The Munich district court has been negotiating the former watchmaker’s house in Obergiesing for almost two months now. Its owner Andreas S. has been silent in the process so far – until this Monday. In a statement that his defense attorney, attorney Maximilian Müller, read, S. now commented in detail on the allegations made by the public prosecutor’s office for the first time. He is said to have coldly evicted the last of the three tenants in the house and finally commissioned the jointly accused building contractor Cüneyt C. to demolish the listed property on Obere Grasstraße in late summer 2017.
None of this is true, at least that’s what Andreas S. said in his statement. He bought the Uhrmacherhäusl in 2016 “to have it designed as a family home and to move into it himself,” asserts the 44-year-old. There was neither a plan nor an order from him to tear down the house. When he found out about the demolition, he was “shocked”. The owner promises that he will have the watchmaker’s cottage “rebuilt in its original cubature”. He submitted the plans for the project and received the green light from the authorities.
S. also rejects the accusation that he disgusted the last of the original three tenants. Rather, he “actively approached the tenants”. Because he had the impression that they wanted to move out. So he offered them a severance package. Two accepted, one didn’t. Namely the locksmith Thomas R. (name changed). He lived with his wife and son in a two-room apartment of around 50 square meters on the first floor. Since the 54-year-old and his family did not want to leave their apartment, Andreas S. is said to have turned off their electricity, water and gas.
That actually happened, so S. now in his statement. However, this measure was taken “for safety reasons” because of upcoming work on the house and did not last long. He offered Thomas R.’s wife 5,000 euros so that she could move out with her husband and son. But she didn’t accept the money. At the end of his statement, Andreas S. admits that he is suffering “a lot” from what happened. He doesn’t think it’s fair how you treat him. He hopes that the proceedings before the district court “create clarification”. The 44-year-old did not allow questions from the court and the representative of the public prosecutor’s office about his explanation.
Thomas R., who was the last to move out of the Uhrmacherhäusl with his family in early February 2017, was summoned as a witness to the district court on Monday and became clear right at the beginning of his interrogation. Andreas S. wanted to “bribe” him with money so that he could move out with his family. But he didn’t accept the money. Then S. “built up this pressure,” says Thomas R. The year 2016 was coming to an end and the temperatures began to drop when Andreas S. “actively” approached the last tenants on the first floor of the watchmaker’s house.
After he didn’t want to move out, a door was hung at the back of the house, according to Thomas R. Then it got “very cold” in the house. Water got into the power distributor. The result: power disruptions. Eventually the power went out completely. The roof was defective, so it snowed in – “someone must have manipulated it,” R. is sure. At some point Andreas S. had “dismantling work” carried out. If the defects had not existed, he would have stayed in the house, according to R. The 54-year-old had told the police that he initially had the impression that S. wanted to have the house renovated.
On February 6, 2017, Thomas R. finally moved out with his family. Since they couldn’t find an apartment at first, they moved to a hotel. For this he received a subsidy “from the office”. A year and a half passed before the 54-year-old and his family could move into a new apartment.