"The good Mr. Lehmann" - trial over chainsaw dispute

Processes - "The good Mr. Lehmann" - trial over chainsaw dispute

"You have to look at it from the funny side," says 92-year-old Walter Winkelmann and laughs. After all, they worked together quite well for a while - "didn't they, Mr. Lehmann?"

Winkelmann describes quite humorously how his son-in-law called him from Berlin on 25 July 2022, because the surveillance camera at the old man's house in Berg am Starnberger See had sent pictures to his son-in-law's cell phone. They showed the former national goalkeeper Jens Lehmann with a chainsaw in his hand.

He had probably climbed up a scaffold to cut off a solar module for the camera 's power supply, says Winkelmann. "But it still had some life left in it," adds the 92-year-old. "And that was the bad luck he unfortunately didn't think of."

It is a remarkable trial that began on Friday at the Munich district court. The former goalkeeper and hero of the 2006 World Cup, who triumphed over Argentina's scorers in the quarter-finals with the help of his famous penalty cheat sheet, has been charged with trespassing, damage to property, insult and attempted fraud.

The public prosecutor's office and his neighbor assume that Lehmann went into the garage with a chainsaw to saw through a roof beam. He is also said to have felled a "young birch tree" on his neighbor's property - at the neighbor's request, Lehmann claims. He doesn't see it that way: "He cut it down", says Winkelmann and asks Lehmann if he would like the remains of the birch for firewood. He estimates the total damage at 1500 euros.

There is said to have been a long neighborly dispute beforehand - mainly about the construction of the new garage. According to Winkelmann, he installed the surveillance camera because there had been three attacks on his garage by strangers.

"There are lively pleadings," says the 92-year-old and talks about "six kilos of Leitz folders". Yet he is "actually a very accommodating neighbor". "My dear neighbor", he says of the former national goalkeeper of the German national soccer team and "the good Mr. Lehmann".

The surveillance video, which is also shown in the courtroom, shows Lehmann first driving past the property on a scooter and then returning with a chainsaw. He attaches the chainsaw to a roof beam - and the video stops.

On Friday, public prosecutor Stefan Kreutzer asks Lehmann, who now describes his profession as "unemployed soccer coach", why he used the chainsaw on the wooden beam. Answer: "I don't remember that." However, the 54-year-old emphasizes that he never went into the garage with the intention of causing damage. "I just went in to see what he was actually doing there."

And he only had the chainsaw with him because he had previously trimmed a hedge at his neighbor's request. "I still had it in my hand."

Lehmann, who used to play professionally for FC Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal FC in London, sees himself as a victim of false accusations and defamation and speaks of character assassination. A philosopher once asked the question: "What is worse? Murder or character assassination?", he says in his long speech after the indictment has been read out.

He feels completely misunderstood not only in the case with the chainsaw - but also in the other charges. In March 2022, he allegedly insulted police officers who had come to his home to confiscate his driving license. The officer in question said in court that Lehmann had called her a "cunning liar" and accused her of having a "faulty brain". She could remember the incident well because she had rarely experienced anything like it.

Lehmann replied that he had only asked whether she might have a malfunction in her brain. He had not claimed that. And he hadn't called her a liar either. He just said that she was lying. That was "not very nice", he says and apologizes for his behaviour that day. But it was not a punishable offense. He had once learned that at the sports tribunal - and remembered it well.

In response to the accusation that he had driven out of a parking garage at the airport without paying the parking fee - bumper to bumper with a car in front - he replied that it had not been intentional. He had then waited for a parking garage bill, but it had never arrived.

At the heart of the trial, however, is the bizarre neighbourhood dispute, which has since been settled, as Lehmann's lawyer Christoph Rückel emphasized in a defence statement after the indictment was read out. "It was an action in which frustration played a major role on both sides, but the escalation has ended." The two reached a civil settlement. The neighbor received 60,000 euros, according to the agreement, which the judge also read out in the criminal trial.

The court has set two days for the trial against Lehmann, who repeatedly makes accusations against the public prosecutor's office in his verbose statements.

He sees "double standards". If he wanted to press charges against someone, the proceedings were always dropped, but charges against him were never dropped. Public prosecutor Kreutzer rejects the accusations and says "that you, Mr. Lehmann, are a person who does not comply with the law at the lower end of criminal liability, but wants to disregard it".

The verdict could come on December 22, just before Christmas. However, Lehmann's neighbor hopes that the settlement will bring peace between him and the former goalkeeper next door before then. The dispute has cost him "a lot of time, nerves and money". But: "You have to see it with humor."

Jens Lehmann on Instagram