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Defendant F. with lawyer Goecke (l.): Information on the curriculum vitae
Photo:
Axel Heimken / picture alliance / dpa
Klaus-Dieter F. starts the engine of his World War II tank and is happy.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine this scene when you see the 84-year-old in the dock in the district court of Kiel.
It was described by a collector colleague from the Black Forest who was connected to the courtroom via video and told how he visited F. many years ago in Heikendorf in Schleswig-Holstein and sold him an 8.8-centimeter anti-aircraft gun.
The man spoke of "impressive" impressions back then in the defendant's villa and of annoying calls today.
In the past few weeks, F. had often asked for papers confirming the demilitarization of the flak.
"That bordered on harassment," said the man from the Black Forest.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to imagine that either.
Klaus-Dieter F.'s life's work is in danger.
The wealthy pensioner is charged with violating the War Weapons Control Act and other violations of the law on weapons, which are punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.
Führerbunker on the Kiel Fjord
It concerns the unauthorized possession of the Wehrmacht tank of the brand »Panther« from 1944, the anti-aircraft cannon, a torpedo of the G7A type, a mortar type »5 cm grenade launcher 36«, machine guns, assault rifles and rocket rifles, semi and fully automatic pistols as well as more than 1000 rounds of ammunition and nitrocellulose powder.
The crucial question is: Were tanks, flak and mortars still functional?
What matters less in court is the kind of Führerbunker that F. had set up in his villa on the Kiel Fjord: a world full of illuminated SS runes, swastikas on tablecloths, imperial eagles and flags; with a bust of Adolf Hitler and an oversized imperial eagle in the underground car park and with more than a hundred mannequins in uniform. As long as he does not display these devotional objects in public, he does not make himself liable to prosecution. F. does not want to comment on the allegations of the public prosecutor's office.
The court still has to get an idea of the accused.
In this case it would be interesting to find out why F. collects Nazi souvenirs in such a way.
But the businessman doesn't want to say anything about that.
His lawyer Gerald Goecke describes the vita of the 84-year-old in a few words: born, raised and graduated from high school in Kiel, studied economics, which he finished with a permanent position without a degree.
In 1962, F. married a dentist, commuted to Hamburg on weekdays for work and finally founded his own company as a financial broker.
Up until the time his property was searched in the summer of 2015, F. had been "economically successful", but since then he has lived on savings and sales of items from his collection.
Goecke keeps the remarks on the curriculum vitae sober.
He wanted to protect his client's personal rights, since the proceedings were "closely monitored by the media".
This may be due to the sensational recovery of the tank in July 2015, for which the Bundeswehr was deployed with a large number.
The spectacle at that time went around half the world.
Connection to the Dänischenhagen murder?
But it could also be due to an article in the "Kieler Nachrichten" that spoiled F. the past weekend. His name appears in it because of a possible connection with another investigation: a dentist is said to have shot his wife and boyfriend, who was separated from him, and a mutual acquaintance in Kiel in Dänischenhagen in Schleswig-Holstein. The 47-year-old is said to have used a submachine gun in the act in Dänischenhagen and then handed it over to a helper. The newspaper reports that he dismantled the weapon and made it disappear in various places. Police divers found the first individual parts in the Kiel Canal, in the port basin of Eckernförde and in the Kiel Fjord.
This alleged helper, a 48-year-old man from Düsternbrook, is related to the wife of Fs, according to "Kieler Nachrichten": He is said to be her cousin's son. In the district court of Kiel it is a concern of lawyer Goecke to convey to the chamber, chaired by Stephan Worpenberg, that F. had no contact with this relative of his wife. F. last met him when he was a toddler: on vacation in Denmark in 1973. The assumptions that are now being made are "bad" for F. and his wife, Goecke states and adds: "For me and my family too, by the way. "
The suspect dentist is in custody and has admitted the shots.
As a hunter, he is said to have had a considerable arsenal of weapons.
His alleged helper also seems to be equally enthusiastic about weapons.
According to "Kieler Nachrichten", the police seized weapons at his address in 1997 - including a carbine from Wehrmacht stocks.
Last summer, the man was suspected of having handled explosives.
Protocols of intercepted phone calls
On that day, public prosecutor Thorsten Wolke submitted evidence to the Kiel district court to prove that F. did not want to know anything about the demilitarization of his guns from the »Third Reich«.
It concerns logs of intercepted telephone calls that F. is said to have made after the tank was recovered.
"I wanted to prepare the tank as it came from the factory," F. is said to have said on July 12, 2015.
In a phone call on August 12, 2015, a person he was speaking to reminded him of the fact that he had repeatedly advised him to demilitarize the tank.
"But you, Mr. F., said: I'll do the devil," the public prosecutor quotes from the minutes.
Defense attorney Goecke rejects all of the prosecutor's requests "because of insignificance" and speaks of "daring conclusions" which the prosecution draws from the surveillance protocols.
"If such scraps of conversation may have fallen, no facts result from it."
The board shares his view and rejects the requests.
The conversations did not show that F. acted knowingly.
Judge Worpenberg mentioned again that the court assumed that the tank was "a military-historical weapon with a museum function" and that the mortar was inoperative.
After the negotiation, those involved in the process sat down again for a mutual understanding.
Several of these rounds have already failed.