Leo Wagner

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Leo Wagner (born March 13, 1919 in Munich ; † November 8, 2006 in Günzburg ) was a German politician ( CSU ). For many years he was one of the closest friends of the CSU chief Franz Josef Strauss .

education and profession

After graduating from high school in 1937, Leo Wagner studied at the University for Teacher Training in Munich and took part in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945 . From 1945 to 1961 he was a teacher and headmaster.

Party and public office

Leo Wagner (1973, from left), Richard Stücklen , Gerhard Schröder , Wilhelm Rawe

In 1946 Wagner became chairman of the CSU district association in Günzburg, which he co-founded in 1945 with the support of Fritz Schäffer . In 1948 he took over the office of deputy district administrator . He was a member of the town council of Günzburg between 1949 and 1964, the Schwaben District Assembly from 1954 to 1962, where he also held the office of parliamentary group chairman. In 1956 he became the second mayor of Günzburg. He headed the CSU district association of Swabia from 1961 to 1973.

From 1961 to 1976 Wagner was a member of the German Bundestag , where he was parliamentary director of the CSU regional group between 1963 and 1975 . After the Spiegel affair in 1962 and the resignation of Franz Josef Strauss , Wagner "paved the way for Strauss [back] to the cabinet table in 1966 in the party , the regional group and among the coalition partners ". After 14 months as a member of parliament, Wagner was elected parliamentary manager in January 1963 at the same state group meeting in which Strauss returned to office with the election of state group chairman. In 1968 Wagner was the editor of a collection of Strauss' speeches in the Bundestag. From 1971 to 1975 Wagner was one of the five parliamentary directors of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group , of which from 1972 the first.

After Wagner helped found the German-Korean parliamentary group in 1965, he founded the German-Korean Society in 1966 together with Max Adenauer and the Bonn publisher Hermann Pfatteicher , of which he became president and later honorary president. Together with Gunter Sachs , he founded the “Flammenpfennig” association in 1967. a. was supposed to raise money for the organizing committee of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich by selling records .

In the autumn of 1973, the business magazine Capital reported in a series of articles on "The Strange Businesses of MP Leo W.", according to which Wagner allegedly misused his mandate for loans. Wagner's seven-figure debts are said to have resulted from high spending on his lifestyle and night club visits. After bills of exchange and checks issued by him at the beginning of 1975 failed, on January 29, 1975 he asked for a leave of absence from his offices. The following day, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was taken to a hospital by his lawyer. On February 20, 1975, he declared in writing that he waived his mandate, which could not be recognized due to insanity. On February 26, 1975, he filed a voluntary report on suspicion of fraud and resigned from his post as parliamentary manager. In December 1980, Wagner was sentenced to 18 months probation for credit fraud .

No confidence in 1972 and Stasi connection

According to a report by the news magazine Der Spiegel in November 2000, Wagner is said to have been the second Union MP, alongside CDU MP Julius Steiner , who abstained from the constructive vote of no confidence against Willy Brandt in 1972 . Like Steiner, he had received DM 50,000 from the Stasi for abstaining from voting. He was also an unofficial employee (IM) of the Stasi under the code name “Lion” . Wagner denied this, however. The allegations raised by the news magazine Stern in 1975 were picked up again by the press in 2005 and 2006. Among others, the Stasi researcher and former director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, Hubertus Knabe, tried to draw conclusions about a bribery of Wagner in the 1972 vote of no confidence from the rosewood files that were made scientifically accessible from 2003 . Historical research came to the conclusion that it could be assumed that Wagner had been bribed with 50,000 DM by the Stasi on the occasion of the 1972 no-confidence vote. It is certain that Wagner was skimmed off by the Stasi in the period from 1976 to 1983, although it cannot be conclusively determined here whether this happened knowingly or ignorantly.

The former Stasi officer Horst Kopp stated in his 2016 memoir that he had carried out the order to bribe Wagner; the central intelligence administration (HVA) had been informed of his permanent financial shortage. The journalist Georg Fleissman established the contact as early as 1969. Fleissman worked as IM "Dürer" since 1966 for the HVA. Wagner was also a member of the Bundestag contact committee for the Bahr-Kohl talks from 1970 to 1973 in preparation for the basic treaty .

In the documentary film The Secrets of Beautiful Leo , Leo Wagner's grandson and HFF Munich graduate Benedikt Schwarzer retraced the life story of Leo Wagner in 2018, the film premiered at DOK.fest Munich.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wagner, Leo - Lexicon. Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation , accessed on November 15, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Michael Salbaum: The history of the CSU . Ed .: CSU district association Günzburg. CSU district association Günzburg, Günzburg 1998.
  3. ^ Munzinger-Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg: Leo Wagner - Munzinger biography. Retrieved October 29, 2018 .
  4. ^ Andreas Zellhuber (editing), Tim B. Peters (editing): The CSU regional group in the German Bundestag. Minutes of meetings 1949–1972 . In: Sources on the history of parliamentarism and political parties . tape 15 / I , fourth row. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-7700-5307-0 , p. LIII .
  5. ↑ Ulrich Blank: Ready for the second freestyle for Strauss? In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 13, 1966, p. 13 .
  6. ↑ Peter Schindler: 30 Years of the German Bundestag: Documentation, Statistics, Data . Bonner Universitätsdruckerei, Bonn 1979, p. 116 .
  7. ^ Franz Josef Strauss: Speeches in the Bundestag . Ed .: Leo Wagner. AZ Studio, Pfattheicher & Reichardt, Bonn 1968.
  8. ^ Pennies on the plate . In: ZEIT ONLINE . January 3, 1969 ( zeit.de [accessed October 2, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Michael H. Spreng, Richard Voelkel: One Million Debts: High Bavarian Politician Insane . In: BILD . No. 45/8 , February 22, 1975.
  10. ↑ Thrusts in the night . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1975 ( online - Feb. 24, 1975 ).
  11. ↑ Into the wind . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 1975 ( online - Mar. 3, 1975 ).
  12. ^ Gerhard Mauz : Until my breakdown ... In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1980 ( online - 20 October 1980 ).
  13. ^ Gerhard Mauz : He had miserable company . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1980 ( online - 15 December 1980 ).
  14. ↑ CSU spy exposed . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 2000 ( online - Nov. 27, 2000 ).
  15. ↑ Rumors from Bonn: Who was the 2nd man? In: Stern . No. 13 , March 24, 1975, pp. 179 .
  16. ^ Greetings from East Berlin . In: Cicero Online . ( cicero.de [accessed October 2, 2018]).
  17. ↑ No confidence vote against Brandt: Stasi cards reveal the last secret . In: Spiegel Online . December 22, 2005 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 2, 2018]).
  18. ↑ Rolf Kleine , Einar Koch , Julia Topar : Secret "Rosenholz" file published: Stasi denounced Strauss as a mass murderer. BILD , August 2, 2006, accessed November 15, 2009 .
  19. ↑ Georg Herbstritt: German citizens in the service of GDR espionage: an analytical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35021-8 , pp. 144 .
  20. ↑ Andreas Grau: In Search of the Missing Votes 1972. On the aftermath of the failed no-confidence vote (PDF) May 7, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  21. ↑ a b BStU : The German Bundestag 1949 to 1989 in the files of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR. Report to the German Bundestag in accordance with Section 37 (3) of the Stasi Records Act, Berlin 2013, p. 265ff. ( PDF ( Memento of November 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )).
  22. ↑ Horst Kopp: The disinformant. Memories of a GDR secret service agent . Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2016.
  23. ^ Daniela Münkel, scout as vote buyer. Horst Kopp and the vote of no confidence against Willy Brandt in April 1972. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 16, 2017, p. 8.
  24. ↑ Till Hofmann: Director Benedikt Schwarzer: The grandson of the "beautiful Leo". Augsburger Allgemeine , January 16, 2019, accessed on January 17, 2019 .
  25. ↑ The secrets of the beautiful Leo at DOK.fest Munich
  26. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 43, March 9, 1973.
  27. ↑ Leo Wagner celebrated stormy in Korea . In: Günzburger Zeitung . No. 69, March 23, 1973, p. 22.
personal data
SURNAME Wagner, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CSU), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Gunzburg
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 2006
Place of death Gunzburg