Markus Wilhelm

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Markus Wilhelm (born April 30, 1956 in Sölden in the Ötztal ) is a Tyrolean publicist, environmental activist and mountain farmer . Wilhelm became known throughout Austria through his disputes with the Tyrolean electricity company TIWAG , which led to a series of lawsuits since 1988.

Live and act

Markus Wilhelm graduated from the Episcopal Gymnasium Paulinum in Schwaz and, after a detour to the Mozarteum in Salzburg (acting and directing), studied a few semesters (German and philosophy) at the University of Innsbruck .

Together with Felix Mitterer , Hans Haid and Bert Breit, he founded the cultural and political magazine Föhn (1978–1982) in Innsbruck , of which he was editor until 1980. From 1984 to 1998 Wilhelm single-handedly revived the Föhn , this time with a political orientation as an "educational medium about events in Tyrolean politics and economy" with a combination of meticulously researched facts and tough polemics. Since 2004, Wilhelm published on the homepage dietiwag.at which first on the side because of a name dispute with TIWAG dietiwag.org moved, but now is also directly accessible again.

According to the newspaper Der Standard , Markus Wilhelm has “been an important player on the Tyrolean political scene for years. On his side [...] he denounces the politics of the Tyrolean People's Party and the links with the state-owned Tiwag, reveals corruption and nepotism ”. He tells his "stories with explosive power" "rich in detail and files". The meticulous “researcher and polemical-hearted formulator” explains his success with the fact that he has earned a high level of trust over decades. This trust works in order not to be a fake when handing over hot information and further research with others . Wilhelm then lead the information and the politicians concerned in an artistic form of acting and directing work in a new visibility or intensification . He rearranges the sets of figures on a stage. Even if he spends a lot of time and takes risks, he looks for a discussion with those affected, in the sense of a process-oriented uncovering of connections; if necessary also in court . In the event that the dialogue was refused , Wilhelm usually had additional sentences from the attacked person in the talon . The conservative Tiroler Tageszeitung reported on Wilhelm's dispute with Gustav Kuhn and his sponsor Hans Peter Haselsteiner , but, unlike all other newspapers in the German-speaking area, avoided naming Wilhelm's name until the end of May 2018. For them he's just "a blogger".

Markus Wilhelm lives and works in Sölden in the Ötztal.

Awards

Arguments

TIWAG

Wilhelm's disputes with TIWAG led to a number of lawsuits since 1988. For the "attempt to silence a critic", the TIWAG CEO was honored with the Big Brother Award 2008 in the business and finance category. Wilhelm first criticized the influence of German electricity companies on the Vorarlberg and Tyrolean energy markets in the Föhn magazine and was then sued by TIWAG for credit damage, which, however, lost in two instances.

His own website dietiwag.at , later dietiwag.org , which enables him to reach a broader interested public directly with little use of resources, became an important instrument in the dispute with the state energy supplier . On this he published confidential business contracts between American consortia and TIWAG, which sold 14 of their 15 largest power plants to the former between 2001 and 2003 using cross-border leasing , a controversial and risky "tax-saving model" and then leased them back. Wilhelm advertised the new homepage with an advertisement the size of a matchbox in the Tyrolean daily newspaper ; the public criticism of governor van Staa of the procedure multiplied the advertising effectiveness.

TIWAG sued for an omission of disclosure of trade secrets with a value in dispute of 510,000 euros, but also lost here in September 2008 in the first instance. The dispute over the domain dietiwag.at (according to Wilhelm, an acronym for "The Tyrolean Initiative We All Together") had already been resolved. The power company was able to temporarily block the domain and the homepage had to move to the dietiwag.org domain . After a court decision, however, the domain dietiwag.at is now again owned by Wilhelm and is now forwarded to dietiwag.org .

Over the years, the guerrilla war gained more and more facets. Wilhelm accused a leading TIWAG employee of links to the red light district; TIWAG then hired detectives to investigate leaks in the company. In connection with the construction of power plants, the Alpine Association also came into Wilhelm's field of fire, which he accuses of only channeling environmental protests in order to ultimately stifle them. In the course of this dispute, he discovered in 2008 that the head of the Regional Planning and Nature Conservation department of the OeAV wrongly carries his academic title.

Federation of Industrialists

In 1991, Wilhelm uncovered the flow of money from the Federation of Industrialists in the direction of the ÖVP and FPÖ in an edition of Föhn .

Herwig van Staa

His publication of a tape recording of a speech by the then Tyrolean Governor Herwig van Staa in September 2007 caused a stir , which is supposed to prove that van Staa called the former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer a "pig". In this case, Wilhelm initially lost and was sentenced to a fine of 980 euros. The guilty verdict was subsequently overturned by the Innsbruck Higher Regional Court and sent back to the first instance. In January 2010, Wilhelm was finally acquitted of the suspicion of defamation by the Innsbruck Regional Court and in October 2010 by the Appeals Senate of the Innsbruck Higher Regional Court.

Gustav Kuhn

In February 2018, Wilhelm published accusations by anonymous people against the artistic director of the Tyrolean Festival Erl Gustav Kuhn on his blog . Kuhn was accused of "wage dumping", "corruption" and "sexual harassment" as part of his work for the Erl Festival. With a lawsuit against Markus Wilhelm at the Innsbruck Regional Court, Kuhn obtained an injunction that obliged Wilhelm to remove the allegations from his website. This and other proceedings are pending. At the end of July 2018, Kuhn publicly announced that he would "withdraw for the time being" from his commitment to the Erl Festival, which will run until 2020, until the allegations have been clarified. An open letter signed by several musicians corroborated the suspicions.

In March 2018, Wilhelm published excerpts from Kuhn's philosophical dissertation and raised allegations of plagiarism.

Dominik scrap

On 21 August 2018 William revealed irregularities in a competition, which the later ÖVP -Nationalratsabgeordneten Dominik scrap ahead of the national elections in 2017 had been carried out. The irregularity was that Schrott and his election campaign agency had selected a person as the “winner” who was employed by this agency. In addition, a similar process is said to have been carried out in a competition for the “Zillertal Trachtenwelten” at the beginning of 2018. Subsequently, funding from the State of Tyrol in the amount of 24,000 euros was also highlighted, for which, according to Wilhelm, no service was provided.

The discoveries led to Austria-wide reporting and calls for resignation from other parties and the ÖVP. On August 26, 2018, Schrott announced his resignation from all functions. On September 7th, Schrott announced that he would repay the funding of 24,000 euros in full. The responsible state councilor Beate Palfrader had previously announced that due to a lack of evidence of the use of the funds, a considerable part of the funding would have to be repaid.

literature

  • Ingrid Brodnig : Portrait. Mucking out in the stable and in politics. The mountain farmer and investigator Markus Wilhelm points out grievances in conservative Tyrol. Summer series HEIMWÄRTS 3rd station Tyrol, nine personalities from the federal states, Falter 30/2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Plaikner: The Farmer as Researcher ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2016 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. (PDF; 238 kB) The Austrian Journalist, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.altneuland.at
  2. ↑ Sebastian Pumberger: Dietiwag blogger: I am a sharpener by profession. Der Standard, April 26, 2013
  3. ↑ Katharina Lau: The farmer as uncoverer. internetszene.at, April 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ Sebastian Pumberger: Dietiwag blogger: I am a sharpener by profession. Der Standard, April 26, 2013.
  5. ↑ Hans Kirchmeyr: Markus Wilhelm: He whose name may not be mentioned in Tyrol. kobuk, accessed October 10, 2018 .
  6. ^ Claus Gatterer Prize for Markus Wilhelm. In: ORF.at . Retrieved July 2, 2019 .
  7. ↑ But no Gatterer Prize for Wilhelm. In: ORF.at . August 28, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  8. ↑ http://www.bigbrotherawards.at/2008/Preistraeger
  9. ↑ DATE ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2013 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. Florian Gasser: The farmer as a rebel , date 03/2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.date.at
  10. ↑ ZEIT-ONLINE Edith Meinhart: Berge unter Strom , p. 510, 26/2006.
  11. ↑ a b Edith Meinhart: Der Zuspitzer ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 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. (PDF; 339 kB) PROFIL, edition of September 1, 2008, pp. 28–29 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.altneuland.at
  12. ↑ WIRTSCHAFTSBLATT Michael Riedler: Tiwag sues online activists for 500,000 euros , issue March 23, 2005, online source accessed on October 20, 2008
  13. ↑ heise.de of October 7, 2008: Daniel AJ Sokolov: Tiroler Wasserkraft: Silence lawsuit against online critics dismissed , accessed on October 23, 2008.
  14. ↑ heise.de of June 9, 2005: Daniel AJ Sokolov: TIWAG critic gets domain dietiwag.at back , accessed on October 23, 2008
  15. ↑ tirol.orf.at of March 29, 2008: The detective agency's search was unsuccessful , accessed on October 20, 2008.
  16. ↑ Alpine Club: "Herr Magister" is not one at all. Retrieved May 17, 2015 .
  17. ↑ KURIER of October 17, 2008: "Schwein-Sager: Triumph for Van Staa" ( Memento of October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  18. ↑ ORF2 Robert Gordon: Bizarre or scandal? , REPORT October 28, 2008.
  19. ↑ The Standard of November 27, 2009: "Verdict of Guilty Repealed in the" Pig Sager "Trial," accessed November 27, 2009.
  20. ^ The Standard Higher Regional Court confirms Markus Wilhelm's acquittal, (APA) October 14, 2010
  21. ^ Allegations against the Erl Festival, in: derstandard.at (February 27, 2018) .
  22. ^ Causa Erl: Allegations must be taken from the network - tirol.ORF.at. Retrieved March 3, 2018 .
  23. ↑ Kuhn withdraws: The Götterdämmerung of the “Erlkönig” - www.tt.com. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
  24. ^ Open letter to the President of the Tyrolean Festival Erl . In: OTS.at . ( ots.at [accessed on July 28, 2018]).
  25. ↑ Open letter: Massive allegations against Kuhn . July 25, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed July 28, 2018]).
  26. ↑ 1969 Gustav Kuhn wrote his dissertation. Ab. Over long distances. dietiwag.at, March 12, 2018.
  27. ↑ die tiwag.org - Perhaps the most mendacious copy of the turquoise political troupe. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 27, 2018 ; accessed on August 27, 2018 . 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 / dietiwag.org
  28. ↑ the tiwag.org - diary. Retrieved August 27, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Scrap under attack for fake competition . August 21, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed August 27, 2018]).
  30. ↑ Briefly on the case of scrap: "Very dishonest" . August 22, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed August 27, 2018]).
  31. ↑ Resignation . In: Dominik Schrott . August 26, 2018 ( dominik-schrott.at [accessed on August 28, 2018]).
  32. ↑ Dominik Schrott resigns . August 26, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed August 27, 2018]).
  33. ↑ Scrap resignation: Opposition demands clarification . August 27, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed August 27, 2018]).
  34. ↑ Tyrolean ÖVP member Schrott resigns mandate - derStandard.at. Retrieved August 27, 2018 .
  35. ↑ Scrap has to repay subsidies . September 7, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed September 7, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Wilhelm, Markus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian publicist, environmental activist and mountain farmer
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Soelden