In the consular department
By Dr. Johst Wilmanns
Consul General 1967-1970
As a member of the Consular Section my work consisted of providing legal advice and dealing with immigration matters. We had some 80,000 visitors annually. Our "clientele" has changed over the years. In the sixties and seventies it comprised those who had been driven out of Nazi-Germany and who, according to our restitution legislation, received compensation and could, if they wanted, have their nationality restored to them. Increasingly there were foreign nationals, mainly from Third World countries who applied for visas to visit, or work in, the Federal Republic. This new aspect of our Embassy activities in the Consular area is likely to increase with the development of the European Community's internal market.
One of my more interesting jobs, because it sometimes involved me, as it were, in "life in the raw", was taking on a judge's function. The German Courts often required statements from witnesses in this country, Germans resident in London or British citizens. Because of the strict principle in the conduct of trials in English law, judges would not themselves undertake an interrogation but pass it on to the barristers or solicitors. The latter, however, would only be able to put the questions strictly requested by the German Courts and not pursue the matter fully as would be done under Continental law. German Courts thus liked to use the London Consul's services to get detailed statements from witnesses, with the Consul acting as the interrogating judge. In this way, we were asked to intervene on behalf of major criminal prosecutions in German Courts such as the Limbach and Plettenburg case, swindlers involved in forward deals, and against a gang involved in the Cologne Cathedral treasure robbery. I also had to interview a well-known British pop-singer in connection with drug smuggling from Turkey and Pakistan. One had to be careful in these cases not to stray into English criminal procedures.
In the Esch-bankruptcy case, in which a German bank had lost millions, I had to interrogate one of the main creditors, a Saudi Sheik, who had lent the defendant 150 million US-dollars and was naturally interested to secure at least part of his claim. I put a question to the Sheik which I regarded as relevant to the case. But Esch's London solicitor considered my question "inadmissible" in English law because it involved legal points. I denied this and wanted to continue my investigation according to the German rules of establishing a case. However, the solicitor involuntarily came to my aid by observing: "Esch is not a fool!" Which entitled me to conclude: "This is a matter of opinion, not of law" and I was able to carry on without further objections.
