The judges at the Bavarian Administrative Court take less than ten minutes to deliberate on Monday, then things move very quickly. Max L. made himself “intolerable”, says the presiding judge, and the appeal has been rejected. Max L. is not there himself, for him it is a bitter end to his school career: after more than 20 years of school service, the former headmaster loses his pension entitlement. He will never be able to work in a state school again.
The former headmaster had diverted a total of 20,400 euros, which were actually earmarked for school trips, to his sons’ accounts. He was sentenced to ten months probation four years ago for this. Two more months and he would have lost his civil service status under the law. That was taken over by the Regensburg Administrative Court a year later. The appeal has now been rejected by the Bavarian Administrative Court: L. has thus exhausted all of his legal options.
What is an extremely rare decision in the judiciary is above all the last act of a professional drama for Max L. Because actually the headmaster was a high-flyer. A model official with above-average grades. Someone who wrote books and received a lot of praise. This was also the case when he switched to the Gabelsberger grammar school in Mainburg (Kelheim district). You can read about how competent, so reliable, so sensitive he is. He himself was modest: “I’m not perfect,” said Max L.
By then he had embezzled thousands of euros at his previous school, the Marist High School in Furth near Landshut. This was possible because he managed the account for class trips at the private school of the School Foundation of the Diocese of Regensburg. Among other things, proceeds from sales during breaks and other events were paid in there. But instead of transferring the corresponding surpluses to the school foundation, he passed the money on to the accounts of his four children, among other things. In theory, the money was still there – just not where it should be.
The presiding judge also emphasized this on Monday. The mere fact that the assets were still there and could have been used for the original purpose does not dispel the allegation of infidelity, said Ludwig Wagner. It is true that Max L. had repaid the money after the gaps in his old school were noticed. However, incomplete monitoring is “not a carte blanche,” said the judge. Especially since Max L. had initially tried to disguise the flow of money. The money should go to a new school bus, he always claimed.
Even a voluntary disclosure could not save him in the end. After his criminal conviction, the disciplinary officers of the Bavarian State Prosecutor suspended him from duty in June 2017. He didn’t show up after the Whitsun holidays, so the deputy headmaster had to step in. The students did not want to have anything more to do with their supposed model headmaster: they unceremoniously invited him from the graduation ball.
Consequences were also drawn at the crime scene 20 kilometers southeast of Mainburg. In the meantime, the financial administration is no longer part of the school, reports headmaster Christoph Müller. This is now central to the school foundation in Regensburg. Five and a half years after the first conviction, he seems surprised that the Max L. case is still preoccupying the courts: “I didn’t expect anything else to come,” he says.
The fact that there was now something else to do with the attempt to save a life’s work in addition to the pension. Max L. was personally very upset, his lawyer indicated on Monday. Why does a model educator with no criminal history move money to his sons’ accounts? It is a question to which he has no answer either. In the meantime, Max L. has given himself an answer on how to proceed: He is now working as a post-doc in mathematics.