Uwe Barschel

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Uwe Barschel, election poster 1987
Uwe Barschel (left) 1983 with Lothar Späth and Bernhard Vogel

Uwe Barschel (born May 13, 1944 in Glienicke / Nordbahn ; † October 11, 1987 in Geneva , Switzerland ) was a German politician ( CDU ). After his time as State Minister, he was Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1982 to 1987 . He was found dead on October 11, 1987 in the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Geneva after a scandal that arose during the 1987 state election campaign and caused a sensation as the Barschel affair . Barschels circumstances of his death are still controversial: Police investigation concluded that he suicide had committed. This is questioned in several publications.

Life and work

Barschel grew up with his siblings with his grandparents in a barracks for refugees in Börnsen near Geesthacht . His mother worked as a seamstress and left the upbringing to her parents. Barschel's father Heinrich, a mathematician , is believed to have been lost . He was probably killed in the fighting for Berlin in April 1945 .

His teachers at the Geesthacht municipal high school described him as noticeably calm and serious, and his classmates as very ambitious and career-conscious. In 1963, at the suggestion of his history teacher Heinrich Kock , who was sympathetic to National Socialism , he invited the last Reich President, Karl Dönitz , who was Hitler's successor, as head boy . This was as a war criminal in the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals to ten years in prison sentenced and should to 13 on the topic to the students in classes 9 , the 30 January 1933 and its consequences lecture. Doenitz was able to spread his positive view of National Socialism for one and a half hours. Neither students nor teachers asked critical questions. That led to a political scandal. As a result of this affair, which, in addition to a Europe-wide media response, led to the deployment of an investigator from the Ministry of Culture at the school in Geesthacht, the headmaster responsible for approving the event killed himself. The residents of Geesthacht took no offense at the theses of Grand Admiral Dönitz, which played down National Socialism, but rather blamed the, in their opinion, merciless press reports, which were partly responsible for the death of the headmaster, for the scandal. 17 years later, Barschel took part in the funeral of Dönitz as Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of the Interior.

After graduating from high school , Barschel began studying law , economics , political science and education at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel in 1964 . After the first (1968) and second state examination (1971), he completed his law degree as a fully qualified lawyer . 1969–1970 he worked as a lecturer at the University of Education in Kiel . In 1970 he received his doctorate as Dr. jur. with the work Theoretical Possibilities and Limits of the Criminal Law Policy of a Political Party and in 1971 the doctorate to Dr. phil. with the work The position of the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein with special consideration of the doctrine of the separation of powers . He was admitted to the bar in 1971 . In 1971 he became a court assessor , after which he worked as a lawyer and notary . In 1976 he joined the Kiel firm of Hans-Michael minor one.

In addition, Barschel was on the board of the Hermann Ehlers Foundation , acted as President of the Duchy of Lauenburg Foundation and was state chairman of the German Parity Welfare Association . In addition to his political activities, Barschel published numerous papers on public law and political science. These include commentary on the state statutes for Schleswig-Holstein (1976) and the state quality of the German states (1981).

According to Wolfram Baentsch , Justus Frantz remembers that Barschel planned to withdraw from politics and go into science in the middle of the legislative period that began in 1987. He had almost finished his habilitation thesis .

On May 31, 1987, shortly before the start of the election campaign for the 1987 state elections , an airplane with Barschel and a security officer as the only passengers crashed while approaching Lübeck- Blankensee Airport . The pilot Michael Heise and the copilot Elisabeth Friske died on the spot, Barschel's security officer in the hospital a few days later. Barschel survived and was hospitalized with serious injuries. A few weeks later he was released and campaigned.

Uwe Barschel's grave in the old cemetery in Mölln

Uwe Barschel had been married to Freya Barschel (born von Bismarck , * 1947), a distant relative of the extensive family of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , and had four children since July 7, 1973 . Uwe Barschel lived with his family in Mölln and was buried in the old cemetery there. Contrary to the official date, his wife had October 10th engraved on the tombstone as the anniversary of his death.

Political party

Uwe Barschel had been a member of the Junge Union since 1960 and of the CDU since 1962. From 1967 to 1971 he was state chairman of the Junge Union in Schleswig-Holstein. In 1969 he became deputy state chairman of the CDU. From 1973 to 1981 he was chairman of the CDU district association of the Duchy of Lauenburg .

MP

From 1970 to 1974 Barschel was a member of the district council of the Duchy of Lauenburg and was also a district councilor until 1972. From 1971 until his death he was a member of the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein and from 1971 to 1973 parliamentary representative of the minister of education and government commissioner for youth and sport. From 1973 to 1979 he was chairman of the CDU parliamentary group.

Public offices

Barschel (2nd from left) at the CDU federal party conference (1986)

On January 1, 1979, Prime Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg appointed him Minister of Finance . After the state elections in the spring of 1979, he took over the office of Interior Minister of Schleswig-Holstein on July 1, 1979 . In 1979 Barschel took over the representation of Schleswig-Holstein in the Federal Council. A year later he was a member of the North Atlantic Assembly . This was followed by the chairmanship of the conference of interior ministers in 1981 and 1982. Subsequently, he chaired the Ministerial Conference in 1982/1983. As Minister of the Interior, he was confronted in 1981 with the largest demonstration of the anti-nuclear power movement in Germany to date , which was directed against the Brokdorf nuclear power plant .

After Gerhard Stoltenberg on 4 October 1982 in the Treasury of Chancellor Helmut Kohl led federal government had been appointed Barschel was on 14 October 1982 as his successor to the prime minister chosen the State of Schleswig-Holstein. When Barschel took office, he was 38 years old, making him the youngest head of government of any state in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the state elections in 1983 , the CDU, under his leadership, was able to defend the absolute majority in the mandate with 49% of the votes, although the SPD rose to 43.7%.

In 1985 Barschel was a founding member and co-initiator of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival , which has been held annually since 1986 , at whose founding event the politician participated in the performance of the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns alongside the musicians around the main initiator Justus Frantz himself as a narrator. During his reign, the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park was founded , which was decided by the state parliament in 1985.

In 1986 Barschel received the Bambi Media Prize .

See also: Cabinet Stoltenberg II , Cabinet Stoltenberg III , Cabinet Barschel I and Cabinet Barschel II

The affair

On the Saturday before the state elections, September 13, 1987, it became known that Der Spiegel would report in its edition, which appears on the Monday after the election, about a smear campaign against Barschel's challenger Björn Engholm , which Barschel had initiated. Der Spiegel relied on information from Reiner Pfeiffer , a media officer who had a criminal record for defamation and who had been referred to the Kiel state government as a media officer by Axel Springer Verlag at the end of 1986 . The next day, the CDU, which had achieved 49.0 percent in 1983, lost its absolute majority in the election and, with 42.6 percent of the vote, became only the second strongest force behind the SPD , which was able to achieve 45.2 percent of the votes.

The now developing scandal became known as the Barschel- or Barschel-Pfeiffer affair or Waterkantgate . In a statement five days after the election, Barschel stated:

“In addition to these affidavits, which are to be presented to you immediately, I give you my word of honor to the citizens of Schleswig-Holstein and the entire German public - I repeat: I give you my word of honor! - that the allegations against me are baseless. "

- Uwe Barschel : Press conference on September 18, 1987

Because of the unresolved affair, the coalition negotiations between the CDU and FDP were downgraded to exploratory talks . The FDP emphasized "to negotiate with the CDU", not with Uwe Barschel. Due to increasing pressure from his party, Barschel finally resigned as Prime Minister on October 2, 1987. The state government was then provisionally headed by his previous deputy Henning Schwarz . In order to clear up the affair, the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament set up an investigative committee, which worked over the events of 1987 over months. However, the committee was unable to provide a complete explanation.

The Barschel letter , which was dated October 3, 1987, reached the Spiegel editorial staff as a copy at the end of April 1988 and accused Stoltenberg of complicity in the actions against Engholm, turned out to be a forgery of Department X of the GDR's foreign intelligence service in 1991 out.

A few years later, in the spring of 1993, Björn Engholm was himself convicted of untruth in connection with the drawer affair and had to resign. He was accused of having known of contacts between representatives of the SPD and Reiner Pfeiffer earlier than admitted. This second affair was investigated by a second committee of inquiry, which largely revised the findings of the first. Among other things, the credibility of the key witness Pfeiffer was fundamentally called into question by both the public prosecutor and the investigative committee. As a result, the second committee of inquiry found that the Prime Minister's involvement could not be proven. It cannot be proven that Uwe Barschel himself knew about the activities of his speaker, approved them or even initiated them. In his defense, however, he urged employees to make false statements, including statements in lieu of oath.

Circumstances of death

On October 8, 1987, Barschel asked for a flight to Zurich at a holiday resort on Gran Canaria , because he wanted to meet someone there. When he was told that this flight was fully booked, he requested a flight to any other destination, citing Madrid and Geneva as examples . The employee then booked a flight for Barschel to Geneva ( IB 554), where he arrived on October 10th in the afternoon, as well as the onward flights Geneva - Frankfurt ( LH 1857) and Frankfurt - Hamburg (LH 1304) for October 11th. Prosecutor General Erhard Rex concludes that a meeting with an informant cannot be ruled out, but it is also possible that Barschel was already planning his suicide and was looking for an anonymous location because he did not call unknown telephone numbers from Gran Canaria and any destination chose. In an interview with the journalist Karsten Kammholz from the newspaper Die Welt on August 17, 2007, Uwe Barschel's widow, Freya Barschel, said, when asked what made Barschel travel to Geneva: “We were already on the outward journey via Geneva flown. His informant wanted to meet him there. My husband was to receive exonerating material from him. Important photos. The informant was called Roloff. He had called my husband several times before. [...] We were already in Gran Canaria when he received a call there. I don't know where the informant got our number there from. ”With regard to the suicide thesis and the circumstances of the night of death, Freya Barschel said in the same interview,“ He wanted to refute the allegations that he was the main culprit in the spying affair against Björn Engholm. He really wanted to relieve himself. [...] He called me from the hotel in Geneva. [...] He told me that he had met Roloff at the airport and that he had arranged to meet him again for 8 p.m. He sounded very cheerful. He was so hoping for the exonerating material. "

On October 11th, one day before he was due to testify before the investigative committee of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament, Uwe Barschel was dead and at 12:43 p.m. by Stern reporter Sebastian Knauer , who wanted to visit Barschel together with the photographer Hanns-Jörg Anders Found fully clothed in the bathtub of room 317 in the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Geneva and photographed. According to the official investigations and announcements in Switzerland and Germany, Barschel is said to have died by suicide . Some circumstances of death (administration of medication) and accompanying circumstances (objects in room 317) remained officially unresolved, which is why this investigation result is controversial today. This is especially true after the publication of an article by the Swiss toxicologist Hans Brandenberger in Die Welt am Sonntag on November 21, 2010, in which, after detailed chemical-toxicological examinations of the autopsy findings, he came to the conclusion that Barschel had died as a result of outside influences (cf. . below).

During the autopsy of Barschel's corpse, who had been taking the sedative Tavor in increasingly stronger doses since 1980 - most recently up to 10 mg / day - a total of eight drugs were found, including cyclobarbital ( barbiturate ), pyrithyldione (the barbiturate-free sleeping pill Persedon ), Diphenhydramine (strongly sedating antihistamine ), Perazine (sleep-inducing tranquilizer ) and Valium , a mixture of highly effective sedatives , an antiemetic and a neuroleptic . The Geneva public prosecutor's office assumed that Barschel had taken all of these drugs himself, lay in the full bathtub with clothes on, fell asleep there and, after several hours, died of the heavily overdosed sleeping pills. This suicide method corresponds to a guide to suicide that was published by the German Society for Human Dying . However, this interpretation is strongly doubted by various experts.

Barschel's survivors commissioned the then retired Zurich toxicologist Hans Brandenberger to examine the results of forensic medicine in Geneva more closely. According to his report, the different concentration distributions of the substances in Barschel's stomach, blood and urine are evidence of external influences. His investigation showed that the cyclobarbital was still in the flood phase, while the other sedatives had already taken effect. Due to the composition and dosage of the sedatives, Barschel was no longer physically able to consume the deadly cyclobarbital himself after taking these strongly sedating substances. Since the preparations mentioned have a synergistic effect, their effects should at least be added to the doses administered. This makes it very unlikely that Barschel was still able to act when supplying cyclobarbital. Brandenberger therefore assumes that the deadly cyclobarbital Barschel was administered by another person while he was unconscious. All other experts came to the conclusion, however, that the sequence in which the various drugs were taken could no longer be precisely determined and, even if cyclobarbital was last taken, it could not be determined that Barschel was unable to act at that point in time "- that Barschel could well have taken the cyclobarbital himself as the last drug. Hans Brandenberger wrote in an article for Die Welt am Sonntag (November 21, 2010) that the comparison of the chemical analysis data of his 1994 report with the information on the course of the Barschel death, as the former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky did in his Book Secret Files Mossad (see below) describes up to the details.

During a follow-up examination, the Munich toxicologist Ludwig von Meyer found the active ingredient methyprylon , a substance that is sometimes referred to as knockout drops . Von Meyer admits that the finding is "fundamentally suitable" to support the murder theory.

The former chairman of the Society for Human Dying pointed out that the cyclobarbital was unsuitable as a murder weapon. In addition, a murderer would have had a high probability of sliding the defenseless person's head underwater so that the victim drowns (and can no longer be saved). But that clearly did not happen.

The sleeping pill pyrithyldione had not been approved in Germany since 1983 and is said to have no longer been available in West Germany, Switzerland and Gran Canaria in 1987, but it was often in Denmark (not far from Barschel's official seat) and in the GDR , in the Barschel had traveled. The background to these trips has not yet been fully clarified.

The Swiss police seized medicine packaging in the hotel room. These were neither the drugs found in Barschel's body nor drugs that he otherwise took. The exact whereabouts of the packs is unclear; they were probably disposed of by the Swiss police. This is not the only investigation glitch. The police camera with which the crime scene was photographed turned out to be defective, so that all images were out of focus and the only usable photos of its original condition are those of the Stern reporter.

Investigations in Germany

The Lübeck public prosecutor's office responsible in Germany initially left the investigation to the Swiss authorities. From 1993/1994, at the instigation of the Barschel family, the Lübeck Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille, to whom the Federal Court of Justice had assigned the case, opened an investigation against unknown persons on suspicion of the murder of Dr. Dr. Uwe Barschel . Since this had remained largely inconclusive after three years, the then Attorney General Heribert Ostendorf pleaded in 1997 for the proceedings to be discontinued. The then state justice minister Gerd Walter instructed Wille to continue his investigation, whereupon Ostendorf resigned.

According to Gerd Walter and Attorney General Erhard Rex, the investigations were concluded in 1998 "by the investigator" on the grounds: "Promising investigative approaches were no longer seen." Heinrich Wille, head of the public prosecutor's office at the Lübeck district court , however, still affirmed the initial suspicion of murder .

The Barschel family's lawyer, Justus Warburg, suspects the German "raison d'être", ie the special relationship between Germany and Israel, as the reason for the reluctance of the German authorities.

In June 2011 it was announced that, by order of the Lübeck public prosecutor, in consultation with the public prosecutor's office, Barschel's clothing should be examined for DNA traces using the most modern methods . Only after completion of this preliminary investigation will it be decided whether the preliminary investigation will be reopened.

On June 23, 2011, it became known that the evidence stored in Lübeck also included a hair that was found on the bed of the hotel room and that clearly did not come from Barschel. This hair was reported to have disappeared in unknown circumstances on September 27, 2011.

In July 2012, Die Welt am Sonntag reported that specialists from the Kiel State Criminal Police Office (LKA) found DNA residues from a stranger on the clothes that were seized at the time and worn by Uwe Barschel on the night of death - namely the socks, tie and cardigan - and on one Have noticed hotel towel. This was confirmed by the former Schleswig-Holstein CDU member of the state parliament, Werner Kalinka . Apparently, it is no longer possible to provide information about the gender of the identified person, because after the long time the gene traces are no longer detailed enough to be able to enter and compare them in criminal databases such as the BKA file for genetic fingerprints . However, the material is still sufficiently well preserved to be able to compare it with data from possible suspects . The traces found are so-called "mixed traces", ie data that originate from at least two people - one of these two people is, according to the specialists, Uwe Barschel himself, so that at least one other person remains. The DNA discovery supports the theory that at the time of his death, Barschel was not alone in his hotel room, as previously assumed by many, mostly official sites, but must have been in physical contact with another person that night.

The Lübeck public prosecutor did not want to pursue this new lead any further. "The results of the investigation do not provide sufficient clues that would allow a line to be drawn to possibly suspect persons," said the current Chief Public Prosecutor Thomas-Michael Hoffmann.

controversy

Doubts about the investigation results

Soon after the results of the investigation into Uwe Barschel's death, the suspicion arose that he had been murdered . The doubts about the suicide thesis are based on the following ambiguities in the traces at the crime scene:

  • Barschel ordered a bottle of 1985 Beaujolais Le Chat-Botté from room service , which was delivered to the room with two glasses - as is usual in this hotel - around 6:30 p.m. Barschel had opened the bottle in the presence of the waiter and tasted the wine, after his death the bottle could not be found. Attorney General Rex believes it is both possible that a room waiter removed the bottle without looking into the bathroom, and that Barschel disposed of the bottle himself. A murderer could have disposed of the bottle, but according to Rex it would not have been possible to take the medication over the wine unnoticed. One of the glasses was left unused, the other was found broken in the trash can in the bathroom. Only a fingerprint of Barschel's fingerprint was found on the broken glass, which can be explained by the fact that the glass was wiped off and that Barschel held the glass so that he did not leave any further prints.
  • According to the German Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille, a whiskey bottle from the hotel room's minibar had been rinsed out. It was also proven that the bottle contained traces of diphenhydramine. According to the experts, this can be explained by the fact that Barschel drank from the bottle after he had already taken the diphenhydramine, and traces of diphenhydramine got into the bottle via lip contact and saliva reflux. The liquid contained in the whiskey bottle had an alcohol content of only 0.035%. Rex explains this with the fact that Barschel, who otherwise did not drink whiskey, filled the empty bottle with water and drank it.
  • A torn shirt button was found in the hallway of the hotel room with all the thread in all four buttonholes. The button came from the second buttonhole from the top, Barschel's tie was tied properly. Rex explains the ripped off button with uncontrolled and uncoordinated actions that can occur under the influence of strong sleeping pills, such as those found in Barschel.
  • The position of Barschel's shoes was unusual. The right shoe was tied in the corridor of the hotel room in front of the connecting door to the room, the other wet and open in front of the bathtub. Dimethyl sulfoxide was detected in the front area of ​​the shoe found in the bathroom . The bathtub rug had a large stain caused by staining from this shoe. For Rex, the position of the shoes indicates “the unplanned action of someone who has already been consciously clouded and has decided to commit suicide”. A planned murderer, however, would have taken care to arrange the shoes inconspicuously.
  • A towel that was found was also contaminated with dimethyl sulfoxide - a substance that, among other things, enables any other substance to be absorbed through the skin. The cloth was in the suitcase niche next to the suitcase by the front door and not in the bathroom. Senior Public Prosecutor Wille is of the opinion that this towel was thrown there by a perpetrator who would otherwise have been noticed immediately with a towel in the hotel hallway. Since Barschel's shoe was found to have adhered paint on the towel, Rex concludes that Barschel used the towel to wipe the liquid on his shoe. Due to the conspicuous placement and the fact that no easier-to-dispose of toilet paper was used, the towel also indicates, according to Rex, an "irrational act" by a suicide.
  • There was a trace on the bath mat that was interpreted as an imprint of a shoe that was not made by Barschel. According to Rex, it is possible that if the trace is a shoe print, it comes from the Stern reporters or the Swiss police officers, who only superficially secured the crime scene. The photos taken by the Stern reporters cannot clarify this, as the mat can only be seen unclearly.
  • During the autopsy of the body, a hematoma was found on the right forehead, which could have been caused by the use of force. A Swiss expert stated that the very superficial hematoma “could have arisen when the head hit the bathtub during a spasm during the coma. The coma can cause convulsions. I remind you that exactly at that point the head was leaning against the bathtub. "

Barschel had traveled several times to the GDR and Czechoslovakia . This was interpreted as an indication of various entanglements in the East-West conflict . It has meanwhile been proven that Barschel had a particularly close relationship with the GDR. In the film documentary The Death of Uwe Barschel. Scandal without end of the NDR is proven by personal statements by Günter Bohnsack , former colonel in the Ministry for State Security of the GDR, that Uwe Barschel enjoyed good contact with the then State Security of the GDR and frequent car trips (confirmed by his former drivers Horst Rissmann and Karl- Heinz Prosch) to the GDR, especially to Rostock and Warnemünde . There he often stayed at the Hotel Neptun in Warnemünde , which was used by the GDR State Security as a meeting place. The Lübeck investigators had indications that arms and embargo deals had also been arranged there, in particular with Imes Import-Export GmbH, a company subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the GDR ( Commercial Coordination Department ) for the mediation and implementation of international trade transactions, in particular with military goods. In the film documentary mentioned, the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl, looking back , denies knowledge of Uwe Barschel's trips to the GDR. A possible involvement of Barschel in the submarine affair was also repeatedly picked up in the media and mentioned in a book in 2007 by Michael Mueller, Rudolf Lambrecht and Leo Müller as a possible motive for murder.

In an interview on August 17, 2007 with the journalist Karsten Kammholz from the newspaper Die Welt , Uwe Barschel's widow, Freya Barschel, said with regard to a motive for murder: “He spoke very generally of weapons and of decisions that were made before his term in office which had not been reported to him. He just told me there were things he had never been told when he took office in 1982. He also wanted to disclose some things in the Kiel investigation committee. "

Victor Ostrovsky , a former agent of the Israeli secret service Mossad living in the USA , claimed in his book Mossad Secret Files that Barschel was the victim of a Mossad killing squad because he was in transit in 1987 during the execution of secret arms deals between Israel and Iran ( Operation Hannibal ) about Schleswig-Holstein and the training of Iranian pilots by Israel on north German sports airfields and threatened to go public with his knowledge of the matter. Ostrovsky was dismissed from the service of the Mossad in 1986, well before Barschel's death, but he continued to maintain contacts with the Mossad. Also Abolhassan Banisadr , until he was deposed in 1981 President of Iran, is convinced that Barschel "an important role in the arms trade has played with Iran"; he claims that the Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister was involved in arms deals with Ahmad Khomeini , the younger son of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . Barschel organized arms sales to Tehran and regularly attended meetings in Switzerland. “After his death,” said Banīsadr, “we then learned that he had tried to blackmail the other side.” In 1994, the South African arms dealer Dirk Stoffberg stated in a draft affidavit that Barschel was a later CIA director and later US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been appointed to Geneva. At the time when Barschel was in Geneva, two meetings of arms dealers are said to have taken place. Barschel had threatened revelations that had embarrassed several governments and arms dealers. A psychological report came to the conclusion that Stoffberg was credible. However, he could no longer submit his affidavit. He died shortly before, in June 1994. Official cause of death: He and his girlfriend committed double suicide. Another passage in the investigation file supports the suspicion that the then CIA man Gates was in Geneva on the weekend in question. There it is said that a Mister Gates was also on the plane with which the Barschel couple flew from Frankfurt am Main to Geneva on October 6, 1987. The Lübeck investigators received his ticket from the captain of the Lufthansa aircraft concerned. The now retired pilot no longer wants to comment on the subject. His wife told Die Welt that she and her husband had been threatened.

Former German top agent Werner Mauss was staying at the Geneva Hotel Richmond (in the immediate vicinity of the Beau-Rivage ) at the time of Barschel's death . He said, however, that he was on the 9/10 because of the hostage-taking negotiations in Lebanon . October with a jet of the Düsseldorf airline Evex landed twice in Geneva and only found out about the incident in the press the next day. Mauss later stated in interviews that at the time of Barschel's death he only rented the rooms in the Hotel Beau-Rivage and actually lived in the neighboring Hotel Richmond . More obvious in this context is the testimony of the Swiss private detective Jean-Jacques Griessen, who, according to the Lübeck file, worked for Werner Mauss in 1987. According to this testimony, Griessen phoned Werner Mauss the morning after Barschel's death. The agent told him to be ready because "something had happened". Griessen is said to have stated that he prepared the room in the "Beau-Rivage" with bugs and cameras on behalf of Mauss . The overall report of the Lübeck investigation file states: "Griessen could no longer be questioned because he died of heart failure on November 9, 1992 while staying with a prostitute in Zurich." Griessen met a BKA man on the same day want to meet a Mossad agent.

Proponents of the suicide thesis referred to the possibility that Barschel - possibly with helpers - could have deliberately left false tracks, also with regard to the possibility of an assisted suicide or "euthanasia" .

Erhard Rex

Schleswig-Holstein's attorney general Erhard Rex commented in a 63-page report in October 2007 on the theses and circumstantial evidence of the proponents of the murder thesis and, on the other hand, came to the conclusion that most of the murder theories had turned out to be unfounded during the investigation and resulted in a suicide as before was a very likely explanation of the death of Uwe Barschel, but ultimately the actual circumstances that led to Barschel's death could no longer be clarified. The traces in Barschel's body are clear, however, that he died as a result of drug poisoning from a total of eight different drugs. For the thesis put forward several times, according to which Barschel was entangled in arms deals and murdered in this context, there is no useful evidence. Rex literally:

“Like a red line runs through the entire investigation in all of these traces (about 15 in number) that not a single witness specifically testified that Barschel was involved in an arms deal from his own perspective. Rather, a whistleblower appealed to another witness, who in turn was a hearsay witness, who in turn relied on another witness who either denied participation or in turn relied on another hearsay witness. "

In the introduction to this report, Rex commented on the background of the murder theories as follows:

“Suicide is 'boring' and murder is 'interesting'. Anyone who wants to earn money would do well to put murder hypotheses forward and downplay or ignore a suicide. An interesting crime increases the circulation, increases the television quota, a simple suicide does not have the effect of promoting the circulation of a book. "

When, in November 2010, based on an article by the Zurich toxicologist Hans Brandenberger in Die Welt am Sonntag, the murder thesis received new scientific support, Rex expressed himself in the same newspaper as follows:

“It is a well-known unfortunate fact that the rumor mill always simmers when a celebrity dies in unexplained circumstances. [...] In this sense, after the mysterious death of Dr. Uwe Barschel soldier of fortune, storyteller, adventurer, braggart and busybody. "

Heinrich Wille

In cooperation with the Spiegel , the investigating Lübeck Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille wanted to write a book about the case. Attorney General Erhard Rex rejected the application for a sideline job requiring approval on the grounds that it was not appropriate for public prosecutors to privately market knowledge acquired on the job for their financial gain. Wille still summarized his knowledge in a book, but was not allowed to bring it to market for the time being. Wille saw a public interest in a publication on this topic and referred to Klaus Pflieger , the attorney general in Stuttgart, who was allowed to publish on the RAF and the Schleyer kidnapping. He filed a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court . The Federal Constitutional Court rejected an application by Willes for an interim order to have the book appear before a decision in the main proceedings. Prosecutor General Erhard Rex appealed against a decision by the Schleswig Administrative Court that the Willes book could appear. When asked whether Rex wanted to challenge the Lübeck public prosecutor's authority to interpret the Barschel case, Rex replied to an interview with Stern :

"The Lübeck public prosecutor's office gave its interpretation of the Barschel case in the final report and in later various official press interviews and it will do this in the planned documentation in the public prosecutor's series of publications through a free contribution by the chief public prosecutor Wille. I, too, will write a contribution on this, which will also make the different bandwidth of judicial assessments clear. There must be no speaking ban or censorship for either side! "

- Erhard Rex

After both Rex and Wille had retired, the book was published under the title A Murder That Couldn't Be: The Case of Uwe Barschel and the Limits of the Rule of Law in the Swiss Rotpunktverlag . In it Heinrich Wille reports on targeted indiscretions, "procedural tricks" and harassment on the part of the superior judicial authorities. “These incidents made it impossible to penetrate into conceivable groups of perpetrators and to conduct promising investigations,” says the book; The German secret services had answered inquiries from the Lübeck public prosecutor's office, "but the quality of the answers seemed increasingly dubious".

Hans Brandenberger

On Sunday, November 21, 2010, several articles and an essay about new scientific (especially toxicological) theories about Uwe Barschel's cause and circumstances of death were published in the Welt am Sonntag . The Zurich toxicologist Hans Brandenberger , forensic doctor and former head of the chemical department at the Forensic Medicine Institute of the University of Zurich and professor of chemical toxicology, deals with the thesis that the chemical investigations of the pharmaceuticals found in Barschel's body (lethal dose of the sleeping pill cyclobarbital , enhanced by the Three other pharmaceuticals ( pyrithyldione , diphenhydramine and perazine, apparently taken a little earlier and also in toxic doses ) - but in particular their chemically traceable, staggered and, with regard to a fatal effect, strategic administration - suggest a murder through its detection of pharmaceutical breakdown products ( metabolites ) . In his article he gives a lecture content from the 1994 book The other side of the Deception (German as Secret Files Mossad ), Harper Collins, 1994 of the former Mossad agents, nonfiction author and novelist Victor Ostrovsky , claims that Barschel had been murdered by agents of the Mossad . From this book Brandenberger appeared particularly plausible that according to Ostrovsky

  • the narcotic, sedative substances pyrithyldione, diphenhydramine and perazine were administered first and then the lethal dose of cyclobarbital was added, very likely in the state of incapacity;
  • the strong hypnotic noludar was administered rectally shortly before death with almost certainty, which is incompatible with the hypothesis of suicide with the help of others ("humane death");
  • Given the complexity of the murder, it must be assumed that a professional team was at work, not an individual.

In his essay for Die Welt am Sonntag , Brandenberger also describes the scientific shortcomings and negligence in his opinion in the forensic and toxicological examinations and statements caused by the Geneva court chemistry and pathology (which, according to the responsible pathologist , has even thrown away essential evidence ), Hamburg forensic medicine (follow-up examination of Barschel's organs) and the Institute for Forensic Medicine at the University of Munich, which was commissioned by Lübeck's chief public prosecutor Heinrich Wille to provide an opinion. In particular, he criticized the fact that the detection of metabolites and of methyprylon (active ingredient of Noludar) was not provided in detail and clearly, both of which could corroborate conclusions about the external influence in connection with the cause of death.

More media reports

In November 2013, the BND refused to allow a reporter from the Bild newspaper to see his investigation files into the Barschel case. An action before the Federal Administrative Court for inspection of files was unsuccessful. The court decided that the protection period of 30 years according to the Federal Archives Act should be observed. Also, Article 5 of the Basic Law for information, research and freedom of the press stand is not in conflict.

On February 16, 2016, Die Zeit published an interview with the now 91-year-old Hamburg forensic doctor Werner Janssen , who had autopsied the body with his colleague Klaus Püschel . In his protocol it says among other things: “An accidental overdose in a consciously clear person is inconceivable in view of these substance quantities; the possibility of an unnoticed introduction is equally unlikely. According to the available findings, there is no evidence that the substances leading to death were brought under external coercion. ”This was followed by a discussion in the media as to whether the medical requirement of confidentiality should have been observed even after almost 30 years.

Cultural reception

music

In the song Mit Gott on the album Ö , Herbert Grönemeyer addresses the Barschel affair at the time (“Unfortunately, one of them went swimming, but we threw him overboard in time”) and the CDU (“The C shines huge over us”) in general.

The song and music video Head of Department of Love by KIZ (on the album Vacation for the Brain ) contain references to the affair. For example, Barschel's “word of honor” is quoted in the video, and the depicted department head dies from an overdose of tablets in the bathtub.

Movie

satire

The satirical magazine Titanic showed a satirically alienated montage of the star photo of the dead lying in the bathtub as the cover picture in two issues. In one case Björn Engholm showed it smiling and with open eyes in the pose of the dead Barschel. This title led to a lawsuit before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg . and at a compensation of 40,000 marks.

Scandal about the photo in the star

Four days after Sebastian Knauer photographed the dead perch in the bathtub, the star published this photo in the magazine and in a subsequent issue as the cover picture, which sparked great discussions. As a result, the German Press Council ruled that the first publication was not objectionable, but that the subsequent use as a cover picture had violated the legitimate interests of the bereaved in an unjustifiable manner. The public reacted largely negatively to this differentiated approach.

Film documentaries

Radio:

  • Manfred Mays: The Neverending Story Barschel. Two-part feature broadcast on hr2 on February 10th and 17th, 2008.

literature

Part I: Contribution by Attorney General Erhard Rex from October 16, 2007 “The death of the former Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Dr. Dr. Uwe Barschel, on October 11, 1987 in Geneva: 'Murder or suicide?' ”( PDF; 177 kB ).
Part II: Contribution by Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille, Lübeck Public Prosecutor's Office. Included in Rex online documentation from p. 67 to p. 327. [2] consisting of
a) General report of the Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille dated April 27, 1998, submitted by him in partly abbreviated, partly blackened version for the documentation
b) Explanations by the Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille from August 31, 2007 on his overall report submitted under a) .
c) Press release by the Chief Public Prosecutor Heinrich Wille dated June 2, 1998 with an attached list of drugs .
  • Heinrich Wille: A murder that wasn't allowed to be. The Uwe Barschel case and the limits of the rule of law. Rotpunkt, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-85869-462-1 .
  • Munzinger archive . International Biographical Archive. 14/1988
  • Günther Potschien, Gabriele Schreib: The Barschel case: Unpublished internals - one significant step closer to the truth. VAS-Verlag für Akademische Schriften, 2018. ISBN 978-3-88864-560-0 .

Web links

Commons : Uwe Barschel  - Collection of images
Wikiquote: Uwe Barschel  - Quotes

Individual evidence

Hans Brandenberger
article: The opinion in the Barschel case of February 21, 2010 on Welt am Sonntag , accessed February 12, 2011

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Article: The report in the Barschel case

Karsten Kammholz
Why his widow believes in a murder from June 17, 2007 on Welt am Sonntag , accessed February 12, 2011

  1. ↑ a b c d Why his widow believes in murder

D. Banse and L. Wiegelmann
Uwe Barschel, the dead person in room 317 - Trace to Israel from November 21, 2010 on Welt am Sonntag , accessed February 12, 2011

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Uwe Barschel, the dead person in room 317

Contribution by Attorney General Erhard Rex
The Death of the Former Prime Minister (PDF file; 177 kB), Dr. Dr. Uwe Barschel, on October 11, 1987 in Geneva on October 25, 2007 , accessed on January 20, 2019

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u The death of the former Prime Minister
  2. ↑ a b The death of the former Prime Minister, p. 44 f.
  3. ^ The Death of the Former Prime Minister, p. 53 f.
  4. ↑ The Death of the Former Prime Minister, chap. 4, p. 9.
  5. ↑ The Death of the Former Prime Minister, chap. 12, p. 61 ff.
  6. ^ The death of the former prime minister . Cape. 12, p. 62.
  7. ↑ The Death of the Former Prime Minister, chap. 7.1, p. 12
  8. ↑ The Death of the Former Prime Minister, chap. 1, pp. 3-5

Further evidence

  1. ^ The Dönitz affair, contribution to the history competition of the Federal President 2010/2011 (pdf; 2.2 MB) , as well as Flensburger Tageblatt , December 7th, 2013: “The tolerance towards the Nazis was particularly high. Schleswig-Holstein and its affairs: The historian Frank Bösch explains why it has the image of the scandalous country: in 1963 [...] hardly anyone criticized this (sc. The Dönitz lecture) on site. The local press had praised the Grand Admiral's appearance beyond measure. It was only the Hamburg city journalists, especially Die Zeit , who successfully scandalized this. "
  2. ↑ A state secret to this day: The Barschel murder. ( Memento from October 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) In: Netzeitung . October 2, 2006 (interview with Wolfram Baentsch)
  3. ^ Lübecker Nachrichten : Airplane fire at Lübeck-Blankensee airfield , June 2, 1987
  4. ↑ May 31, 1987 - Uwe Barschel survived a plane crash: accident or assassination attempt? Record date, WDR, May 31, 2012
  5. ^ Raimund H. Drommel: The code of evil: The spectacular cases of the language profiler. Heyne, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-641-05461-8 , pp. 64, 65.
  6. ↑ Der Spiegel 42/1991: Rearview mirror
  7. ^ Final report of the committee of inquiry (PDF file; 68 MB), accessed on February 13, 2011
  8. ↑ Thomas Darnstädt: file number 33247/87 unsolved - The last days in the life of Uwe Barschel. (PDF; 801 KB) In: magazin.spiegel.de. Der Spiegel , October 6, 1997, p. 10 of the PDF file , accessed on January 27, 2019 .
  9. ↑ I have to struggle with it. How the journalist Sebastian Knauer found the dead Uwe Barschel in the bathtub . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1987 ( online - 19 October 1987 ).
  10. ↑ Robin Schwarzenbach: The Dead in the Bathtub In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of October 9, 2017
  11. ↑ "Tavor strips the ground from fear" . (PDF) In: Der Spiegel . No. 51, December 1987, pp. 96-97. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  12. ↑ Uwe Barschel: Deal resulting in death. Stern , No. 38/2007
  13. ^ BKA : Note on Barschel's death. In: FragDenStaat.de. July 18, 2018, accessed January 27, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Brandenberger report from 1994 ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.1 MB)
  15. ↑ Brandenberger report from 1997 ( Memento from December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 547 kB)
  16. ↑ Wolfram Baentsch: The double murder of Uwe Barschel. 3. Edition. Herbig, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7766-2523-3 .
  17. ^ A b Victor Ostrovsky : Mossad secret files. In: C. Bertelsmann Verlag , Munich 1994, ISBN 3-570-12174-7 .
  18. ↑ Dirk Banse and Lucas Wiegelmann: In the Barschel case, a new trail leads to the Mossad. Welt am Sonntag , November 20, 2010, accessed February 12, 2011.
  19. ↑ a b Markus Dettmer, Sven Röbel, Britta Sandberg : What is someone like that doing here? The strange double life and the strange death of Dr. Uwe Barschel (Part II) . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 2007, p. 52-63 ( Online - Oct. 15, 2007 ).
  20. ↑ a b Karsten Kammholz, Dirk Banse: Uwe Barschel and the riddle around room 317. In: Die Welt , October 6, 2007.
  21. ↑ Die Welt : CDU politician wants new investigations in the Barschel case. November 21, 2010.
  22. ↑ Lübecker Nachrichten of June 15, 2012  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ln-online.de  
  23. ↑ Genetic search for traces: the mystery of the strange hair in Barschel's hotel bed. In: Die Welt , June 23, 2011.
  24. ↑ Newspaper: Evidence in the Barschel case disappeared. PR social The press portal, September 27, 2011
  25. ↑ a b c d The traces of a stranger in Uwe Barschel's room , Welt am Sonntag from July 28, 2012
  26. ↑ Investigators find new DNA trace after 25 years , Welt am Sonntag, July 28, 2012
  27. ↑ Stern : Infographic: Death in the Bathtub
  28. ↑ Ex-investigator sees murder suspicion corroborated . In: Die Welt , September 15, 2007.
  29. ↑ : “I give you my word of honor.” Focus program on the rise and fall of Uwe Barschel . In: Spiegel TV Magazin , October 7, 2007; In: Der Spiegel , No. 40, October 8, 2007, p. 46f .; R archive: “In addition, the fragment of the imprint of another shoe was rubbed off on the shower mat. A shoe that is not Dr. Barschel belonged - a shoe with an oval tip. It must therefore be assumed that, in addition to the deceased, another person was in room 317 of the Hotel Beau-Rivage (Geneva) on the night of October 10th to 11th, 1987. "( Uwe Barschel. The preliminary investigation - Part IV )
  30. ↑ a b c Documentation by NDR by Patrik Baab, Andreas Kirsch and Stephan Lamby, broadcast on September 17, 2007 on ARD and on October 2, 2007 on NDR television
  31. ↑ [1]
  32. ↑ Peter Sandmeyer: Uwe Barschel: Deal resulting in death , Stern No. 38/2007, September 17, 2007, accessed on February 24, 2016.
  33. ↑ Barschel's greatest secret: Did the federal government tolerate a disguised triangular deal between Kiel, Rostock and Pretoria? . DER SPIEGEL 34/1991, August 19, 1991, accessed on February 24, 2016.
  34. ^ Barschel, submarine deals, drugs and murderers . welt.de, September 17, 2007, accessed on February 24, 2016.
  35. ↑ The death of Uwe Barschel. Endless scandal, NDR documentary by Patrik Baab, Andreas Kirsch and Stephan Lamby, first broadcast on September 17, 2007 on ARD
  36. ^ Barschel book remains unpublished for the time being. In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 15, 2008.
  37. ↑ Public prosecutors argue in the Barschel case. Der Tagesspiegel , June 24, 2007.
  38. ↑ It was murder. The Barschel investigator gives details. Press release from Report Munich , September 7, 2007.
  39. ↑ Legal dispute over Barschel book continues , dpa report from June 14, 2008.
  40. ↑ " Barschel Affair: Barschel's death remains a mystery ", stern.de , October 5, 2007
  41. ↑ The Barschel case concerns the investigators again. Die Welt from June 19, 2011.
  42. ↑ a b Heinrich Wille: A murder that was not allowed to be: The Uwe Barschel case and the limits of the constitutional state. Zurich 2011, ISBN 3-85869-462-2 .
  43. ↑ Barschel files remain under lock and key. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 27, 2013. Accessed December 19, 2013.
  44. ↑ The Barschel case . general-anzeiger-bonn.de, January 31, 2016, accessed on February 26, 2016
  45. ↑ KIZ - Department Head of Love (Official Video). In: YouTube. Retrieved March 21, 2016 .
  46. ^ Günter Frankenberg : The normative view: law, ethics and aesthetics of the prohibition of images . In: the same, Peter Niesen (Ed.): Ban on images: Law, ethics and aesthetics of public representation . LIT, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6986-5 , p. 38 ff.
  47. ^ German taboos: Engholm in the bathtub , stern.de , February 6, 2006
  48. ^ Hermann Meyn : The journalist in the service of information requirements and information obligations? . In Michael Haller , Helmut Holzhey (ed.): Media Ethics: Descriptions, Analyzes, Concepts for German-Language Journalism . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1991, ISBN 978-3-531-12305-9 , pp. 166, 167.
personal data
SURNAME Barschel, Uwe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the State Parliament, 1982–1987 Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Glienicke / Northern Railway
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1987
Place of death Geneva , Switzerland