Wolfgang Reich can be seen as a combative type, as a fencer he even became vice world champion with the German epee team. In the meantime, Reich fights his regular fights at the general meetings of his stock corporations and in changing courtrooms, and not always with a fine blade. The opponents of the 42-year-old Heidenheimer often come from Mittenwald or Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as they are currently before the Munich Higher Regional Court. The Karwendelbahn AG, which is dominated by Reich, prohibited the local journalist Christof Schnürer from doing so on Tuesday by means of a judgment and an injunction Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt to move closer to the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels by means of a press release. However, the process is only one of dozens that have been involved in the Karwendelbahn since Reich became its majority owner around ten years ago as part of a company takeover.
In addition to civil chambers such as the 18th Senate of the Higher Regional Court, administrative lawyers also have a lot to do with Germany’s second-highest cable car. This leads from Mittenwald up to 2244 meters up to the Karwendelgrube below the western Karwendelspitze. Up there in the mountain station, the shiny copper still of what is said to be the highest schnapps distillery in the country has been standing since the summer, and according to an internet-based crowdfunding portal, the Karwendelbahn raised several hundred thousand euros from small investors last year, according to an internet-based crowdfunding portal.
But as with so many Karwendelbahn projects, the responsible authorities were not even asked for a permit for any of this, which is why the district office in Garmisch-Partenkirchen has stopped construction in all forms and prohibited the use of the new annex for the distillery. According to its own information, the authority had already acted similarly half a dozen times, with various extensions and extensions as well as unauthorized changes in use in the valley and on the mountain.
This time, however, the building inspectors would have to go on a longer, quite strenuous mountain hike if they really wanted to check everything themselves. Because all employees of the district office are banned from entering the Karwendelbahn. They could gain access to the mountain station by virtue of their office. But they are not allowed to take the gondola up there.
They are no better off than Mittenwald Mayor Enrico Corongiu (SPD). After the local elections two years ago, he inherited his predecessor Adolf Hornsteiner from the CSU in his role as the main opponent of the Karwendelbahn board members. Hornsteiner had also been banned from entering the house, who for his part had taken action against it in court and otherwise probably had to appear in court much more often than in Mittenwald citizens’ assemblies. The market town is indeed the second largest shareholder in Deutsche Bahn after Reich’s branching network of companies, but almost always failed with all its proposals, demands and claims for information on the board of directors around Wolfgang Reich and his father of the same name, who regularly acts as a lawyer and auditor for his son. The mere place and time of the general meetings are often perceived as harassing in the town hall, many of these meetings end in quarrel and chaos, a result that would not be controversial among the two main shareholders, they rarely have.
The local journalist Christof Schnürer reports regularly about all of this and about a number of civil lawsuits that have not yet affected him personally, which, from the point of view of the Bahn board members, has obviously made him their opponent. Last June, Karwendelbahn AG made Schnürer and his reports jointly responsible for an incident in its own publication, which it described in the same press release as an attempted night knife attack by a stranger on one of the board members, foiled by a courageous employee.
The Munich Regional Court had considered the Goebbels settlements from that communication last year to be admissible, but the Higher Regional Court has now corrected the corresponding judgment of the lower court. The Senate has not allowed a revision, so that at least this strand of the disputes could end. At the same time, the processes surrounding the Karwendelbahn will keep other courts busy. The disputes revolve around information rights and special audits, which the board of directors regularly accuses the community of and denounces as a huge waste and – for example in the said communication – literally as “misappropriation” of tax money.
It is clear to all sides that all of this was primarily about money, at least initially. A few years ago, the controversial majority owner tried to buy the shares in the Karwendelbahn from small residents and at the same time to sell their own shares to the community for more than double that amount. As a result, the Mittenwalder would have got rid of the unloved Reich group and would have taken full control of the Karwendelbahn, but in several ways at a very high price. Because the cable car, which opened in 1967, is of the utmost importance for tourism in the area, it has hardly ever made greater profits over the decades.