Jenny Böken (born September 5, 1989 in Langenfeld , † September 4, 2008 in the North Sea off the island of Norderney ) was a medical officer candidate for the German Navy . She was last on duty on the sailing training ship Gorch Fock , from which she left around midnight on March 3rd / 4th. September 2008 went overboard. Her body was recovered from Heligoland eleven days later and buried on September 24, 2008 in Teveren , where the family lived.

Circumstances of death

At the time of her disappearance, Böken was part of the Gorch Fock's 30-strong sail watch . She was assigned as a lookout post on the forecastle from 8 p.m. to midnight . As usual on tall ships , she did not wear a life jacket , signal lamp or GPS transmitter when on watch . Jenny Böken went overboard when the ship sailed about 12 nm (22  km ) north of the island of Norderney shortly before midnight with wind force seven  . There were no witnesses to the exact circumstances of their fall, but another soldier saw a "shadow" fall into the sea. The officer on watch gave a man overboard alarm. A lifebuoy was thrown into the sea and the ship stopped. The Gorch Fock turned and headed for the position of the man overboard alarm. Ships of the Federal Police and the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS) were alerted by radio . The two motorized rescue boats drove to the marked position in the wake of the Gorch Fock . Helicopters of the German Armed Forces and the Lower Saxony police as well as maritime reconnaissance aircraft of the German Armed Forces searched the sea area. Eleven days later, on September 15, 2008, Böken's body was recovered by the research ship Walther Herwig III about 65 nm (120 km) north-west of Heligoland and taken to the Kiel Institute for Forensic Medicine by the water police. The exact position data of the recovery of the corpse are disputed, since according to the father's statement, the information provided by the Navy is different from that of the research vessel.

Criminal investigations and legal proceedings

The exact circumstances of Böken's death are unclear. However, there were indications of health restrictions. In the end, however, the father Uwe Böken declared himself convinced that “Jenny did not go overboard alive”, since according to the autopsy report there was no water in her lungs. The parents had previously accused the ship's doctor and the commanding officer of negligently causing their daughter to go overboard because the doctor did not completely exclude her from duty despite her health problems and the commandant had to put on a life jacket or life jacket due to the weather and the sea Topps belt not arranged.

The public prosecutor's office in Kiel refrained from initiating investigative proceedings for negligent homicide due to insufficient suspicion . On June 12, 2012, the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court rejected the parents’s applications for compulsory action . With regard to the doctor, the application is unfounded, because numerous other causes than health impairments are conceivable for Böken's going overboard. With regard to the commanding officer, the application is inadmissible because the facts which are intended to justify the filing of the public complaint and the evidence, contrary to Section 172 (3) sentence 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, had not been presented in a manner that would allow the Higher Regional Court to examine the conclusiveness without recourse to the Enable investigation files .

The constitutional complaint filed by the parents with regard to the doctor was not accepted by the Federal Constitutional Court for decision. Sufficient suspicion is to conscientiously carry out investigations of prosecutor, Attorney General's Office has not been denied and Court of Appeal in a constitutionally objectionable manner.

On the tenth anniversary of Böken's death on September 4, 2018, the family informed about a witness who had made an affidavit in August , from which it is hoped that the prosecutor's investigation will be resumed. The witness (after changing her gender), who claims to have met Jenny Böken as a soldier in the German Armed Forces, was questioned by the Kiel public prosecutor in April 2019 and the death investigation was resumed in June. The proceedings were discontinued again on November 26, 2019, and the complaint filed by the parents against it was "rejected as unfounded" by the General Public Prosecutor's Office on July 6, 2020.

Supply law procedure

In December 2013, the parents sued the Federal Republic of Germany before the Administrative Court of Aachen for 40,000 euros in compensation under Section 63a (3) No. 2 of the Soldiers' Welfare Act . That lawsuit was dismissed on October 22, 2014.

In the appeal proceedings before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster , only the relevant amount for parents of 20,000 euros before December 13, 2011 was asserted. The hearing took place on September 14, 2016. The parents asserted that the guard duty of their daughter was particularly dangerous given the weather conditions at the time, especially since their daughter was not individually secured against falling overboard and she was not equipped with a life jacket. The railing on the forecastle was partly too low, and Jenny Böken was not allowed to do any duty on board the Gorch Fock due to illness . The Navy countered this by stating that, according to its guidelines at the time, the weather conditions prevailing at the time of the incident did not require wearing life jackets or other securing equipment. The ship was relatively calm in the water when there was little movement of its own, and there were no health-related obstacles. The appeals court rejected the appeal and did not allow an appeal. The parents did not file a non-admission complaint with the Federal Administrative Court .

Commemorative plaque

On September 5, 2014, the Bundeswehr put a memorial plaque on Jenny Böken's grave.

Jenny Böken Foundation

One year after the incident in September 2008, Böken's mother Marlis founded the Jenny Böken Foundation , which has the stated aim of looking after families in need of soldiers who have been killed and fallen and to support soldiers who have become incapacitated as a result of their service .

filming

The television film Death of a Cadet by director Raymond Ley , which was shown on April 5, 2017 in Das Erste , is based on the case of Jenny Böken. Immediately afterwards, the half-hour documentary The Gorch Fock case on the same topic was broadcast.

Web links

• Website of the Jenny Böken Foundation
• Parents' website on Jenny Böken and the case
• Hasnain Kazim: Missing “Gorch Fock” cadet: “One hand for the ship, one hand for yourself”. In: Spiegel Online. September 4, 2008, accessed September 29, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jenny loved the sea and the navy. The injured Gorch Fock soldier could only be rescued dead. In: nordbayern.de. Nürnberger Zeitung, September 17, 2008, archived from the original on November 5, 2013 ; Retrieved April 19, 2015 . 
2. ^ Farewell to our comrade Jenny. (No longer available online.) Jenny Böken Foundation, archived from the original on April 6, 2017 ; Retrieved April 6, 2017 . 
3. ^ Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia , judgment of September 14, 2016, Az .: 1 A 2359/14, jurion.de .
4. ↑ Hasnain Kazim: Missing “Gorch Fock” cadet: “One hand for the ship, one hand for yourself”. In: Spiegel Online . September 4, 2008, accessed October 1, 2016 . 
5. ↑ John Goetz, Frank Hornig, Andreas Wassermann and Antje Windmann: Das Geisterschiff . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 2011, p. 40-45 ( Online - May 7, 2011 ).
6. ↑ Parents of the "Gorch-Fock" cadet Böken deny naval information. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH, October 25, 2019, accessed on October 25, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Doctors and friends talk: ARD documentary about dead "Gorch Fock" cadet raises new questions. In: Focus Online. April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Press release 11/2012 of the Schleswig Higher Regional Court , accessed on April 6, 2017.
9. ↑ OLG Schleswig, decision of June 12, 2012 - 1 Ws 183/12 (97/12). In: burhoff.de. June 12, 2012, accessed August 6, 2019 . 
10. ↑ OLG Schleswig, decision of June 12, 2012 - 1 Ws 203/12 113/12. In: burhoff.de. June 12, 2012, accessed August 6, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Order of the Federal Constitutional Court of October 6, 2014, 2 BvR 1568/12 , accessed on April 6, 2017.
12. ↑ Frank Behling: Witness should initiate proceedings. Kiel News, September 5, 2018.
13. ↑ dpa-infocom GmbH: prosecutor questioned new witness in the case, Jenny Böken welt.de 7 June 2019
14. ^ Ansgar Siemens: Death of Gorch-Fock-Kadettin: Public Prosecutor's Office resumes investigations into the Jenny Böken case . In: Spiegel Online , June 7, 2019, accessed June 7, 2019.
15. ↑ New investigations in the case of Jenny Böken stopped again. In: welt.de , November 26, 2019.
16. ↑ Attorney General rejects the parents' complaint , spiegel.de July 31, 2020
17. ↑ Jenny Böken's parents are suing for compensation. Aachener Zeitung , December 10, 2013, accessed on May 7, 2014.
18. ↑ Administrative Court Aachen , judgment of October 22, 2014, Az. 1 K 2995/13, openjur.de , accessed April 6, 2017; Parents of “Gorch Fock” cadet fail with lawsuit. Die Welt , October 23, 2014, accessed February 4, 2016 . 
19. ↑ § 63a SVG in the version valid before and after December 13, 2011 at buzer.de
20. ↑ "Gorch Fock" medic: Cadet Jenny Böken was often in the hospital. In: shz.de , September 14, 2016.
21. ↑ Oral hearing due to death on the Gorch Fock on September 14, 2016. Press release of the OVG. August 29, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2016 . 
22. ^ Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia, judgment of September 14, 2016, Az .: 1 A 2359/14, jurion.de ; OVG press release ( memento of April 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed April 6, 2017; Dead "Gorch Fock" cadet: court dismisses parents' complaint. In: Spiegel Online. September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2016 . 
23. ^ Dpa : Dead "Gorch Fock" cadet: Parents waive further complaints. In: Spiegel Online , October 31, 2016.
24. ↑ of Honor commemorating the Bundeswehr. Marine Press and Information Center, September 5, 2014, accessed September 8, 2014 . 
25. ↑ Brief portrait of the foundation event. Retrieved September 28, 2016 . 
26. ↑ Martin Schulte: Death on the "Gorch Fock". Jenny Böken - a case for two films. Flensburger Tageblatt , February 27, 2017, accessed on March 5, 2017 .