1. Hans Karl Filbinger was a conservative German politician and a leading member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union in the 1960s and 1970s, serving as the first chairman of the CDU Baden-Wurttemberg and vice chairman of the federal CDU.
46 Facts About Hans Filbinger
1. 2.
Hans Filbinger founded the conservative think tank Studienzentrum Weikersheim, which he chaired until 1997.
3.
Hans Filbinger was born on 15 September 1913 in Mannheim, Grand Duchy of Baden.
4.
Hans Filbinger studied law and economics at the University of Freiburg, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and in Paris.
5.
Hans Filbinger first came into contact with Nazi organisations as a student.
6.
Hans Filbinger, who was a leading member in the district of Northern Baden, in April 1933 called his fellow members to continue their work with their previous intentions and issue a programme for the upcoming future.
7.
On 1 June 1933, Hans Filbinger joined the Sturmabteilung, and later the National Socialist students federation, but largely remained an inactive member.
8.
Hans Filbinger was promoted to the rank of Oberfahnrich and later to that of lieutenant.
9.
Hans Filbinger served in the legal department until the end of the war in 1945.
10.
Hans Filbinger used his periods of leave to return to Freiburg and attend lectures by Reinhold Schneider, a writer critical of the Nazi regime.
11.
In 1946, Hans Filbinger resumed his academic work at the university of Freiburg, subscribing to Walter Eucken's ordoliberalism, and settled down as lawyer.
12.
In 1951 Hans Filbinger joined the Christian Democratic Union and rose to be chairman of the CDU of Southern Baden.
13.
In 1953, Hans Filbinger was elected to the city council of Freiburg.
14.
In 1966, minister-president Kurt Georg Kiesinger was elected Chancellor of Germany and Hans Filbinger succeeded him as minister-president of Baden-Wurttemberg.
15.
Dramatic negotiations resulted in Hans Filbinger forming a CDU-SPD government, mirroring the Federal Great Coalition.
16.
Hans Filbinger himself hailed from Baden and after the court had reiterated its earlier verdict in 1969, the Filbinger administration in 1970 held a second referendum in Baden, which resulted in an overwhelming approval of the merger.
17.
Hans Filbinger has been dubbed "architect of Baden-Wurttemberg's unity" for this.
18.
Hans Filbinger pushed his party, that still was organized as four distinct regional parties to unite into a single CDU of Baden-Wurttemberg and was duly elected the first chairman.
19.
Hans Filbinger was a staunch opponent of leftist tendencies in politics and the universities, and figured prominently in the struggle against terrorism.
20.
Hans Filbinger was elected a member of federal CDU executive board and deputy chairman.
21.
On 29 May 1945, Hans Filbinger presided at the trial against artillery man Petzold and sentenced him to six months imprisonment for incitement of discontent, refusal of obedience and resistance.
22.
Hans Filbinger immediately reacted by filing a lawsuit against the Spiegel, demanding that the Spiegel desist from making such a claim.
23.
Later the Petzold trial was confused with other cases involving Hans Filbinger, creating the legend that Hans Filbinger had sentenced a soldier to death for having spoken out against Nazism after German surrender.
24.
Hochhuth accused Hans Filbinger of having "participated" in four death sentences as a navy lawyer.
25.
Hans Filbinger abstained from appealing the court's decision, and though Hochhuth did not repeat his "illegality" charges the other allegation were echoed and variegated by the media.
26.
In three of these cases, Hans Filbinger was the attorney for the prosecution, in two cases he had been the presiding judge and in one case he had interfered from outside.
27.
Hans Filbinger appended this report to the verdict that had to be sent to the superior commander for confirmation and as the commander asked Hans Filbinger to comment on the question whether the man should be pardoned, the prosecutor made the case for commuting the death penalty into a prison sentence.
28.
Hans Filbinger himself called his actions "an act of artifice, of manipulation, a lie, without a doubt".
29.
On 16 March 1945 Groger was executed and, according to military custom, Hans Filbinger supervised the execution.
30.
In two cases Hans Filbinger saved opponents of the regime from execution: He interfered in the confirmation process of the case of military chaplain Mobius, who had been sentenced to death for a political statement.
31.
On 17 April 1945, Hans Filbinger chaired the absentia trial against an Oberststeuermann who had taken his boat and fourteen seamen to Sweden and sentenced the senior NCO to death for desertion and undermining morale.
32.
Hans Filbinger was not only criticized for his actions during the war, but for his reactions to the allegations in 1978: In his first reactions to the allegations, Hans Filbinger had claimed that he had "never issued a single death sentence", which was later contradicted by the revelation of the two in absentia cases from April 1945.
33.
That Hans Filbinger recalled the two death sentences of 1945 only during the controversy in 1978 seemed incredible and outrageous to many.
34.
Hans Filbinger explained this by characterizing the verdicts as "phantom verdicts" with no further consequences for the absent defendants.
35.
The Spiegel interpreted the quote as a justification of Nazi laws, whereas Hans Filbinger had referred to the military penal code of 1872, that was in force throughout the Second World War.
36.
Hans Filbinger complained that his quote had been edited and taken out of context and his then spokesman Gerhard Goll, who had been present during the interview, called the magazine's interpretation "not only untrue but an infamy".
37.
Goll stated that Hans Filbinger was referring in particular the fact that all nations in 1945 considered the death penalty as an adequate and necessary deterrent against desertion, whereas he had always considered and labelled the Nazi state as a "tyranny of injustice".
38.
Still, the quote as originally published stuck with Hans Filbinger and has been the basis of much of the recurring criticism.
39.
Hans Filbinger has been criticized for not enquiring about other cases after the first allegations, for not being forthcoming enough or for placing too much emphasis on the legal dimension of the allegations.
40.
Hans Filbinger had to relinquish his offices in the federal party, resigning as deputy chairman in 1978 and giving up his seat on the executive board in 1981.
41.
In 1987, Hans Filbinger published his memoirs titled Die geschmahte Generation, in which he again defended himself against his critics.
42.
Stasi document P3333 reveals that Hans Filbinger had been spied on since the end of the 1960s.
43.
On 16 September 2003, a day after his 90th birthday, Hans Filbinger was honoured by a reception at Ludwigsburg Palace.
44.
Hans Filbinger has been elected to the Federal Convention as a representative of Baden-Wurrtemberg's parliament in 1959,1969,1974,1994,1999, and 2004.
45.
However, on 31 March 2004, all candidates, including Hans Filbinger, were unanimously confirmed by all parties in the state parliament, including the SPD and Green groupings.
46.
Hans Filbinger died on 1 April 2007 in Freiburg im Breisgau.