Unlike his father, the conductor Enoch zu Guttenberg, and his older brother, the former Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who was stripped of his doctorate in the course of the plagiarism affair surrounding his dissertation, Philipp Franz zu Guttenberg led a very inconspicuous life on the outside . The 49-year-old nobleman, who studied ecology and forestry at the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, is a well-known and highly respected man in hunting and forestry circles. And not just because he owns and manages extensive forests in Bavaria and Styria in Austria. But because he has been involved in numerous offices for the forest and forest owners and is still doing so – in Bavaria, but also at national and even European level. At the same time, he is considered reserved and down-to-earth.
That’s why the surprise in the scene was great when Guttenberg now openly intervened in the leadership dispute in the Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV) and positioned himself clearly against the hunter president and CSU member of the state parliament Ernst Weidenbusch. In a letter that is available to the SZ, Guttenberg declares his departure from the BJV “at the earliest possible date”. He follows with “growing horror how the BJV regularly drives forest owners, farmers and hunters further and further apart with absurd accusations, attacks and campaigns,” writes Guttenberg. Never before has the “willingness to talk between the main Bavarian associations and the BJV been so disturbed” as it is today.
A roebuck walks across a meadow in the morning sun.
(Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa)
Guttenberg also attacks Weidenbusch directly. “If you believe the various public letters, resignation letters and criminal charges, the association president even manages to ‘leaf’ a large number of his own members,” he writes. “Verblatten” is a term from the hunter’s language and refers to the decoy hunt for roebuck. It takes place at the end of the deer mating season. When leafing, a hunter imitates a deer’s whimpering sound with the help of a leaf, a blade of grass or a similar device and thereby attracts the roebuck. If you don’t master this properly, you will scare away the buck that you actually want to attract. He “leaves” him.
Anyway, Guttenberg is ashamed “because of the President’s recurring scandalous behavior to be a member of this association” – hence his resignation. With his step, the dispute over Weidenbusch escalated once more. Many hunters have accused the President of the Hunters of dealing extremely rudely with all volunteers and full-time employees in the BJV, who have a different world view than he does. A number of full-time employees are said to have resigned from the office because they no longer wanted to accept this type of treatment. Weidenbusch vigorously denies the allegations. In the meantime, of course, a number of officials are working towards convening an extraordinary state assembly of the BJV. Your central item on the agenda: the removal of Weidenbusch from the presidency.