A wife killed herself, the lover shot herself. In 2001, the Potsdam Regional Court sentenced him to five years in prison for attempting to incite the murder of his fourth wife. Now Brandenburg’s scandal minister Jochen Wolf (formerly SPD) himself has been found dead.
He was found dead in his apartment’s bathtub. It was no third party fault, says the prosecutor.
“External fault is excluded,” said the head of the Potsdam public prosecutor’s office, Wilfried Lehmann (60) to BZ, “The death investigation has been completed.”
On Tuesday, an elderly neighbor called the police to Wolf’s apartment in Brandenburg/Havel. Officials are said to have found the ex-minister lifeless in his bathtub. According to BZ information, he was suffering from a serious illness and is said to have refused further treatment.
The end of a dazzling life full of scandal and cruelty. Wolf’s first wife Kristina divorced following six years of marriage. His second wife Erika killed herself. Wolf’s third marriage to Gabriele lasted only eight weeks in 1975.
In 1989, the year the Wall fell, Wolf was a co-founder of the East SPD. After reunification, he became the founding officer of the state of Brandenburg. With the help of the partner state of North Rhine-Westphalia, he set up the state administration.
Prime Minister Manfred Stolpe (SPD) made him Minister of Construction and Transport. But as early as 1993, Wolf fell over a corruption scandal and was sentenced to a fine in 1999 for accepting an advantage.
But the ex-minister complained back to the state service: Until 1997, Wolf was “Special Representative for Eastern Europe” in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. During his travels he met the young Russian woman Oksana (25). He promised her marriage – but Wolf’s fourth wife Ursula didn’t want to get a divorce.
Then in 1998 the scandal: Oksana ambushed Ursula Wolf in the forest with a pistol. But the sporty jogger was able to escape her. The Russian then shot herself in Wolf’s Potsdam apartment – in his bathtub!
The ex-minister wanted revenge. Wolf hired a hitman. He was supposed to murder his wife Ursula for 15,000 Deutschmarks. But the man informed the police.
Wolf was arrested by target investigators in July 2001 when the money was being handed over at Berlin’s Zoo station. While in custody, he cut his wrists, but was saved.
In February 2002, the Potsdam Regional Court sentenced him to five years in prison for inciting murder. After serving two-thirds of his sentence, Wolf was released from Brandenburg/Havel prison in 2004 for good behavior.
He moved into a small apartment in the city. In order to be able to live undisturbed, he had himself declared dead in the Internet encyclopedia “Wikipedia”. But BILD tracked Wolf down at home in 2014. “I have to make do with a pension of 1,100 euros,” he wailed. Old friends had turned away, his children had broken off contact.
He has no regrets until the end. Instead, self-pity. “I’m a victim of my family circumstances in childhood,” Wolf told BILD, “I mightn’t have done anything differently.”
reporting of suicide
BZ usually does not report on suicides, in order not to encourage imitation – unless suicides are given special attention by the circumstances.
If you or a person close to you is affected by depression, please contact the telephone counseling service: ☎ 0800 111 0 111. The Berlin Crisis Service provides free help at nine Berlin locations – 24 hours a day, anonymously if you wish: www.berliner-Krissendienst .de