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“You have to see the funny side of it a bit,” says 92-year-old Walter Winkelmann and laughs. We worked together quite well for a while – “right, Mr. Lehmann?” Winkelmann humorously describes how his son-in-law called him from Berlin on July 25, 2022. The surveillance camera at the old man’s house in Berg on Lake Starnberg had sent images to the son-in-law’s cell phone. You can see it: former national goalkeeper Jens Lehmann with a chainsaw in his hand.

Winkelmann says he must have climbed up a scaffolding to disconnect a solar module to power the camera. “But it still had a certain amount of time left,” adds the 92-year-old. “And that was the bad luck that he unfortunately didn’t think about.”

It is a remarkable trial that began on Friday in the Starnberg District Court (AG). The former goalkeeper and hero of the 2006 World Cup, who triumphed over the Argentinians in the quarter-finals with the help of his famous penalty cheat sheet, is charged with trespassing, criminal damage, insults and attempted fraud.

The public prosecutor’s office and his neighbor assume that Lehmann went into the garage with the chainsaw to saw through a roof beam. He is also said to have cut down a “young birch tree” on his neighbor’s property – at the neighbor’s request, Lehmann claims. He sees it differently: “Beheaded,” says Winkelmann and asks Lehmann if he would like the remains of the birch tree as firewood. He estimates the total damage at 1,500 euros.

With the chainsaw in the garage door

There is said to have been a long neighborhood dispute beforehand, especially over the construction of a new garage. He installed the surveillance camera because there had been three attacks on his garage by unknown people, said Winkelmann. “There are lively documents,” says the 92-year-old and speaks of “six kilos of Leitz folders.” He was “actually a very accommodating neighbor.” “My dear neighbor,” he says about the former national goalkeeper of the national soccer team, and: “the good Mr. Lehmann.”

On the surveillance video, which is also shown in the courtroom, Lehmann can be seen first driving past the property on a scooter and then returning with a chainsaw. He puts the chainsaw on a roof beam – and the video cuts out.

Prosecutor Stefan Kreutzer asked Lehmann, who now describes his job as “unemployed football coach,” on Friday why he put the chainsaw on the wooden beam. Lehmann’s answer: “I don’t know anymore.” The 54-year-old emphasizes that he did not go into the garage with the intention of causing damage. “I just went in to see what he was actually doing.” And the chainsaw? He only had it with him because he had previously trimmed a hedge – at the request of his neighbor. “I still had it in my hand.”

Lehmann, who previously played as a professional at FC Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal FC in London, sees himself as a victim of false suspicion, slander and speaks of character assassination. A philosopher once asked the question: “Which is worse? Murder or character assassination?” he said in his long remarks after the indictment was read out.

Goalkeeper tries his hand at legal little-little things

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 came to his home to confiscate his driver’s license. The officer in question said in court that Lehmann called her a “cunning liar” and accused her of a “miswiring in her brain.” She remembers the incident well because she has rarely experienced something like it.

Lehmann replies that he just asked whether she might have a problem with her brain. He didn’t claim that. And he didn’t call her a liar either; he just said that she was lying. That was “not very nice,” he said on Friday and apologized for his behavior that day. But that is not a punishable insult. He learned that at the sports court and remembered it well.

When he was accused of driving 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 was not intentional. He then waited for a parking garage bill, but it never arrived.

Judgment as a Christmas present

At the heart of the proceedings, however, is the bizarre neighborhood dispute, which has now been settled under civil law, as Lehmann’s lawyer Christoph Rückel emphasized in a defense 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 an agreement under civil law: the neighbor received 60,000 euros, as stated in the agreement, which the judge also read out in the criminal hearing.

The court has scheduled two days for the trial against Lehmann, who repeatedly makes allegations against the public prosecutor’s office in his verbose statements.

The verdict could come on December 22nd, just before Christmas. Lehmann’s neighbor hopes that after the agreement there will be peace between him and the ex-goalkeeper next door. The dispute cost him “a lot of time, nerves and money”. But: “You have to see it with humor.”

dpa/mk/LTO editorial team

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