Status: 02.09.2023, 18:05 p.m.
By: Falk Steiner
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At that time, they were still looking each other in the eye: Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser and former BSI President Arne Schönbohm in August 2022. © Political-Moments/Imago
The former president of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, has filed a lawsuit against his employer.
The Minister of the Interior had certainly imagined the end of the Berlin summer break differently: The former president of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, who was chased out of office by Nancy Faeser, is suing his employer. Formally, the proceedings before the Administrative Court of Cologne are about 5,000 euros in damages. In fact, it is about Schönbohm's reputation – and thus about the one who is said to have damaged this reputation: Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser. Her action against Schönbohm is now becoming dangerous for the SPD politician herself – and at the worst possible time for her.
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This analysis is IPPEN. MEDIA in the course of a cooperation with the Berlin.Table Professional Briefing – it was first published by Berlin.Table on 01 September 2023.
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Satire broadcast as a security risk
In mid-October 2022, Minister Schönbohm had prohibited the conduct of official business. The reason: A few days earlier, ZDF satirist Jan Böhmermann had described the BSI president as a threat to Germany's cyber security in a broadcast – without being able to provide concrete evidence of this. But at the head of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Schönbohm was suddenly considered intolerable after the broadcast.
But Schönbohm, a CDU member and son of the former Brandenburg Minister of the Interior Jörg Schönbohm, was and is not a political official, like the presidents of the BKA and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He could not, therefore, be put into temporary retirement without further ado. What followed was an idiosyncratic long-distance duel: experts against the house management.
Schönbohm could not be proven to have committed any wrongdoing
Schönbohm was certain that he had always acted correctly as a civil servant. BSI Vice President Gerhard Schabhüser wrote a letter to the ministry shortly before the ban on holding office, in which he called on the BMI to take a more active step in countering misrepresentations. The incidents would damage the reputation of the cybersecurity authority. And Schabhüser explained in minute detail why Schönbohm had not made any mistakes.
Faeser's Ministry of the Interior was of little interest. Instead, it launched complicated reshuffle operations. At the end of December, the Budget Committee increased the position of the tiny Federal Academy of Public Administration so that it formally corresponded to Schönbohm's grade. In this way, the BMI legally strangled a lawsuit filed by Schönbohm against the ban on conducting official business. Because it now had a new use, hardly contestable under civil service law. Schönbohm's request to the BMI to open formal disciplinary proceedings against him in order to have all allegations clarified was also not complied with. Instead, the BMI took a completely different path.
Faeser wanted to let the BfV search for incriminating material
None other than the Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser herself, had her subordinate authorities look for indications of Schönbohm's misconduct. This is shown by an internal document from the central department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which has now been published by Bild. Even the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is supposed to find and monitor terrorists, spies and enemies of democracy, was supposed to look for evidence in March 2023 at Faeser's request.
By then, the officials in her house had long since considered the examination to be completed – in favor of Schönbohm. However, the fact that an interior minister wants to have the Office for the Protection of the Constitution search for incriminating material against her own high-ranking official is likely to be a unique event in the history of the Federal Republic since reunification. Even after Faeser's intervention, no further relevant indications of Schönbohm's misconduct were found – as predicted by his own officials. In May, the investigation was declared complete.
Faeser's mistake becomes a problem in the election campaign
Faeser himself has not commented on the matter to this day. When asked about the incident, the Minister of the Interior, who wants to become Prime Minister in Hesse in October, always reads the same statement: The BSI now has an excellent president in Claudia Plattner.
Schönbohm has now chosen the only way he has left to clear his name: He wants to have the court determine that Faeser and the BMI have violated the duties of care that the employer has in civil service law. For the Minister of the Interior, the procedure comes at an inopportune time: She has to ask herself again why she hastily removed Schönbohm from office – and still cannot admit this mistake. And can a minister who is said to have personally violated her duty of care as an employer remain in office? This is no longer decided only by the voters in Hesse – but also by the administrative judges in Cologne.
In the evening, the Federal Ministry of the Interior commented on Schönbohm's complaint in a taciturn manner: "As usual, it could not comment on possible individual personnel matters". Even the former BSI president himself does not comment on the facts.