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In the second corruption proceeding against the former mayor of Regensburg, Joachim Wolbergs, the prosecution demands a suspended sentence. Those who expected a business statement will be instructed otherwise.
Anyone expecting a business statement in this very special process knows best at 9.09 a.m. Chief Prosecutor Jürgen Kastenmeier places a thick file on the lectern, looks out onto the dock and says, “I must salute you. From the dead horse.” You should know: Peter Witting, an advocate for former Regensburg Mayor Joachim Wolbergs, accused prosecutors in the trial of riding “a dead horse” on his charges. At 9:09 a.m., the message of the statement is clear, even before the statement has begun: the prosecution is still alive, even after 28 days of trial. For prosecutors, one thing is certain: Wolbergs is guilty.
One year and ten months on probation. For bribery in two cases, for acceptance of advantage in three cases, for infidelity. The prosecutor will request this punishment on Tuesday in the Regensburg regional court in Wolbergs’ second trial. The former mayor, who is behind the Plexiglas due to the crown pandemic, takes note of the requested sentence. Nothing moves on his face. Wolbergs expected this. Everyone expected it.
At the beginning of the statement, it is not about paragraphs or evidence. The prosecutor’s appeal begins, it can hardly be called otherwise: with an agreement. He has been doing this work “for more than 20 years,” said Chief Prosecutor Kastenmeier. He had dealt with murderers and homicides. “I have never hated myself as much as with Mr. Wolbergs.” You should also know that: In the first corruption process, Wolbergs had mocked the superior prosecutor over and over again. Like “Anstandswauwau”, like “Oberbergschaftler”. This continued in the second process. But the truth is also that prosecutors made no effort to calm the heated climate between the accused and the accused.
Wolbergs not only once accused the two prosecutors of “turning it on,” the mayor. And for no reason, just for the pleasure of shining. Now, in the guilty plea, Chief Prosecutor Kastenmeier responds: “If anyone set himself on fire, it was Mr. Wolbergs himself.” The former mayor poured donations from the construction industry “until it was soaked.” The fact that Wolbergs claims that the prosecutor’s office “destroyed and divided the city of Regensburg” only shows how much Wolbergs “overestimated its importance,” says Kastenmeier. One should not confuse “cause and effect”. “The author of this criminal procedure is primarily the author.”
The image that Kastenmeier and his colleague Wolfgang Voit paint in their plea is that of a criminal system in which contractors brazenly threw bribes, and one politician at least voluntarily extended his hand. When the trial began in the fall of 2019, three men from the construction industry were still sitting on the dock in room 104 of the regional court. One of the procedures against paying a cash payment was terminated. The case against another defendant has been cut, the verdict has already been pronounced: bribery. A fourth man, contractor Thomas D., only appeared as a witness at trial. He had already accepted a criminal order in the spring of 2018. Other than Wolbergs, only businessman Ferdinand Schmack remains as the accused on Tuesday. For him, the prosecution requires one year and four months in prison for probation for bribery and the granting of benefits.
The Schmack complex is about donations in the amount of 80,000 euros, which Schmack and his brother, against whom the process was terminated, are transferred to the account of the local association SPD Regensburg Stadtsüden. When the money flowed, Wolbergs was still a member of the SPD and president of the local SPD association, through whose account he funded his very expensive election campaign for the 2014 OB election. Schmack’s donations flowed when Wolbergs was not yet OB but the third mayor, but according to the prosecutor, with the aim of “weighing” Wolbergs so that he could campaign for the construction projects of the Schmack brothers after the electoral victory.
The prosecutor says the brothers met dozens of times in person to talk to Wolbergs, as shown in their diaries. And also in this strange list of construction projects that the Schmacks sent to the OB directly the day after their second round of elections in March 2014. Headline: “OB List.” The Schmacks listed twelve points, each marked “To do.” In the fall of 2016, Wolbergs personally signed a building permit for one of the projects, although the project was controversial in city administration. Did the firm have anything to do with donations? Wolbergs says no. The public prosecutor’s office sees this as proven.
Prosecutor Kastenmeier describes the relationship between Wolbergs and businessman Thomas D. as: “Two caretakers before the Lord.” One had been in charge of promoting the donor construction project. The other had arranged for Wolbergs to pay for his campaign, and for the private debts the former OB had incurred as a result of the campaign. “Apparently, people understood each other blindly,” says Kastenmeier. Once Thomas D. had reported as a witness, Wolbergs approached him with a particularly high donation request. Kastenmeier comments the following: “The current mayor of the city of Regensburg goes to a property developer and says: he would need 200,000 euros. Dear people, stop them!”
Wolberg Witting’s lawyer will make his statement next Monday. Wolbergs denies the allegations. Witting will likely request an acquittal.
