Wilhelm Droste (politician, 1933)

Wilhelm Droste (born March 9, 1933 in Altena ) is a German politician ( CDU ) and was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1970 to 1985 .

Life and work

After attending elementary school and high school, Droste completed an apprenticeship as a confectioner, passed the journeyman's examination in 1952 and then attended the technical school for confectioners. In 1957 he passed the master craftsman's examination and from 1960 ran his own confectionery with a café in Ratingen -Hösel. He was also head master of the confectioners' guild in the Mettmann district .

Droste is widowed and has four children. His eldest son of the same name, Wilhelm , also became a CDU politician and was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament from 1995 to 2016 in the same constituency as his father and since 2006 legal advisor for the CDU parliamentary group.

His daughter Dr. Bernadette Droste is also a lawyer and CDU member and heads the state representation of Hesse in Berlin. Another son, Dr. Andreas Droste is a notary in Burscheid. The youngest son Michael is a master confectioner and now runs the family business in Ratingen.

From 1990 he expanded the business together with his son Michael to Wilhelm Droste and Michael Droste GbR, a chain of six confectionary cafés in Ratingen and neighboring towns. Construction work to the value of DM 324,000 flowed into the expansion, which Droste received in his role as a politician from a building contractor active in Ratingen.

Party and public office

Droste joined the CDU in 1956. In 1979 he became deputy chairman of the CDU city association Ratingen.

Droste was the last mayor of the community of Hösel (4246 inhabitants, as of 1964) from 1964 to 1974 . From 1964 to 1974 he was a member of the official representation of the Angerland office and from 1972 to 1974 last mayor.

From July 26, 1970 to May 29, 1985 he was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament as a directly elected member, in the 7th and 8th electoral terms for the constituency 062 Düsseldorf-Mettmann III and in the 9th electoral term for the constituency 042 Mettmann III (Heiligenhaus / Ratingen). 1985 Droste lost the constituency to Dr. Hans Kraft (SPD).

From 1975 he was a member of the council of the city of Ratingen, where he was chairman of the CDU parliamentary group and deputy mayor for many years. In 2000 Droste resigned from all political offices shortly before the state elections after allegations of bribery.

Criminal proceedings for bribery

Wilhelm Droste was found guilty of bribery as a member of parliament in criminal proceedings and only escaped the first nationwide conviction of a politician for bribery of members of parliament because the Düsseldorf Regional Court missed a deadline. The public prosecutor had asked for a year in prison.

According to the public prosecutor's office, Droste, as a city council member and deputy mayor, had a building contractor buy his vote and his influence as a “strong man” of the CDU parliamentary group for a development plan in Ratingen. In return, the building contractor renovated and expanded the confectioner's cafés and his house with contributions in kind amounting to around DM 147,000. He accepted 13 individual donations over the years.

The public prosecutor's office in Wuppertal brought charges against this in 2004. The Düsseldorf Regional Court delayed the opening of the proceedings until 2006 in order to await a landmark judgment by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). It was decided in May 2006 that elected politicians are not public officials and therefore cannot be charged with bribery in office. The criminal proceedings were then opened in July 2006 on the criminal offense of bribery of parliamentarians, the ten-year statute of limitations of which is much shorter. This limitation period ended for Droste's offense in November 2006, because the final vote on the land-use plan took place on November 26, 1996. In March 2007, the Düsseldorf District Court found Droste guilty of the offense of bribery as a member of parliament, but acquitted him because of the statute of limitations. The judge justified the fact that he had not pronounced the verdict in good time before the expiry of the statute of limitations with "work overload".

In a second bribery complex, Droste received further construction work worth DM 177,000 from the same building contractor from 1997 to 1999. Following a similar model, he had influenced the advice and resolution of the Ratingen development plan "Calor Emag" in the interests of the entrepreneur. In this second charge, the Düsseldorf Regional Court initially acquitted the politician. The judge did not want to establish with absolute certainty a causal connection with the decision of the development plan in the interests of the building contractor. According to the judgment, the sum could also have been paid for “general good behavior”. Droste called this court decision "glorious".

The Federal Court lifted in January 2008 in the revision of the entire judgment on. He justified his highest instance judgment with incomplete assessment of evidence by the Düsseldorf Regional Court. The Federal Prosecutor's Office had questioned the statute of limitations in the first case, among other things, because the later payments in the second case could constitute continued bribery. The court saw as evidence of the direct connection between bribery and voting that the bribe payments had been made the day before the council votes. The BGH referred the case back to the lower instance for a new hearing and decision, but no longer to the Düsseldorf Regional Court, but to the Essen Regional Court.

In September 2009 it was announced that the proceedings against Droste in accordance with Section 153a of the Code of Criminal Procedure against payment of a fine of EUR 100,000 and the proceedings against the building contractor Joachim T. against payment of EUR 15,000 or 500 hours of unpaid work will be discontinued . Droste and T. no longer opposed the allegations, which the chamber took as a confession.

Web links

• Wilhelm Droste at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Internet presence of the confectionery-café chain

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Droste trial begins today in the regional court. In: Rheinische Post , January 15, 2007.
2. ↑ One year imprisonment for ex-CDU MPs for corruption demanded. In: Aachener Zeitung , March 29, 2007.
3. ↑ End of a long affair. Ratinger Wochenblatt, March 30, 2007.
4. ^ Politicians in court for bribery.  ( 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. In: Leverkusener Anzeiger , January 15, 2007.  
5. ↑ CDU politician received € 75,000 bribe money - and remains unpunished. In: Spiegel Online , March 30, 2007.
6. ↑ Corrupt, bribed - and unpunished. In: Spiegel Online , March 30, 2007.
7. ^ Ratinger bribery scandal at the BGH. In: Kölnische Rundschau , January 10, 2008.
8. ↑ Judgment of the Federal Court of Justice file number 3 StR 462/07. January 10, 2008 (PDF file).
9. ↑ Ex-politician Droste has to pay 100,000 euros.  ( 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. In: Rheinische Post , September 19, 2009.