Schmücker process

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The Schmücker trial consisted of a total of four criminal proceedings in which the murder of Ulrich Schmücker, a terrorist and undercover agent of the West Berlin office for the protection of the constitution , should be investigated . It was the longest criminal trial in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany , began in 1976 and ended after 591 days and four trials in 1991 with the termination of the criminal proceedings. The process is considered a judicial scandal , as the process - as officially stated - was manipulated and massively hindered in many ways by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and at least two public prosecutors , for example by suppressing evidence, which made judicial investigation impossible.

Among other things, the murder weapon, a Luger pistol , got into the hands of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution the day after the murder, where it was then hidden in a safe for 15 years and this was intentionally kept secret from the law enforcement authorities. In each of the first trials, several innocent people were sentenced to sometimes life imprisonment, mainly on the basis of false testimony from a suspect himself. In the course of the proceedings, his credibility was badly shaken and the defense lawyers raised the well-founded suspicion that the witness himself might work for the protection of the constitution, but this remained unresolved. In addition, it became known that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had illegally spied on one of the defenders involved for years .

The murder of Schmücker could not be finally solved legally. Those responsible for the manipulations were covered by the secret service. It is sometimes assumed that this protection continues to the present in order to prevent the case from being subsequently clarified. According to the conviction of the court in the fourth and final trial, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was significantly complicit in Ulrich Schmücker's death, but after all the proven manipulations, a judicial clarification is no longer possible.

The terrorism researcher Wolfgang Kraushaar summarized the case in 2010:

"The fact that it was not possible to clear it up in four trials and to condemn the perpetrators as well as those responsible is an eyesore - not only of the Federal German judiciary, but of the rule of law as a whole."

According to Kraushaar, only the fingerprints of the V-man Volker Weingraber and his V-man leader Michael Grünhagen were on the weapon . Even the then head of the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution could therefore not have ruled out with certainty that the murder had not been carried out by one of their own undercover agents, since the vine grabber who handed over the weapon would not have had an alibi for the time of the crime.

Ulrich Schmücker

prehistory

Ulrich Schmücker (born August 4, 1951 in Hagen , † June 5, 1974 in Grunewald, West Berlin ) was a terrorist and undercover agent .

Schmücker grew up in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler , was considered musically gifted and passed his Abitur in 1971 at the Peter-Joerres-Gymnasium . He wanted pastors to and engaged in the Protestant church of Bad Neuenahr. As an exchange student, he had lived in the USA for a year and was repelled by the enthusiasm of the Americans for war at the time of the Vietnam War . In August 1971 he went to Berlin-Kreuzberg as a student and enrolled at the Free University of Berlin for history and ethnology . Through a "Black Aid", which looked after prisoners, he came into contact with members of the June 2nd movement in October 1971 during a leaflet campaign at the Technical University of Berlin, and in 1972 he joined this left-wing extremist terrorist organization .

Before he could commit his first attack, in which he intended to plant a bomb at the Turkish consulate general in the then capital Bonn , he and three other terrorists of the June 2 movement -  Inge Viett , Wolfgang Knupe and Harald Sommerfeld  - were attacked on June 7. Arrested in May 1972 at night in a parking lot in front of the "Moses" department store in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. The arrest took place as part of a routine police check, during which the suspect was secured with explosives in the vehicle.

Work for Michael Grünhagen

While in custody, Michael Grünhagen (under the code name “Peter Rühl”) confronted Schmücker with alleged statements by an accomplice. After five weeks in detention, Schmücker made a confession. Grünhagen dictated parts of it to him. Schmücker was sentenced to a prison term of 30 months, but was released after Grünhagen's intervention "for health reasons" after nine months. Grünhagen planned to use him as a "decoy" for Inge Viett and Ralf Reinders .

Use as an undercover agent

Ulrich Schmucker, who was also known Grünhagen remain under the code name "chain" with Ruehl in conjunction, returned as an undercover agent under a false name back into the left scene. However, extracts from Schmücker's confession also found their way into the milieu. After some time, Schmücker was exposed by a roommate. His partner broke off the relationship. Although Schmücker tried desperately to justify himself, more and more members of the scene turned away from him. Schmücker was also massively threatened by Grünhagen when he tried to revoke his confession.

The liaison man Götz Tilgener , who was also in contact with Grünhagen and who supported Schmücker in returning to the radical left, handed him a questionnaire at Easter 1974. This was discussed with Ilse Schwipper , who was then called Ilse Jandt. In it, Schmücker commented on his confession at the time and his discussions with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He was told that he had a chance and had to prove himself in the IRA . Those involved Tilgener, Jandt and Schmücker met in the tavern "Tarantel", where the undercover agent of the protection of the constitution Volker Weingraber waited.

assassination

On May 31, 1974, Schmücker informed Grünhagen that he was threatened and asked for a firearm. Grünhagen refused. On the morning of June 4, 1974, Grünhagen was informed of the threat situation again, but this time by Weingraber. Weingraber told Grünhagen that several potential shooters had loaned his VW bus. Grünhagen, who had not had any qualms about observations to date, refused to monitor the VW bus. Later that day, Schmücker asked to meet Grünhagen. Whether this still took place has not yet been clarified. At around 10:15 p.m., Schmücker was seen in the company of two as yet unidentified men in the vacant hotel “Rheingold”, one kilometer from the Krummen Lanke .

On the morning of June 5, 1974 at around 12:15 a.m., Ulrich Schmücker was found dying by a US soldier engaged in a military exercise in Grunewald on Krummen Lanke in West Berlin. He had been shot in the head with a Parabellum , caliber 9 mm . Just a few hours earlier, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution broke off an observation by Schmücker for reasons that have not yet been clarified.

Events after the assassination

The disappearance of the murder weapon

As it turned out later, the liaison man Volker Weingraber, operating under the code name “Vienna”, met a slightly corpulent man, about 35 years old who called himself “Steinecker”, in front of the “drugstore”. "Steinecker" was Michael Grünhagen. Weingraber wanted to give Grünhagen the weapon that he wanted from the perpetrator and two magazines that went with it - at a time when the fatally wounded Schmücker was still alive. Grünhagen refused for the time being. The handover did not take place until 24 hours later, on June 6, 1974. The weapon then disappeared for 15 years in a safe in a building belonging to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Clayallee.

Investigations

About 15 hours after the crime, Grünhagen was included in the investigation, to which his boss Franz Natusch and mayor and interior senator Kurt Neubauer played a major role. Grünhagen manipulated the investigation by later directing the suspicion against the later suspects from Wolfsburg and ensuring that the activities of the constitution protection remained secret. Grünhagen also worked closely with public prosecutor Jürgen Przytarski. In the period that followed, the duo - later as a trio with Wolfgang Müllenbrock  - used means that clearly contradicted the rule of law to incriminate the Wolfsburg suspects. Among other things, witnesses were prepared and accused were illegally forced to testify. The undercover agent Götz Tilgener, who was initially intended as the main witness, died in July 1975 of an acute metabolic breakdown as a result of continued abuse of nicotine, alcohol and medication. He, too, had come under suspicion in the meantime and had received death threats.

Confession letter

On June 6th, the Frankfurter Rundschau received a letter of confession from the “ Black June Command ”. As a command of the “ June 2nd Movement ”, the group executed the counter-revolutionary and traitor Ulrich Schmücker. According to the letter, Schmücker was sentenced to death by a tribunal of the June 2nd Movement for his testimony before the state security authorities of the FRG.

Suspects

Because of Schmücker's contacts with the Bäckergasse commune in Wolfsburg- Heßlingen , their relatives were quickly suspected of having been involved in the murder. Several suspects from this group were arrested in 1974. In addition to the 37-year-old Ilse Schwipper, there was an 18-year-old and four men between 18 and 21 years of age. Only one person was willing to give evidence, the 21-year-old Jürgen Bodeux . In September 1974 he confessed to public prosecutor Jürgen Przytarski and Grünhagen's deputy "Seifert" in prison in Berlin and became a key witness in the coming trial.

Criminal proceedings

Jürgen Bodeux's testimony was enough for the public prosecutor to bring charges before the 7th Large Criminal Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court . The proceedings were scheduled for 15 days.

First trial

On February 6, 1976 the trial for the murder of the six accused began. Bodeux claimed to have obtained the murder weapon and to have selected the crime scene with the main defendant, Ilse Schwipper. However, he denied having shot himself. In June 1976 Ilse Schwipper was sentenced to life imprisonment , the co-defendants to youth sentences of between four and eight years. Key witness Jürgen Bodeux received a youth sentence of five years, which he accepted and from which he had to serve two and a half years. The other parties submitted revision one.

The Federal Court of Justice responsible for the appeal overturned the judgment in 1977. In addition to the protection of the constitution, the public prosecutors Jürgen Przytarski and Wolfgang Müllenbrock withheld evidence, in particular about the role of the protection of the constitution. These only came to light in the fourth process.

Second process

The second process lasted 109 days. The judgment in July 1979 was almost identical to the judgment in the first trial. In October 1980 the Federal Court of Justice also overturned this judgment: the right of those involved in the proceedings had been curtailed in an inadmissible manner by the court.

After the second process: Unmasking of Grünhagen

Michael Grünhagen, who was responsible for the deployment of the protection of the constitution, was exposed in a different context in 1980.

The key witness Reiner Hochstein in the Lorenz-Drenkmann trial for the murder of the Berlin Supreme Court President Günter von Drenkmann had been brought to a testimony by Grünhagen, similar to Schmücker at the time. Grünhagen's plan failed. In May 1980 the magazine specifically published a picture of Grünhagen. The constitution protection officer was recognized by the defendant Andreas Vogel. Grünhagen's private address in Berlin-Britz and his role as a parent representative at a comprehensive school were also publicly mentioned by the defense during the process. The protection of the constitution had to go into hiding. The murder of Drenkmann remained unsolved.

After spending a long time in Austria and Pullach , Grünhagen decided to stay in Berlin. He switched from the Terrorism Department to the Aliens Extremism Department. The intelligence officer changed his name to Michael Wegner, and he moved into a villa in the Berlin-Gatow district . He was supported by the camouflage agency of the constitution protection in Hamburg.

Third process

The third trial lasted from May 1981 to June 1986. It became increasingly evident that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was involved in the murder. However, the extent of the entanglements was not clear. The Wolfsburg Commune was convicted again of community murder.

The Federal Court of Justice again overturned the judgment in March 1989. Bodeux's background, who was the only witness to the crime, was so nebulous that it was not entirely believable. It was unclear whether Bodeux was not active for the protection of the constitution himself. The defense attorneys did much research during the trial that indicated this. Before the murder, Bodeux and the other members of the Wolfsburg Commune had regular contact with Volker Weingraber, in whose apartment they often met.

After the third trial

In October 1986, Der Spiegel reported that Volker Weingraber himself had worked for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for more than seven years. In the meantime, he lived with a million German marks paid as " hush money " from the Berlin state treasury on an Italian vineyard.

In 1988 it became known that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had spied on defense attorney Philipp Heinisch for years . This was done by a "Christian Hain" who had been smuggled into the law firm by Grünhagen after the murder. Grünhagen had passed the information on to the public prosecutors Przytarski and Müllenbrock. The espionage activity now came to the public. The investigative committee of the Lower Saxony state parliament on the " Celler Loch " meanwhile suspected that "Christian Hain" was involved in an explosives attack in July 1978, which was organized by the Lower Saxony constitutional protection and which was supposed to serve to inform the Red Army Faction (RAF) bring.

In May 1989 the murder weapon turned up in a vault owned by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Fourth process

The fourth trial began in April 1990. On January 28, 1991, the trial was closed after 54 days of negotiations.

Ingeborg Tepperwien , then presiding judge of the 18th criminal chamber, justified the attitude with "cooperation and influence of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution". The court was convinced that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was significantly complicit in Ulrich Schmücker's death. Grünhagen is guilty insofar as at least not preventing the murder of Schmücker. The process was unfair from the start. The convicts received compensation.

Although the Berlin public prosecutor's office in charge of the proceedings did not want to appeal the dismissal decision, they were forced to do so by a corresponding instruction from the public prosecutor's office. After the then General Public Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal retired, the public prosecutor withdrew its appeal, so that the judgment became final.

Who killed Ulrich Schmücker and whether the perpetrator came from the ranks of left-wing radicals or the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has not yet been clarified.

Another whereabouts of Grünhagen

Grünhagen, who was now defenseless, was threatened in the period that followed. In NDR magazine Panorama "Grünhagen married again, this time perhaps forever, submerged, action must be taken." Soon after, died Grünhagen supposed to: a letter with the following content was published in October 1987 of skin cancer . The press officer of the Interior Senator, Hans F. Birkenbeul , stated a short time later that Grünhagen had "died on January 19, 1988 and [...] had been buried on January 26, 1988". The alleged burial was not entered in any cemetery book in Gatow. According to research by defense attorney Bernd Häusler in the spring of 1988, Grünhagen was also not listed in West Berlin's death register.

literature

  • Peter Brückner , Barbara Sichtermann : Violence and Solidarity. On the murder of Ulrich Schmücker by comrades. Documents and analyzes . Wagenbach Verlag, Berlin 1974 (series: Politik 59) ISBN 3-8031-1059-9
  • A dead ex officio? The involvement of the secret service in the Ulrich Schmücker murder case. Ed .: Initiative for a new Schmücker process. Self-published, Berlin 1980
  • Stefan Aust : Password a hundred flowers. The involvement of the secret service in the Ulrich Schmücker murder case. Konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 1980
  • How can we prevent further victims of the judicial bureaucracy? Event on the death of Dr. Leschhorn. Speeches from the event and documents. Ed .: Humanist Union, League for Human Rights, Marburger Bund, Association of Berlin Defense Lawyers. Self-published, Berlin 1982 (including the situation of Ilse Schwipper)
  • Klaus Lüderssen (Ed.): V-people. The trap in the rule of law. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985 (Series: es NF 222)
  • Renate Künast : The Schmücker murder case and the constitutional “protection”. Documentation since September 29, 1986, submitted by Renate Künast (MdA), February 1987. Alternative List for Democracy and Environmental Protection, parliamentary group of the Berlin House of Representatives, 1987
  • Bernd Häusler: The endless key witness. Scenes from the Schmücker trial. Transit Verlag, Berlin 1987
  • Insights into the Schmücker process - a collection of materials. Ed .: Rote Hilfe Westberlin. Self-published, Berlin 1990
  • The judgment. End of the Schmücker process? Ed .: Association of Berlin Criminal Defense Lawyers e. V. self-published, Berlin 1991
  • Wolfram Bortfeldt : alias "chain". The protection of the constitution and the murder of Ulrich Schmücker. Luchterhand Literatur Verlag, Hamburg and Zurich 1992
  • Stefan Aust : The decoy. The fatal story of an undercover agent between the protection of the constitution and terrorism. Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-498-00063-2
  • Gerald Endres : The Schmücker Murder . In: Helfried Spitra (ed.): The great criminal cases 2 . Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich 2005, pp. 226-249.
  • Stefan Aust: Death in the Grunewald . In: Die Zeit , No. 18/2012
  • Benedict Ugarte Chacón: A Story About Treason. The murder of Ulrich Schmücker and the involvement of the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution . In: Benedict Ugarte Chacón / Michael Förster / Thorsten Grünberg: Inquiry committees: The sharpest wooden sword of parliamentarism? Selected Berlin political scandals . Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2020 ISBN 978-3-8305-5005-1 , pp. 119–164.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Marcus Klöckner: The RAF and the secret services. Interview with Wolfgang Kraushaar. Telepolis, November 10, 2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/region/ahr-und-rhein/bad-neuenahr-ahrweiler/Ulrich-Schm%C3%BCcker-Terrorist-V-Mann-und-Mordopfer-article3692564.html
  3. ↑ a b phoenix.de ( Memento from September 26, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) TV documentation Phoenix Part 1 2 3 4 5
  4. ↑ drop and betrayal . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , 1974 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Head shot in the Grunewald . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 1, 2004
  6. ↑ Forgeries from the BKA? In: Der Spiegel . No. 33 , 1980 ( online ).
  7. ↑ This millennium . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1989 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Unmasking of Grünhagen in the Drenkmann trial
  9. ↑ Spy from the tarantula . In: Der Spiegel . No. 40 , 1986 ( online ).
  10. ↑ The third man . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1986 ( online ).
  11. ^ Alias ​​Flach . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1988 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Decoy . In: Die Zeit , No. 6/1991; Judgment of the Berlin Regional Court, January 28, 1991 - (518) 2 P KLs 8/75 (35/89)