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Building of the FDP federal headquarters in Berlin's Reinhardtstrasse
Photo: Dirk Sattler / imago images
The FDP could lose control of large parts of its real estate assets.
According to SPIEGEL, the background is a power struggle in the party's own real estate holding company, which, among other things, is the owner of the liberal federal office in Berlin-Mitte and the former FDP party headquarters in Bonn.
In addition to the FDP, a wealthy family of aristocratic origin holds a stake in Reinhardtstraßenhöfe GmbH & Co. KG and currently holds around 46 percent of the limited partners' contributions.
Over the past 20 years, the family has repeatedly pumped millions into the company and helped the FDP with lavish loans in times of need.
But now there has been a dispute between the party and its long-term supporters: The family wants to take over the majority in the FDP company - and with it control over the party property.
To do this, she wants to increase her limited partner's share by around 2.4 million euros, which the Liberals are trying with all their might to prevent.
Party headquarters as an object of speculation?
In the meantime, the case is preoccupying the Bonn regional court: The family has filed a lawsuit against the FDP and wants them to be legally obliged to enable the capital increase. According to internal documents, she is referring to an agreement with the party, according to which she can convert years of interest waivers into capital shares. This would give the family a limited partner's share of 51.1 percent. It is reportedly considering selling its shares on the open market. This would also make the Berlin Filet property with the FDP party headquarters an object of speculation on the real estate market.
Neither the family nor the party wanted to comment on the litigation when asked.
Since this is "an ongoing civil law process", "we will not provide any information before the conclusion of this process," said an FDP spokeswoman for SPIEGEL.
The legal dispute between the party and the investors was preceded by a decades-long, symbiotic business relationship: while the FDP discreetly outsourced multi-million dollar risks from its real estate business to the private limited partnership, the investor family was able to benefit from considerable tax advantages thanks to the losses.
The FDP real estate holding company, which was founded in 1995 and previously operated under the name Liberal Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH & Co Vermögensfonds KG, had been in the red for years.
According to the latest FDP report, the Bonn-based company is now generating positive business results.
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