Odette Maniema Krempin

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Odette Maniema Krempin and Roberto Cavalli (2008)

Odette Maniema Krempin (born October 30, 1971 in Kasika, Sud-Kivu Province , Zaire ; † June 29, 2016 in Goma , Democratic Republic of the Congo ) (also Odette Princess Maniema Krempin ) was temporarily an honorary consul of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Frankfurt am Main and President of the Société Miniére du Maniema . First known in the press as a philanthropist , she was later involved in several scandals that challenged her charitable and business activities.

Life

Odette Maniema was born in Kasika, a place near the provincial capital Bukavu in the eastern Congolese Sud-Kivu . The family are Tutsis who lived on both sides of Lake Kiwu in the Congo and Rwanda and she grew up with her mother in Rwanda.

According to her own information, she was the third of five daughters and came from an African noble family from the 16th century, whose ancestry goes back to the Luba kingdom. This parentage, which led her to put the title "Princesse" in front of her name, was not confirmed. Her own biographical information was also made up, stating that she grew up in Paris and trained as a seamstress there and received further training as a textile designer in Marrakech . She had the ideas for this after a vacation in the two cities.

In late 1993, at the age of 22, she won the title of Beauty Queen in the Rwandan capital of Kigali . When the genocide against the Tutsis began in Rwanda in the spring of 1994 , she lived with her future German husband in Kimuhura, a settlement near Kigali. As a Congolese, she was able to leave Rwanda with him in a US car convoy three days after the killing began. Many of her relatives fell victim to the genocide .

In 2010, she stated that she had taken over a mine in the Congo from her father.

Krempin had a daughter in the Congo who grew up with her grandmother, a son in Germany, an adopted son from the Congo and a grandchild.

Allegations and scandals

Krempin was chairwoman of the German-African Youth Office. V., which was founded in 2006 with start-up capital of 200,000 euros. According to its own statements, the company renovated four schools in the Congo and sponsored school fees for 150 children. With language, culture and dance projects she wanted to contribute to the integration of African children and families into German society. The now deleted association was suspected of fraudulent donations.

More scandals and allegations followed. She was stripped of her title of consul. The title of "princess" used by her has also been questioned. In 2012, Krempin took an oath of disclosure, according to an indictment from 2015 this is said to have been untrue. In 2015, a criminal court sentenced her to a fine of 15,000 euros after she failed to appear as a defendant in a trial about an unpaid tradesman's bill.

Together with her partner Stefan De Witte, Krempin disappeared in 2014, wanted by the Belgian police in connection with the Duferco corruption scandal, which led to several arrests and the resignation of Serge Kubla as mayor of the Belgian city of Waterloo .

death

At the beginning of July 2016, the Bild newspaper reported that Krempin had died in a hospital in Goma . At the end of July 2016, Bild published a report about doubts about Krempin's death and thus about its own report a few weeks earlier. The hospital bill, which the paper saw as evidence of death, is said to have been forged. Bild then suggested that Krempen had faked her death.

For the radio documentary The Congo Princess by Lorenz Schröter , published in 2018 , the author - together with Krempin's biological children - met the doctor who had issued Krempin's death certificate in the Hôpital Général von Goma. This personally confirmed Krempin's death. She suffered from the immune deficiency AIDS and contracted tuberculosis , from the consequences of which she died on June 29, 2016 after severe weight loss.

Krempin was buried in a cemetery in Goma, which is opposite the airport .

An alleged existing will was not found. It is also not known what happened to Krempin's personal assets, such as her Ferrari with personalized interiors and other valuables, before or after her death.

Radio documentation

From the end of September to the end of October 2018, WDR 5 broadcast a two and a half hour radio documentary by journalist Lorenz Schröter about Krempin in five episodes. Schröter met Krempin's German ex-husband in 2005 on a trip to Ethiopia . After Krempin's disappearance and presumed death, he began to trace her bizarre life and disappearance. In the feature, for which he researched in Germany, Belgium, Congo and France, in addition to Krempin's ex-husband, her biological children, former employees and business partners, donors, former lovers, mine workers as well as public prosecutors and officials who deal with Krempin's business conduct and to deal with the various allegations.

Web links

Commons : Odette Maniema Krempin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Lorenz Schröter : The Congo Princess, 5-part feature series. WDR 5 , August 1, 2018, accessed November 6, 2018 . ( Archive wdr.de with MP3)
  2. ↑ a b "Like in a bad movie" - Princess counters donation allegations , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 10, 2009. Retrieved July 8, 2016. 
  3. ↑ a b Not a princess at all? , Frankfurter Rundschau. December 11, 2009. Retrieved July 8, 2016. 
  4. ↑ FAZ : Portrait: Odette Maniema Krempin from July 21, 2009
  5. ↑ Thomas Ruhmöller: Return of a Princess Neue Frankfurter Presse, August 17, 2012, accessed on November 16, 2017.
  6. ↑ continents : Startkapital ( Memento from September 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (link to the issue. Contents themselves are not completely online), ISSN  0173-5810
  7. ^ Paved beach : from September 30, 2009 ( Memento from October 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Hessian state government : Response to the urgent report application regarding the German African Youth Organization. V. - Printed matter 18/1762 ( Memento from September 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 22 kB)
  9. ↑ Honorary consul in sight ( Memento from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Frankfurter Rundschau from December 23, 2009
  10. ↑ Odette Krempin is afraid , Frankfurter Neue Presse. March 25, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2016. 
  11. ↑ a b Beautiful princess skipped criminal trial , Bild-Zeitung. April 15, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2016. 
  12. ^ Affaire Duferco: Stephan De Witte at-il organisé sa disparition au Congo? . Radio Télévision Belge Francophone. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  13. ↑ Belgium detains steel executives on suspicion of Congo bribery , Reuters. March 17, 2015. Accessed July 8, 2016. 
  14. ↑ The mysterious death of the Congo princess Odette. In: bild.de. July 8, 2016, accessed November 6, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Is Odette alive ?! In: bild.de. July 27, 2016, accessed November 6, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Maniema Krempin, Odette
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maniema, Odette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Congolese honorary consul in Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Kasika, Sud-Kivu , Zaire
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 2016
Place of death Goma , Democratic Republic of the Congo