Hans Filbinger

Hans Karl Filbinger, politician and judge: born Mannheim, Germany 15 September 1913; married Ingeborg Breuer (one son, four daughters); died Freiburg, Germany 1 April 2007.

Hans Filbinger's life revealed how Hitler's Third Reich has continued to haunt the German political scene. A highly popular Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, he was forced out of office in 1978 because of his wartime activities and was still under fire in 2004.

A Catholic, born in Mannheim in 1913, Filbinger studied law in Freiburg, Munich and Paris. Having joined the Catholic youth organisation at school, he remained a member until it was banned by the Nazis. According to the news magazine Der Spiegel, Filbinger also joined the Nazi student organisation, the SA stormtroopers and, in 1937, the Nazi party. In 1940 he passed his state law exam and a few months later was called up for service in the navy. He was posted to the naval legal service.

In 1946, Filbinger returned to academic work at Freiburg University and also worked as a lawyer. He joined the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in 1951 and in 1960 was elected to the regional parliament. Weeks later Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, invited him to take over as Minister of Interior of the state. When in 1966 Kiesinger was elected Chancellor of Germany, Filbinger succeeded him as Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister.

In 1969, when Willy Brandt became West German Chancellor, Filbinger took up a position as a strong opponent of Brandt's Social-Liberal coalition. He increased the CDU vote in Baden- Württemberg in the regional elections of 1972, and again in 1976, campaigning under the slogan "Freedom instead of Socialism". Some saw Filbinger as a possible future Chancellor of West Germany. However, he was hit by two scandals.

In October 1977, the imprisoned leaders of the Red Army Faction, one of West Germany's most militant left-wing groups, were discovered dead in their cells in Stammheim jail. Andreas Baader had a gunshot wound in the back of his head and Gudrun Ensslin was hanged in her cell. Jan-Carl Raspe died in hospital the following day from a gunshot to the head. Irmgard Möller, who had several stab wounds, survived. As the prison was in Baden-Württemberg, Filbinger's government was heavily criticised for this fiasco. Some even believed it had a hand in the deaths.

In 1978, Filbinger's career was finally torpedoed by the dramatist Rolf Hochhuth who denounced him for his wartime activities. Hochhuth wrote in the weekly Die Zeit that in January 1945 Filbinger was part of the team that condemned the 22-year-old sailor Walter Gröger to death. Later, Filbinger admitted that he had been involved with two other death sentences, in January and April 1945, only days before the war's end.

He made the mistake of first attempting to deny the facts, and then not expressing regret for his activities. He argued that death sentences for desertion were common in armies in wartime. Few accused him of being a fanatical Nazi and it was revealed that he had attempted to get lesser sentences in some cases. Filbinger resigned on 7 August 1978, although he remained honorary chairman of the Baden- Württemberg CDU until 1997.

Filbinger continued to defend himself over the years, fighting successful court actions against his detractors. In 1987, he published his memoirs, Die geschmähte Generation ("The Slandered Generation"). However, in 2004, aged 90, he was in the spotlight again when he was included by the CDU as the oldest member of the body, the Federal Assembly, which elected the German President, Horst Köhler, provoking an outcry from Social Democrats, Greens, intellectuals and Jewish leaders.

David Childs

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