2023-12-21 20:11:27
Christian Olearius, 81, was CEO of the private bank M. M. Warburg from 1986 to 2014. Image: Ullstein
The private banker Christian Olearius was considered a hands-on problem solver. Now the co-owner of the Warburg Bank is on trial because of cum-ex allegations – and is even putting Chancellor Olaf Scholz in trouble.
Before a courtroom fills with people and the truth and guilt are argued in front of a criminal chamber, everything follows a tried and tested pattern. A bailiff displays the information for each day of the hearing in a display case. The door to the meeting room is then unlocked and the person taking the minutes is usually the first to enter the room. Prosecutors, experts and the audience follow. The defendant against whom the proceedings are directed often only appears with the defense lawyer shortly before the main hearing opens. Especially if he is prominent. Then numerous cameras and smartphones are pointed at the dock. Every movement, every detail must be captured and later classified.
Mid-September, large meeting room in the Bonn regional court: It is the long-awaited start of the trial against Christian Olearius, who has been one of the most influential private bankers in the republic over the past decades at the head of the Warburg Group. Shortly before ten o’clock his defense attorney Peter Gauweiler comes into the room. As a long-time CSU politician and experienced lawyer, the Munich lawyer has a perfect command of playing with the public. Gauweiler greets the audience with his back arched, friendly and yet so full of self-confidence that everyone feels like they are being addressed personally. Then follows the protagonist of the coming months. Christian Olearius, now 81 years old, is surrounded by his three other defense lawyers. As if in a cocoon, they take the defendant into their midst and try to protect him from prying eyes and possible questions.
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