Current Options
BERLIN/OSLO/STUTTGART (Own report) - The dispute over an adequate assessment of elite German officials in occupied Europe is being accentuated by calls for the resignation of Günther Oettinger, the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg. In his funeral eulogy delivered on April 11, Oettinger absolved his predecessor, Hans Filbinger, a former Nazi navy judge, of the charges of criminality. In occupied Norway, this Nazi jurist was responsible for death sentences and draconian pleas for "discipline and order" among the occupation troops. As a commissioned officer, Filbinger had ordered the execution of a German navy deserter. Leaders of all parties represented in the German parliament, Bundestag, as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel are participating in this escalating dispute, which has the appearance of a special historical debate. Mrs. Merkel criticizes the lack of a balanced representation, including the negative aspects, of Filbinger's alleged life-time achievements. "In the course of World War II, 24.559 German soldiers were sentenced to death by their own military courts," explains Heinrich Senfft, an attorney in London, in a conversation with german-foreign-policy.com. "These young men, who were executed, and the millions of others, who died on the front and in the war zones, had no opportunity for life-time achievements."
In his funeral eulogy to his late predecessor, the former Nazi navy judge, Hans Filbinger, the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Günther Oettinger, declared that Filbinger should be absolved of the charges of criminal acts. On the contrary, Filbinger should be considered as an "opponent" of the Nazi regime.[1] Oettinger repeated this assessment on Sunday April 15, after having had several days to have acquainted himself with the facts presented by numerous media organs.
After the End of the War
The guilt of the ex-Nazi navy judge, Filbinger, is a thoroughly corroborated fact since the very high-profile trial that took place in 1978, when a court in Stuttgart confirmed that Filbinger could be referred to as the "abominable jurist" because of his responsibility for numerous death sentences handed down in occupied Norway. The sentences were imposed on German soldiers, who, in the last stages of the Nazi occupation, had attempted to desert or were found guilty of minor violations of discipline. The corroborating evidence was introduced by Heinrich Senfft to the court in Stuttgart, who had been the lawyer opposing Filbinger. In a discussion with german-foreign-policy.com, Senfft recalled the case of Kurt Petzold. In a field court martial, Filbinger sentenced the soldier Petzold to six months prison - 3 weeks after the end of the war. According to Filbinger's conviction, Petzold displayed "a high degree of corruption of [Nazi] principles" and "deliberately set out to rebel against discipline and order."[2]
Reinterpretation
According to witness testimonies, the recently honored Nazi criminal, Filbinger, was already a fervent supporter of the Nazi government, which he had served as a member of the SA (Storm Section). According to an earlier companion from Freiburg, between 1935 and 1937, Filbinger wore "the brown uniform" and actively recruited fellow students for the "SA Student Storm" and the SS troops.[3] The press has made it clear that these facts were not simply ignored in the funeral eulogy, they underwent a deliberate reinterpretation. According to the media, the author of the eulogy, delivered by Prime Minister Oettinger, was a "rightwing conservative speech writer" in the chancellery in Stuttgart.[4]
Point of Controversy
This background points to a consolidated effort by this milieu politically situated in high offices and explains the excitement provoked at the leadership of the parties. On the one hand, this so-called "unfortunate" funeral eulogy, glorifying a Nazi criminal, exposes the creeping process of rapprochement in which levels of state are converging with historical revisionist elements. Even though this process has been obvious and has been observable for years,[5] the prime minister's public display was an embarrassment to the parties of the Bundestag, forcing them to seek justifications. On the other hand, this eulogy of the Nazi criminal, delivered by Filbinger's successor in Stuttgart, contains political assessments, that could also imply the current situation, where the only point of controversy would be to define the necessary means to be used for subjugating Europe.
Reversion
Whereas the right-wing conservative camp does not exclude a reversion back to methods drawn from Filbinger's arsenal, liberal economic circles shy from such a perspective. The debate that has erupted between the two camps is around the current options open to German foreign policy and could bring about Oettinger's resignation. The attorney Heinricht Senfft, said in his conversation with german-foreign-policy.com that when Oettinger "held this scandalous funeral eulogy, he was either negligently not or deliberately false informed."
Please read also the complete Interview with Heinrich Senfft (in German).
[1] Oettinger bekräftigt Würdigung für Filbinger; Reuters 15.04.2007
[2] Tür aufgestoßen; Interview mit Heinrich Senfft
[3] Helmut Bitzer: Offener Brief, 30.05.1978
[4] Das Trauerspiel des Günther Oettinger; Welt online 15.04.2007
[5] see also Heroes and Back to the roots