Uwe Barschel

Uwe Barschel
Barschel on a 1987 campaign poster
Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein
In office 14 October 1982 – 2 October 1987
Deputy	Henning Schwarz
Preceded by	Gerhard Stoltenberg
Succeeded by	Henning Schwarz (interim)
Schleswig-Holstein Cabinet Minister of the Interior In office 1 July 1979 – 4 October 1982 Minister-President Gerhard Stoltenberg Preceded by Rudolf Titzck Succeeded by Karl Eduard Claussen Minister of Finance In office 1 January 1979 – 30 June 1979 Minister-President Gerhard Stoltenberg Preceded by Gerd Lausen Succeeded by Rudolf Titzck
Landtag career Leader of the Christian Democratic Union in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein In office 15 May 1973 – 8 January 1979 Preceded by Gerd Lausen Succeeded by Heiko Hoffmann Member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein for Lauenburg-Süd In office 24 May 1971 – 11 October 1987 Preceded by Paul Rohloff Succeeded by Frank Millack
Personal details
Born	Uwe Ulrich Barschel (1944-05-13)13 May 1944 Glienicke/Nordbahn, Province of Brandenburg, Free State of Prussia, Nazi Germany (now Brandenburg, Germany)
Died	11 October 1987(1987-10-11) (aged 43) Beau-Rivage, Geneva, Switzerland
Cause of death	Drug overdose
Resting place	Mölln
Political party	Christian Democratic Union (1962–1987)
Spouse	Freya Barschel ​ (m. 1973)​
Children	4
Residence	Mölln
Alma mater	University of Kiel
Occupation	Politician Notary Lawyer
Cabinet	Stoltenberg II, Stoltenberg III, Barschel I, Barschel II

Uwe Barschel (13 May 1944 – 11 October 1987) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1982 to 1987.

Barschel resigned as Minister-President shortly after he became embroiled in a scandal known as Waterkantgate for alleged spying on his Social Democrat rival during the 1987 state election. On 11 October 1987, nine days after his resignation, Barschel was found dead under mysterious circumstances at the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Geneva, Switzerland. While a police investigation concluded that Barschel had committed suicide, the circumstances of his death remain controversial.

Barschel, having assumed office of Minister-President at the age of 38 and died at 43, is to date the youngest head of government of a federal state in Germany and the youngest former Minister-President to die.

Early life

In 1963, Barschel was among a group of Geesthacht students who attended a school assembly which featured former admiral and convicted war criminal Karl Dönitz, speaking at the invitation of a pro-Nazi history teacher. The event, during which Dönitz gave an apologia for Nazi ideology with no rebuttal from students and staff, caused a furore when it was reported by the West German and international press.

Barschel studied public law, economics, political science and education at the University of Kiel. Upon graduating in 1971, he was admitted to the bar and began working as a lawyer and notary. In addition to his legal and political activities, Barschel also developed an interest in science. He was reportedly preparing to withdraw from politics in the middle of the 1987 legislative session, and had almost completed his habilitation thesis at the time of his death.

Political career

On 31 May 1987, shortly before the start of the 1987 state election campaign, a plane carrying Barschel and his bodyguard crashed on approach at Lübeck Airport. Both of the pilots, Elisabeth Friske and Michael Heise, were killed in the crash, and Barschel's bodyguard succumbed to his injuries at hospital a few days later.

Controversy

On 13 September 1987, the day before the election, the magazine Der Spiegel reported an account by Reiner Pfeiffer, Barschel's media adviser, that Barschel had ordered him to spy on the SPD's top candidate, Björn Engholm, with the aim of embarking on a smear campaign implicating Engholm in tax evasion. Pfeiffer further claimed to have been ordered to install a bugging device in Barschel's phone and accuse the SPD of being the perpetrators. The subsequent scandal became known as the "Barschel affair" or "Waterkant-Gate" (an allusion to the Watergate scandal, with Waterkant (from Low German "waterside").

Death

Barschel's autopsy uncovered a total of eight drugs in his system, including the sedatives lorazepam, diazepam, diphenhydramine, and perazine, along with the barbiturate cyclobarbitone and the sleep aid pyrithyldione. The Geneva prosecutor determined that Barschel's death was self-inflicted, and that he overdosed on these medications before stepping into the bath. This method of suicide corresponded with a guide published by a German right to die advocacy group. However, Barschel's widow and four children did not agree with this interpretation of the facts and were convinced that he was actually murdered.

Alternative theories around Barschel's death

Various mysteries around Barschel's death are discussed in a January 1995 Washington Post article based on German, Spanish and Swiss police investigations of the murder, and the possible motives for it. The article reported that the Barschel case had been reopened as a murder investigation because of evidence of third-party involvement.

2011 Barschel case review

On 12 June 2011, the Public Prosecution Department of Lübeck announced that the Barschel case would be re-opened and re-examined, with more sophisticated techniques such as DNA profiling being employed to find out the actual circumstances of the politician's demise.

See also

• List of unsolved deaths

References

Additional sources

• Thomas Ramge: Die großen Polit-Skandale. Eine andere Geschichte der Bundesrepublik. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-593-37069-7, p. 198-227 (restricted online version (google books))
• Article on Uwe Barschel on the website of the Deutsche Welle
• Family Says German Was Slain. Reuters article on the website of The New York Times
• [1] Short documentary on the Barschel case