Otto Brixner

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Otto Brixner (* 1943 ) is a German lawyer. He was presiding judge of the 7th criminal chamber at the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court .

He became known to the public as the presiding judge of the Grand Criminal Chamber, which in 2006 ordered Gustl Mollath to be placed in a psychiatric hospital in accordance with Section 63 of the Criminal Code . Mollath had to spend there over seven years.

In 2011, media research raised doubts about the allegations against Mollath and the rule of law of the trial. In 2014, the Regional Court of Regensburg ruled the case again as part of retrial . It came to the conclusion that the legal requirements for the briefing of the accused, as accepted by the criminal chamber of the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court chaired by Brixner, did not exist at the time of the decision of the Regensburg regional court. The Regional Court of Regensburg therefore awarded Mollath compensation for the duration of his placement.

Live and act

Otto Brixner is the son of a couple of innkeepers who ran the train station restaurant in Herrenberg in the 1950s and 1960s . As a teenager, Brixner was considered a great handball talent. He sprinted the 100 meters in 11.2 seconds. Brixner was an active handball player in the 1st team of 1. FC Nürnberg , TSV 1860 Ansbach and TSV 1891 Frauenaurach. For many years he also coached the women's handball team at 1. FC Nürnberg. Brixner was also the coach of the Bavarian handball C-youth until 1991.

After completing his military service in the German Armed Forces , Brixner studied law . On April 1, 1973 Brixner began his service as a public prosecutor in the Bavarian Justice Service, he worked as a public prosecutor for three years.

In 1976, Brixen became a judge at the Erlangen district court . There he worked on both criminal and civil cases.

In October 1987 Brixner moved to the Nuremberg-Fürth district court. There, too, he worked as a judge in both criminal and civil cases.

After his appointment as presiding judge at the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court, Brixner initially took over the chairmanship of the 6th small criminal chamber in July 1998 , which was primarily concerned with appeals in criminal cases involving narcotics . Most recently he was chairman of the 7th major criminal chamber and was therefore responsible for narcotics criminal cases and general criminal cases of the first instance.

According to his own statement, Brixner never used the instrument of understanding in criminal proceedings (so-called deal in terms of punishment). In interviews, Brixner asked the legislature to abolish life sentences and instead introduce staggered sentences of up to 40 years in prison.

At the end of June 2008, Brixner retired.

Brixner was with Christa Brixner, geb. Hofbauer, (1946–2013) married. The couple has two children and four grandchildren. Brixner lives in Herzogenaurach . He is a lieutenant colonel in the reserve.

Main hearing against Gustl Mollath and conviction

In 2006 the 7th major criminal chamber of the Nuremberg Regional Court , chaired by Brixner, was responsible for the case of Gustl Mollath . The Nuremberg District Court had referred the proceedings against Mollath, which had been pending there since 2003, for bodily harm to the detriment of his wife and property damage , because it considered Mollath to be placed in psychiatry as possible. The chamber acquitted Mollath in August 2006 for incapacity , but ordered his placement in accordance with Section 63 of the Criminal Code in psychiatry. He suffers from a paranoid madness that revolves around black money shifts, in which his wife in particular is involved. Since 2003, Mollath had therefore repeatedly filed criminal charges and made allegations of criminal offenses against himself and of irregularities in his proceedings that were not investigated. It was not until 2012 that an internal audit report from Hypovereinsbank from 2003 became known, which confirmed large parts of Mollath's allegations of black money. Mollath's defense attorney Gerhard Strate , who had previously unsuccessfully tried to get Mollath released from psychiatry, succeeded in resuming the case in August 2013 . The regional court of Regensburg , which was responsible for the retrial , finally came to the conclusion that the requirements for (further) placement in psychiatry were not met.

These events generated considerable public debate because of the mistakes made by those responsible at all levels of the main proceedings. The main reason why Mollath's criminal complaints were inconclusive was that he had previously been suspected. One of the reasons why a 106-page folder submitted by him as a defense was classified as an "abstruse hodgepodge" was because his wife submitted a letter from her treating psychotherapist almost at the same time , in which she suspected Mollath's mental illness. In the context of the then public controversy, further allegations against Brixner were loud. The lay judges and witnesses present in 2006 reported that he had acted uncontrollably in the course of his litigation and, in particular, interrupted Mollath whenever he came up with the suspicions of illegal money shifts that were not the subject of the proceedings. He also had not taken note of Mollath's 106-page defense at all. The latter confirmed Brixner in May 2017 before an investigative committee of the Bavarian state parliament . This committee of inquiry finally came to the conclusion that no decision-maker in connection with Mollath's placement could be proven to have acted with gross negligence or willful misconduct, emphasizing that the committee of inquiry upholds the independence of the judiciary and therefore does not examine the correctness of court decisions.

In the ZDF television film Gefangen - Der Fall K. with Jan-Josef Liefers in the leading role, the case of Gustl Mollath was filmed in 2018. The main character, based on Mollath, bears the name Sebastian "Wastl" Kronach , with the role of judge Brixner (name in the film: Franz Streibl) being played by Francis Fulton-Smith .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Full text of the judgment of the Regional Court of Regensburg from August 14, 2014, Az. 6 KLs 151 Js 4111/2013 WA
  2. ^ Acquittal for Gustl Mollath ; in: Spiegel Online from August 14, 2014
  3. ↑ a b acquittal and compensation for Gustl Mollath ; in: Der Tagesspiegel from August 14, 2014
  4. ↑ a b c d The judge did not agree to an agreement ; in: nordbayern.de from May 7, 2008
  5. ↑ A judge with a tough shell: Otto Brixner ended his legal career after 35 years. Nordbayern.de, May 15, 2008, accessed on September 8, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Courageous judge demands: Lock up serious criminals longer! ; in: Abendzeitung München Online from May 15, 2008
  7. ↑ Otto Brixner was not an arbitrator, but a judge ; in: nordbayern.de from May 24, 2008
  8. ↑ Judith Hauer, Notes and Thoughts on the Mollath Case - Conspiracy or Indifference? , Journal for Legal Policy 2013, p. 210 f.
  9. ↑ Hypovereinsbank internal audit report No. 20546
  10. ↑ Interview with the Bavarian Minister of Justice Beate Merk on November 9, 2012; in: Report Mainz from November 13, 2012
  11. ↑ The Man Who Knew Too Much ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from November 13, 2012
  12. ^ Eviction of Mollath's house probably unlawful ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from May 16, 2013
  13. ↑ A completely irrelevant phone call ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from May 17, 2013
  14. ↑ Richter ignored evidence ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from May 21, 2013
  15. ↑ Hasty finding the truth ; in: taz.de from April 17, 2013
  16. ^ Committee of Inquiry into the Mollath Case 2013
  17. ↑ "I got into an absolutely unbelievable story" ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from September 10, 2018
  18. ↑ Captured - The Case K. - Description of the film in the ZDF portal
personal data
SURNAME Brixner, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH 1943