Kurt Machens

Kurt Machens (2008)

Kurt Machens (born September 18, 1954 in Hildesheim ) is a German politician and specialist in surgery . He was Lord Mayor of the city of Hildesheim until January 31, 2014 with an intermittent break . As the main actor in the so-called Pecunia non olet affair , he hit the headlines nationwide.

Life and work

After graduating from the Episcopal Gymnasium Josephinum in Hildesheim , Machens first studied medicine in Essen and Göttingen and then worked as a trauma surgeon . In 2003 he completed an additional course in " Total Quality Management " at the University of Kaiserslautern and switched from an active accident surgeon to the quality management officer at the Hildesheim St. Bernward Hospital.

Machens is married and has three children. He is a member and old man of the Catholic student union A.V. Palatia Göttingen in Cartellverband and was to hold office until the full-time mayor Oberfeldarzt the reserve of the Armed Forces . His brother Klaus-Michael Machens was the director of Hanover Zoo .

Kurt Machens worked for TUI Cruises as a ship's doctor on Mein Schiff 6 in 2017 .

Political career

Machens joined the CDU as a teenager and was initially involved in the Student Union and the Young Union .

In 1986 he moved to the Hildesheim City Council for the first time. In 1991 he was elected honorary mayor of the city of Hildesheim. He held this office until November 4, 2002, when he was dismissed by the city council at the request of his own parliamentary group in connection with the so-called "Pecunia non olet" affair (see below). He had previously refused to resign. Ulrich Kumme (CDU) became the new mayor .

Machens stood as a candidate for the newly founded " Alliance for Hildesheim (Alliance!) " For the first direct elections for the full-time Mayor of the City of Hildesheim (see single track ) . On October 2, 2005, he won the runoff election against Ulrich Kumme (CDU) with 54.9 percent of the votes cast. He took office on February 1, 2006.

On September 22, 2013 Machens lost the mayoral election against the also non-party candidate Ingo Meyer . Kurt Machens handed over the official duties on February 1, 2014.

The "Pecunia non olet" affair

Kurt Machens was deselected as honorary mayor in 2002 in the wake of corruption allegations that were brought against him and which had led to the prosecution being charged with gross bribery. The affair must also be seen in connection with long-simmering political and personal conflicts between Machens and several internal CDU opponents (including Lower Saxony's former finance minister Hartmut Möllring ).

Machens, together with six other people from his environment, including two CDU council members, founded a registered association called Pecunia no ( Latin Pecunia non olet , `` money doesn't stink ''), the main purpose of which was to collect donations. The association members alone decided on the use of the collected funds, which benefited cultural, sporting and social institutions and schools in Hildesheim. The city council, the administration and the public were not informed or involved in the decisions about the award. This was always denied by Machens, however, and at the main hearing several witnesses also testified that the former city director and the former CDU parliamentary group chairman knew about the association. However, there was no solid evidence. Machens' critics later evaluated this fact as evidence of their view that the mayor used his support in the Hildesheim population to bypass the party and council bodies to pursue " landlord-style politics ".

In 2000, a consortium made up of the companies Ruhrgas Energie Beteiligungs-AG (subsidiary of Ruhrgas AG, today E.ON Ruhrgas ) and Thüga AG (subsidiary of E.ON AG, today E.ON Ruhrgas) formed the "Pecunia" association Sum of one million DM available. During the same period, both companies had acquired shares in Hildesheimer Stadtwerke , whose supervisory board chairman was Machens at the time. The public prosecutor's office assumed a direct connection and brought charges against Machens and two public utility managers for bribery.

In the spring of 2005, all three defendants were acquitted of the allegations by the Hildesheim Regional Court . Machens then declared his candidacy for the office of full-time mayor of the city of Hildesheim. Since the CDU had already nominated another candidate in Ulrich Kumme at this point, Machens took up the position of applicant for the “Alliance!”, Whereupon he was to be excluded from the CDU. Before it got that far, Machens left the CDU himself.

On May 11, 2006, the acquittal on appeal by the public prosecutor's office was lifted again by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). On March 21, 2007, by order of the BGH, a new trial began before the commercial criminal chamber at the Göttingen regional court , in the course of which the proceedings against Machens' co-defendants were discontinued . Machens himself was sentenced to six months imprisonment on July 12, 2007 for infidelity at the expense of the city of Hildesheim, which the court suspended. As a condition of probation, the judges set a payment of 5,000 euros to the state treasury in accordance with Section 56b , Paragraph 2, No. 4 of the Criminal Code . He initially appealed against the judgment, but later withdrew it. Nevertheless, he feels that the judgment is "unjust".

According to Lower Saxony's civil service law , Machens could remain in office, although he was considered a criminal record. An electoral officer in Lower Saxony is only threatened with an automatic impeachment of one year or more. Machens ruled out a resignation shortly after the reasons for the judgment: The citizens knew about the Pecunia trial and voted for him anyway.

swell

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 23, 2014 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. , accessed November 7, 2013 
2. ↑ Jens Krömer: With "Doc" Machens across the Atlantic . Ed .: Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung . Gerstenberg Verlag , Hildesheim October 21, 2017 ( hildesheimer-allgemeine.de [accessed October 25, 2017]).
3. ^ Minutes of the meeting of the Hildesheim City Council on November 4, 2002
4. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.gerstenberg.com/haz2005/index.php?urlart=8223  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Press release of the Federal Court of Justice No. 74/2006
6. ^ BGH judgment of May 11, 2006
7. ↑ "Lord Mayor finally has peace", in: taz.de of October 17, 2007
8. ↑ "The judgment - a signal from the court", in: Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung of July 13, 2007

predecessor	Office	successor
Gerold Klemke	Lord Mayor of Hildesheim 1991–2002	Ulrich Kumme
Ulrich Kumme	Lord Mayor of Hildesheim 2006–2014	Ingo Meyer