Transwiki:Klaus-Dieter Flick

Klaus-Dieter Flick (* 1937 in Germany) is a German lawyer and wealthy former financial broker as well as militaria collector and dealer from Kitzeberg, a villa suburb of Heikendorf on the Kiel Fjord. Flick became internationally known in 2015 through the affair surrounding the Wehrmacht tank set up in a hall of honor in his underground Fallout shelter. Newspaper reports about the affair went around the world and were among other things published in the ‘‘New York Times‘‘, ‘‘Washington Post‘‘ , in ‘‘Le Monde‘‘  and ‘‘The Guardian‘‘ (London).

Search for Nazi art


The 'panzer affair' was sparked by the search for two larger-than-life NS bronze statues, the “Striding Horses”, which until 1945 flanked the entrance stairs on the garden front of Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The horses were created by the National Socialist sculptor Josef Thorak for the New Reich Chancellery in 1939. After the end of the war and the demolition of the Reich Chancellery in 1947-48, the sculptures were stored for decades on the Soviet base in Eberswalde near Berlin. After that they were considered lost. It was not until 2015 that 'Hitler's horses' caught the attention of investigators from the Rhineland-Palatinate State Criminal Police Office (LKA) because they were apparently offered for sale. According to estimates, they would have brought in up to 8 million euros on the black market, the material value of the bronze horses, which weighed tons, was estimated at a six-figure amount. . The LKA, supported by the Dutch art detective Arthur Brandt, soon found what it was looking for. The sculptures were confiscated from an entrepreneur from Bad Dürkheim. Before that, according to statements by K.D. Flick, the sculptures spent two years in his garden, where they were also widely visible to the public. .

In addition to the horse sculptures and Wehrmacht weapons, the search was apparently also about other Nazi art, e.g. a Nazi statue with the title ‘‘Die Wehrmacht‘‘ (sword bearer) by Arno Breker. It originally stood at the central main portal in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery. Such a statue is still in the garden of the Flick Villa today. According to Flick's lawyer Peter Gramsch, however this is a copy. .

The Panzer Affair


After the horse sculptures were confiscated by the police in Bad Dürkheim, the public prosecutor continued to search for stolen goods and the receiver who might have been involved in the sale of Nazi art. She came across K.D. Flick, who, however, denied participation in the sale. During the search of his property, the police found an underground nuclear shelter, which was built during the Cold War and equipped with Nazi insignia, in addition to a two-meter-wide and five-meter-long, 43-tonne Panther tank, beside en entire arsenal: an 8.8-centimeter anti-aircraft gun, a Ttorpedo, a mortar, Machine guns and assault rifles, semi-automatic and fully automatic pistols and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

The Kiel public prosecutor's office has been investigating the case of the now (2020) 83-year-old owner of the tank since 2017. According to media reports, it charged him with violation of the War Weapons Control Act and firearms law. . The 'Panther' was removed in May 2015 in a complex, two-day recovery campaign with the help of a army tank-wrecker, confiscated and brought to the Putlos military training area to examine it whether the alleged demilitarization had actually taken place. The accused stated that he had properly registered all weapons. According to a certificate from the district of Plön, dated October 31, 2005, the tank also allegedly lost its "war weapon status". The senior public prosecutor Birgit Heß, who was responsible at the time, stated however, that the public prosecutor did not know of a permit that would entitle the man to possession of the confiscated objects. ..

In this context, the public prosecutor's office also investigated allegations according to which the tank owner worked closely with agencies or members of the Bundeswehr during the restoration of the 'Panther'. In 2015, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that German army experts had renovated the tank from Mr. Flick with the help of the ‚Wehrtechnischen Dienststelle‘ (Defense technical department, WID 41) in Trier, the tank museum in Munster, and the Wehrtechnischen Studiensammlung (Defense engineering study collection, WTS) of the German army in Koblenz. The owner from [Heikendorf duly paid € 28,317 for these support services. Irrespective of this, an employee of the Marine Arsenal, Kiel, is said to have been seconded for three years in the 1970s - decades before the affair surrounding the restoration of the 'Panther' tank in 2015 - to deal with a rusty tank engine (probably for a 'Tiger' tank), salvaged from the dunes in Flanders, to be restore on behalf of K.D. Flick in the naval arsenal in Kiel. In the course of the investigation it turned out that it was an open secret for citizens as well as the authorities of Heikendorf that Flick had been in possession of divers tanks and other weapon systems of the Wehrmacht for decades. In a NDR-TV documentary from 1985, the 'Panther' that has now been removed, is to be seen driving on its own chains into the bunker.

In the previous decades, K.D. Flick apparently possessed even more tanks. Among other things, he personally drove a Wehrmacht tank with which he helped to clear the streets of Kitzeberg (wealthy township of Heikendorf) for emergency operations during the 1978/79 snow disaster in Kitzeberg. He probably also provided neighbourhood help when he pulled tree stumps out of the earth with his tank. He was therefore respected in his neighbourhood. On the other hand, according to statements by a local resident, apparently neo-Nazis with a swastika tattoo on their necks picked up a load of torpedoes, without this appearing to neither the authorities nor local residents to be questionable. In the 1970s, according to contemporary witnesses, tanks were periodically driven out of Flick's underground bunker to prevent the engines from rusting; the roar of the engines is said to have been heard from afar. At the entrance gate of the property the sign "German Protectorates" (German: Schutzgebiete) as well as the German Imperial flag waving on the flagpole were to be seen at least until 2015. The property is also secured by surveillance cameras and a concrete wall with barbed wire fencing on the see-side. Because of its large size, the latter has been a popular projection surface for political slogans by activists. In the 1970s it was written here in letters tall as a man, so that it could be read even by passenger ferries and cruise ships passing by: "This concentration camp belongs entirely to me (in Vernacular)", today it says: "Climate Justice".

In view of the significant involvement of the Flick empire under the leadership of Friedrich Flick in the expansion of the Nazi armaments industry during World War II, from which the Düsseldorf Flick Group emerged as the largest family-owned group of companies in Germany until 1985, with products ranging from tanks to bathtubs, the liking for Wehrmacht tanks by KD Flick, who incidentally is not supposed to be related to the Friedrich Flick family, may seem understandable.

The trial in the 2015 Panzer affair at the Kiel Regional Court was delayed further and further because the criminal chamber is overloaded and there are still questions to be clarified. It should now begin in autumn 2020.

Literature

 * Sandra Dassler: Nazi-Kunst aus der Reichskanzlei – Rechtsstreit um Hitlers Bronzepferde. In: Der Tagesspiegel. 14. Dezember 2015 (tagesspiegel.de).
 * Roman Deininger, Friederike Zoe Grasshoff: Panzer im Keller – Schützenfest. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 3. Juli 2015 (sueddeutsche.de).
 * Eckard Gehm: Nach Razzia in Heikendorf bei Kiel – Panzer in Villa: Bundeswehr half bei Instandsetzung. In: Kieler Nachrichten. 22. Juli 2015 (shz.de).
 * Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Zweiter Weltkrieg – Braune Kunst – Polizei findet Hitlers verschwundene Bronze-Pferde. In: Die Welt. 20. Mai 2015 (welt.de).
 * Justin Wm. Moyer, Lindsey Bever: Mystery of Hitler’s missing horse statues solved. The Washington Post, 21. Mai 2015 (washingtonpost.com).
 * RND/dpa (2020): Heikendorf: Prozess gegen Panzer-Sammler nicht vor Herbst. In: Kieler Nachrichten. 6. August 2020 (kn-online.de).
 * Alison Smale, Jesse Coburn: Sleuth Work Leads to Discovery of Art Beloved by Hitler. In: The New York Times. 25. Juni 2015 (nytimes.com).
 * Paul Wagner, Günter Schellhase: Polizei ermittelt gegen Kunstsammler – Hitlers Bronzepferde standen in Heikendorf. In: Kieler Nachrichten 24. Mai 2015 (kn-online.de).