She is back – at her old place of work as a state politician and today as a witness in the Mask Investigation Committee. It is 1:21 p.m. when Monika Hohlmeier enters the conference room of the Bavarian state parliament. Jeans, blue blazer, blue handbag, she’s looking for her chair, brief confusion. At the very front, first row on the corner, she then takes a seat with her legal counsel, with whom she chats and flirts a bit until the beginning of the session. Hohlmeier, who has long been a CSU MEP, seems relaxed and informal. Then committee chief Winfried Bausback (CSU) starts the “interrogation”. Sounds less relaxed and informal.
This day is about Hohlmeier initiating contact between the entrepreneur Andrea Tandler and the public sector. The CSU politician was the “central door opener” for Andrea Tandler, explained a few days before the meeting of the Green MP Florian Siekmann. The Munich PR entrepreneur, daughter of CSU grandee Gerold Tandler, brokered mask deals between the Swiss trading company Emix and several health ministries in Germany and, together with a partner, collected 48 million euros in commission.
Hohlmeier, 59, daughter of the former CSU chairman and Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss, was once the party’s deputy leader; and Member of Parliament and Minister of Education. Some in the party even considered her suitable for even higher posts, if only there hadn’t been an affair in the Munich CSU, in which she was district chairman for a while. Hohlmeier has been a member of the European Parliament since 2009. Now the CSU politician has to deal with a new affair; the mask affair, with which she has nothing to do from her own point of view.
She claims to have informed the Minister of Health at the time “completely open”.
Hohlmeier starts in the U-Committee with a presentation on February 2020, which reads like the Corona annual review of a non-fiction book. “Dramatic reports reached our ears, especially from Italy,” she reads rather monotonously. And the press reported a “panic run on breathing masks”. Andrea Tandler got in touch on February 28th. A friend of hers (Tandler) from Switzerland could deliver masks, at a supposedly not too high price – is there a need?
Hohlmeier says that she informed Bavaria’s then Minister of Health, Melanie Huml (CSU), “completely open-ended”. And then she informed Tandler that Bavaria was interested and passed on contact details from the ministry. “She had no further knowledge of the content or completion of the orders”, prices or quality, and was “not involved”. And she neither asked for nor was offered a commission.
She is annoyed by “untrue allegations” in order to “take political profit from them”
She has known Tandler “for a long, long time” since she was born, Hohlmeier continues. People “liked” each other, there were no reasons to distrust Andrea Tandler. Hohlmeier asks, because of this good acquaintance, shouldn’t she have passed on this “potentially important information?” It was “an imperative task for us MPs, no matter what color, to pass on inquiries that could potentially save lives.” She is annoyed by “untrue allegations” in order to “take political profit from them”. The Munich public prosecutor’s office also rejected this “general suspicion” against CSU politicians.
According to his own statements, Hohlmeier only found out about Tandler’s millions of commissions later from the media. But now, in the U-Committee, it’s about spring 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. In between, Hohlmeier searches her mobile phone for the SMS messages from that time with Tandler, with Huml, with others. Sometimes she searches for almost a minute, aha, there it is.
The CSU MP not only texted dear Melanie (Huml), but also dear Jens (Spahn, then Federal Minister of Health) that masks were available at (allegedly) normal prices. She, Monika, was only the bearer of the message and was in no way financially or otherwise involved, it said in an SMS to Spahn on March 4, 2020. If you are interested and necessary, please let Spahn know at short notice. If there is no need, the masks go to Austria the next day.
There are numerous detailed questions from the MPs during the hearing in the committee. Hohlmeier keeps saying that she never knew anything about payment terms or modalities. “Which masks when where to whom – neither quality nor brand names were the subject of my discussion.” Even after the “crime” is asked. On March 19, Tandler wrote to Hohlmeier: “Everything works with Bavaria’s masks, I’ll tell you the thriller tomorrow. Good night.” Hohlmeier cannot remember the details of the phone call, it was probably about the chaotic delivery processes.
The Green MP Siekmann wants to know from Hohlmeier whether she was aware of the weight of her name when it was conveyed. The forwarding, says Hohlmeier, was her duty as a member of parliament, “with or without the weight of my name.” Would they have been suspicious of Tandler’s increased requests? no
When SPD leader von Brunn greets the witness, there is merriment in the hall
SPD faction leader Florian von Brunn also has questions. “Hello, Ms. Hohlmeier, I’m glad to meet you personally,” he says, and the person addressed nods politely. This triggers merriment in the hall. Brunn had reported the mask deals to the Munich I public prosecutor and later would have liked the investigating authorities to take action against Hohlmeier, which was not the case.
The composure in the U-Committee is over when Brunn wants to know whether Hohlmeier has accounts abroad? What is meant are probably old CSU rumors at the time of Strauss. Hohlmeier, acting puzzled, doesn’t even have to answer. Committee chief Bausback warns that this is not part of the investigation.
More prominent witnesses are expected in the coming days
Hohlmeier was the first prominent witness in the U-Committee, which is supposed to shed light on the mask procurement of the Free State and sometimes high commissions to parliamentarians. And it was the start of an exciting week in which Alfred Sauter, a member of the state parliament, Georg Nüßlein, a former member of the Bundestag (they are dealing with a different mask affair), and Andrea Tandler himself are heard as witnesses. She had canceled her first interrogation at the end of April due to illness.
Verena Mayer, the sister of the recently resigned CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer, was also invited as a witness on Monday morning. She is a city councilor in Neuötting and deputy spokeswoman for the CSU parliamentary group. Andrea Tandler also comes from this area. Her father Gerold Tandler owned the “Hotel zur Post” there for a long time. At the beginning of the pandemic, Tandler also contacted Stephan Mayer’s sister. With the question of whether her brother could think of anyone who needed masks. “Thank you and kisses.”
At the time, Stephan Mayer was State Secretary to Horst Seehofer (CSU) in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Mayer later said that he had behaved correctly and only forwarded the address he had received from his sister to the Ministry of the Interior. The Federal Ministry of the Interior then did not buy any masks from the Swiss trading company Emix.
Verena Mayer explained in the U-Committee that Andrea Tandler had not disclosed her own interest to her. When Tandler contacted her (Mayer) via Whatsapp last Friday in February 2020, she had just been to the indoor pool with her children and “sent it on”. You only knew that masks were “in short supply”, but “not even what an FFP mask is”. She “didn’t take the matter that seriously,” Verena Mayer reported in the committee.
“What do I get,” asked the sister of ex-CSU General Mayer in a chat
Not even when she later asked Andrea Tandler, “What am I getting?” She thought, “I’ll just ask, so half-seriously.” In a chat with the Tandler daughter, the Mayer sister called five cents per mask. She later told the SZ that there was talk of a million masks at the time. 50,000 euros would have jumped out for Verena Mayer in the deal.
At the time, Verena Mayer continued, she “put aside the matter with the masks and the five cents required, mentally”. She only became aware of it much later in press reports. There is no evidence that Verena Mayer would have received any money. The Munich I public prosecutor’s office, which investigates Andrea Tandler’s mask commissions, believes the Mayer sister that she has received nothing. The investigative authority has therefore refrained from searching Verena Mayer
In the sub-committee, however, Mayer explained that Andrea Tandler then told her that the matter between the two of them was “overlaps” when there were further contacts via WhatsApp. Monika Hohlmeier has now helped her (Tandler), who “initiated” it.