Donation affair of the Frankfurt SPD

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The dispute over some party donations to the SPD Frankfurt am Main at the beginning of the 1970s, which were related to lucrative public contracts, are described as the donation affair of the Frankfurt SPD . The suspicion of corruption (the CDU opposition and parts of the media spoke of the red felt ) is one of the reasons for the massive losses of the SPD in the local elections in Hesse in 1977 and the loss of the SPD majority in Römer , Frankfurt's town hall.

The party donations

The then mayor of Frankfurt, Rudi Arndt (SPD), accepted a cash donation of 200,000 DM from the Lebanese businessman Albert Abela in the Römer in December 1972 . Albert Abela had previously applied for the concession to operate underground car parks at Frankfurt Airport in spring 1972 . On September 8, 1972, the Flughafen AG supervisory board approved this license. The supervisory board (to which Rudi Arndt also belonged) was dominated by the representatives of the SPD magistrate and the SPD / FDP state government . On December 14, 1972, Flughafen AG decided to terminate the contract with Abela. Instead, a new contract with better conditions was signed with the company "alpark", in which Abela was involved.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the Berlin building contractor Karsten Klingbeil gave Rudi Arndt party donations totaling 1.2 million marks in several installments. Klingbeil had also benefited from a decision by Flughafen AG. He was the developer of the Sheraton Hotel at the airport.

Prosecutor's Investigation and Committee of Inquiry

After criminal charges were filed on suspicion of breach of trust , the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office conducted an investigation and decided not to initiate criminal proceedings. The piquant thing here is that the public prosecutor's offices are subordinate to the Hessian Ministry of Justice .

In its 9th session of the electoral term, the Hessian state parliament set up an investigative committee on April 23, 1975 at the request of the CDU parliamentary group , which "informed members of the state government of a party donation made by businessman Albert Abela to the SPD in connection with the granting of a license for the management of the underground car park at Frankfurt airport to his company "should clarify. The investigation was later expanded to include the Sheraton donations.

The committee chaired by Otto Rudolf Pulch (FDP) (members were the MPs Karl Günther Kronawitter (SPD), Gert Lütgert (SPD), Albert Pfuhl (SPD), Rudi Rohlmann (SPD); Hartmut Nassauer (CDU), Adolf Roth ( CDU), Wilhelm Runtsch (CDU), Dieter Weirich (CDU) and Otto Rudolf Pulch (FDP) began work in the spring of 1975, met 28 times and heard seventeen witnesses until its last meeting on July 14, 1977. He submitted (as usual) a report by the SPD / FDP majority parliamentary groups and a minority report by the CDU parliamentary group, which came to diametrically different evaluations:

The majority parliamentary groups concluded in the majority report that no connection between the donations to the Frankfurt SPD and the award of concessions at the Rhein-Main airport could be proven. The report wrote: "The witness Abela left the use of the donation at the discretion of the witness Arndt. The latter stated that he could not decide immediately whether to accept the donation and that he wanted to take the money into custody for the time being."

However, the FDP moved slightly away from its coalition partner. FDP parliamentary group chairman Otto Wilke explained in the state parliament that it was probably more than surprising for all committee members "how far oriental customs obviously dominate the scene in the airport area". This comment specifically related to the role of a Lebanese broker named Nagib Nahas. He had acted as a negotiating partner for Flughafen AG for years and brokered the parking garage business. Nagib Nahas was so embroiled in contradictions before the investigative committee that the opposition no longer considered his statement that he had witnessed the agreement that the donations had been agreed in return for the concession to be credible. However, the cooperation between Flughafen AG and Nagib Nahas met with broad criticism. The chairman of the meeting, the SPD MP Albert Pfuhl, asked how the Frankfurt airport company had actually gotten to do business with people whose behavior was "more Mediterranean in character" and did not necessarily correspond to "our ideas". Airport boss Erich Becker defended the cooperation with Nahas in the investigation committee with reference to the improved earnings situation of the airport.

In its minority vote, the CDU came to the assessment, "The assessment of the evidence collected by the committee majority is inadequate." The committee work would have shown that Abela had made the numerically highest, but not the economically most advantageous offer. Above all, the agreed payment of the concession fee of twenty million marks in four annual installments without these payments being secured is negative. As a consequence, the CDU called for Becker to resign as CEO of the airport. The CDU also wrote

"The default practices of FAG that occasionally emerged during this investigation are incompatible with the practices that must apply to a stock corporation equipped with public capital. It cannot be accepted that members of the executive board or supervisory board even give the impression that they are receptive for donations from business partners. Even if the giving of a donation is not aimed at a precisely defined business activity by a member of the supervisory board or executive board, but only seeks to arouse general goodwill, the acceptance of such a donation cannot be considered without hesitation. "

Effects

In 1976, the Helaba scandal resulted in the resignation of Hessian Prime Minister Albert Osswald (SPD) on October 3, 1976. The discussion about donations to the SPD Frankfurt, together with this incident, contributed to strengthening the public image that the SPD's 30-year reign in Hesse (called the red Hesse ) had become susceptible to nepotism and corruption. Even if no proof could be provided that the donations were consideration for the concession contracts, the CDU Hessen's catchphrase fell from the red felt to fertile ground. The subsequent local elections in 1977 turned out to be a disaster for the SPD. It broke across the country. In Frankfurt the CDU achieved an absolute majority, and Walter Wallmann (CDU) replaced Rudi Arndt as Lord Mayor.

Nothing changed at the airport itself. Erich Becker remained Chairman of the Board of Management until 1988 and retired from office as a highly respected manager who was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

swell

  • Inquiry committees of the 8th electoral term (PDF; 9 kB)
  • Instead of miracles, at best, strange things came up - when politicians sit in court / committee of inquiry presents unsatisfactory report; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 24, 1977, p. 34
  • No connection between donations and concessions - Landtag debates airport business / CDU demands Erich Becker's replacement; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 27, 1978, p. 39
  • Manfred Kittel: March through the institutions ?: Politics and culture in Frankfurt after 1968, 2011, ISBN 3486704028 , page 377 ff., Online

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ No connection between donations and concessions - Landtag debates airport business / CDU demands Erich Becker's replacement; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 27, 1978, p. 39
  2. ↑ The most important witness did not come - sick in Beirut / committee of inquiry swears in the airport director; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 14, 1977, p. 24
  3. ↑ CDU criticizes the airport's "business ethics" - differing appreciation of the work of the investigative committee / the party donation affair; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 18, 1978, p. 34