The political persecution

1. How it all began: in 1999 justice was still being done

For 20 years now, Beo, as he was briefly called in his circle of relatives and acquaintances, had successfully cultivated mushrooms and supplied posh restaurants in Coburg. He succeeded in producing mushroom mycelium from various edible mushrooms under the most primitive conditions. Also in view of the fact that about 20 important medicines are based on mushrooms, such as the famous penicillin, Beo wanted to expand this business. In 1997, he therefore applied to the Coburg District Office for a building permit for a farm with a greenhouse for mushroom cultivation, a mushroom cultivation laboratory for the production of mushroom spawn, and a cold store. After the building application was not processed, he submitted two further building applications for further alternative locations for a cold storage warehouse. On another part of the property, Beo had planted a Christmas tree and ornamental brushwood culture. During the pre-Christmas period, the sale of these was a welcome source of income.
 
He had built all this up after he was unable to continue working in his profession due to a severe slipped disc in his cervical spine and subsequent surgery. He could no longer carry out his work as a senior forestry inspector, because he had to mark trees, which was no longer possible due to the damage to the intervertebral discs that had also resulted from this. He was given early retirement. Unfortunately, the operation did not eliminate the chronic pain and he was forced to spend at least two hours in a bath every day, swim several laps and loosen his shoulder and neck muscles under a jet. It was the only way to keep the pain and cramps in his muscles in check.
 
In addition to mushroom cultivation and Christmas tree cultures, two agricultural limited liability companies had been founded in Poland, whose mushroom production was to be marketed in Germany. In addition Beo had even learned a little Polish.
So for three locations, building applications for a refrigerated warehouse were submitted to the Coburg district office for selection. The building applications were not processed for three years. This already caused enormous damage to the investments made in Poland. The already growing products could not be harvested, the mushrooms had to be destroyed. Beo was finally forced to sue in the Bayreuth Administrative Court for not processing the building applications and was proved right. The Administrative Court recognized that Beo's rights had been unlawfully violated and that the building applications had to be approved by the Coburg District Office.
 
Actually, this would have already entitled him to compensation, the investments in Poland were completely futile, and he was unable to expand in the Federal Republic of Germany. He would have created several jobs and so on. But after the state of Bavaria shifted the responsibility to the municipality, he left it at that. It was more important for him to take care of his further professional plans than to complain. Sitting still and desk work was not his thing. He preferred to be out in nature and enjoy the fresh air and light. That's why he had rejected the promotion of his civil service career, which would have led to the administrative level.
 
Since his building applications had been left lying around for so long, he had decided in the meantime to pursue another career. Early retired forestry inspector (retired by profession), he studied business administration at the University of Applied Sciences and founded a company consultancy, obtained a broker's license, developed a concept for company pension schemes in connection with company financing and trained and employed several company consultants.

Bayreuth Administrative Court, Case no. B 2 K 97.784 of Febr.25, 99
 
Mr. Beowulf von Prince had acquired the property parcel no. 1890/3. A part of it was forest. Another part of this area was located opposite the former forester's house along a path that passed the forester's house. This part had never been forest, as can be easily checked by everyone on field maps and aerial photographs.
 
Mr. von Prince had the land divided into plots and in 1997 he received a clearing permit for one section. He wrote to the Coburg District Office:
Execution of the Bavarian Forest Law. Nov. 30, 97.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.
With your letter dated Oct. 22, 97, the clearing of the 1890 plot of land, section 3, district Grub am Forst, was approved. I hereby inform you that the clearing has been completed. The fees have been transferred.
 
The Forest Act is therefore no longer valid for this area. For a plot of land, a clearing is an adoption of the forest law. The Forest Act does not prevent the development of buildings anyway. Even if a forest is under special protection under the Forest Act, it can be cleared and built upon if adjacent afforestation can provide compensation. This possibility existed. This is important to understand the following.
Each of the plots had been given a house number when it was divided along Gleisenauer Strasse. So the forester's house had the number 5 in the Gleisenauer Straße. The plot Fl.-Nr. 1890/3 is Gleisenauer Str. 14 for which an agricultural yard was intended.


                                                         Extract from the judgement
Page 2:
                                                                         Verdict:
1. The defendant is obliged to decide on the plaintiff's application for a preliminary building permit for the property parcel Fl. No. 1890/3 of the district Grub am Forst within one month after the judgement has become final, taking into account the legal opinion of the court.
2. Order the defendant to pay the costs of the proceedings .
The facts of the case:
The plaintiff requests the issuance of a preliminary notice for the establishment of an agricultural yard ....
 
Page 7, paragraphs 3 and 4:
....The Coburg District Office has apparently not yet issued a preliminary decision on the application for the granting of a preliminary decision for the property Fl.Nr. 1890/3 dated May 26, 1997 and has not given any reason for this. In any case, no reason for the inactivity is the fact that the plaintiff has already filed an application for a preliminary decision regarding another location and the project is obviously the same. Anyone is at liberty to have the construction of the property approved for several locations, if one pays the multiple building permit fee.
The lawsuit is also successful to the extent of the tenor of the obligation to issue a preliminary decision. The refusal to grant the preliminary notice for the property F.-No. 1890/03 of the district Grub am Forst is unlawful and violates the plaintiff's rights (§ 113 (5) VwGO) .

In response to this ruling, Beo first built a greenhouse in 2000 and finally in 2001 a residential house (correct: agricultural farm) with the address Gleisenauer Str. 14. Mr. von Prince also developed the property directly opposite the forester's house with canal and water. It was classified as Gleisenauer Str. 10/12.
 
A part of the property was planted with a Christmas tree and cut greenery plantation.
 
On the cleared part a cold store was to be built.
 
After the decision of the Bayreuth Administrative Court, however, the community of Grub am Forst rededicated the opposite agricultural yard, Gleisenauer Str. 5 - i.e. the former forester's house - to a residential area. This meant that no more farmsteads could be built on Mr. von Prince's land opposite the former forester's house. This prevented that the decision of the Bayreuth Administrative Court could be implemented. The same process had already taken place previously on a plot of land in Zeickhorn, which Mr. von Prince had also proposed for the construction of a cold store. There, too, the entire site was intended for development by the municipality. There, too, the building permit had been prevented by rezoning. The same structural obstacles stood in the way of Mr. von Prince with the rededication. It had led to a refusal of the building permit for a further agricultural building construction for the parcel no. 156 Zeickhorn district.
 
Also in Zeickhorn a plot of land was to be sold to an employee of Beo in order to build a residential house. Also in this case the same happened (chap. 10).
 
The damage from the illegal refusal had arisen, from which a claim for damages resulted, which has not been settled until today.

©2020 by Beowulf von Prince, Karin Leffer