The voted-out Frankfurt Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) has been fined in two cases for accepting an advantage. Feldmann has to pay 120 daily rates of 175 euros, as the Frankfurt Regional Court announced on Friday. He also has to pay a value replacement of almost 6000 euros. The proceedings concerned Feldmann’s close ties to Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo).
Hannelore Richter, who was working as a special representative at the Frankfurt Awo at the time, “fed” Feldmann several times to ensure his goodwill, said the presiding judge Werner Gröschel in the verdict. Feldmann was aware of this. There was no other explanation for the benefits granted than that Feldmann was mayor.
Gröschel cited a promise to reinstate former Awo employee Feldmann should he not be elected mayor. In 2014, Richter also gave Feldmann’s then girlfriend and later wife a promise of employment as head of a newly founded German-Turkish Awo daycare center without sufficient qualifications.
Defense had asked for acquittal
Richter also collected donations for Feldmann’s re-election as mayor in 2018. At that time, Awo had already had problems with the city of Frankfurt in connection with the costs of accommodating refugees. Two days after taking office, Richter therefore contacted Feldmann and asked for a meeting, said Gröschel. Her comment that he should best take over the social department was “outside of any normality”. Feldmann later spoke to the head of the social affairs department and asked her to come to an agreement with the Awo.
Feldmann has to pay 5989 euros in addition to the fine. This is the sum at which he benefited from his wife’s excessive salary, said Gröschel. The public prosecutor had demanded 180 daily rates of 175 euros each, the defense acquittal.
Feldmann had his innocence
Feldmann himself explained in his last word that if there were a conviction for more than 90 daily rates, this would have negative consequences for his pension. Feldmann was – also as a consequence of the indictment and the trial – voted out of office on November 6th with a referendum. The 64-year-old had again protested his innocence in his last word on Wednesday.
The procedure is related to the scandal surrounding allegations of fraud in the millions at the Awo district associations in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. The former Wiesbaden Awo managing director Richter held the position of special representative at the Frankfurt Awo managed by her husband. In this case, they are being investigated for granting benefits. Reports about Feldmann’s wife’s overpaid post as daycare manager plus company car got the Awo affair rolling.
