When characterizing Stephan Weil, the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, the following quality is often emphasized: He may not be a great designer, but at least he is a good administrator. What “good administrator” means above all is the correct application of the law – the guarantee that as few disreputable, ill-thought-out or arbitrary political decisions as possible have to be taken responsibility for by Weil. Because, it is always said, the decidedly sober, unexcited and rarely quick-tempered Social Democrat pays meticulous attention to ensuring that serious mistakes are avoided. He may be a bit dull, but correct.
Now, in the twelfth year of his term as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, this image is starting to take a hit. Strange things happened last year in Stephan Weil’s immediate environment, with regard to his office manager in the State Chancellery, which raised doubts about the neutrality, legal accuracy and incorruptibility of the actors involved. At the request of the CDU, a state parliament investigative committee will examine the circumstances in the coming months.
Ostensibly it’s just about one person, the Prime Minister’s office manager. The person in this position is supposed to manage his appointments, channel the flow of information to the head of government and pre-sort what reaches the prime minister and what does not. In February 2023, a 32-year-old SPD local politician from Heidekreis, the home of SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, took over this position. She had trained as a tax clerk and then completed scientific training at the University of Economics and Management. She received her master’s degree there a few years ago.
The Ministry of Finance even warned of possible infidelity
Since this woman is not a civil servant, but an employee, she was placed in the position intended for B2 – but initially only classified according to EG15. This corresponded to the usual procedure, because the following rule has been in effect in Lower Saxony for years: If an employee gets a position in the state administration, every time a planned promotion is made, it must be checked which periods of time in comparable cases an civil servant has to overcome in order to reach the targeted new salary level of To be able to reach B2. Now the office manager obviously had a strong desire for a quick promotion to B2. However, according to the regulation that applies until the end of 2023, given her age and her relatively recent master’s degree, she would have had to wait up to ten years to be able to go from EG15 to B2. The head of the Ministry of Finance responsible for public service law had already made this very clear in the spring of 2023, shortly after she was hired. Even then, the first inquiries came from the State Chancellery as to whether the new office manager could be upgraded.
The no from the Ministry of Finance could actually have been enough of a clue. But then something happened that can now be clearly seen in many internal files: Jörg Mielke, head of the State Chancellery and who had known Weil well since his student days, asked the Ministry of Finance. Not once or twice, but several times. It was checked whether the office manager could be made a civil servant. The Social Democrat Mielke also approached Finance State Secretary Sabine Tegtmeyer-Dette (Greens) directly. The plan matured to discuss the personal details during a cabinet meeting in July 2023. Internal emails show that the Prime Minister also wanted to speak personally to the Ministry of Finance about this. The plan arose to close the difference between B2 (8187 euros per month) and EG15 (6301 euros) with an AT allowance.
The specialist level of the Ministry of Finance continued to disagree and referred to the current legal situation and even warned of possible breach of trust. The State Chancellery’s human resources department, which rated the case similarly critically, also warned internally about some of the steps that Mielke was planning – for example, about a retroactive upgrade to the end of her probationary period on August 1, 2023. Some clarifying and warning notes from the head of the human resources department at the State Chancellery were harshly rejected by Mielke. The State Secretary and Weil confidant emphasized that he had not asked his subordinate for advice and would take responsibility for this personnel matter himself.
The previous legal practice was changed and the Ministry of Finance’s consent requirement was abolished
After much back and forth, clarification was reached in autumn 2023: the previous legal practice was changed, the link between the AT salary of an employee and the fictitious promotion of a civil servant in the same position was abolished – as was the Ministry of Finance’s obligation to give consent in all special cases such transports. However, this only applied to the highest state authorities, i.e. the ministries and the management staff there. Mielke put the office manager’s AT pay on the cabinet’s agenda in mid-November. Only a few days later, on November 20th, Finance Minister Gerald Heere (Greens) gave the green light for the new administrative practice. A day later, the office manager was promoted, retroactive to the end of her probationary period.
More on the subject of Lower Saxony:
It was not until more than a week later, however, that the Ministry of Finance announced the new practice within the state government via a formal notification. That means: The office manager was promoted due to a serious change in administrative practice, which was only communicated to the state administration days after this step. The whole case might not have become public at all if it weren’t for that Political journal overview I would have caught wind of it at the end of November. Only after a press inquiry from Political journals In the State Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance quickly disseminated the new regulations within the authorities. It seemed like you had been caught.
It will also be about exploring the office manager’s previous work in more detail
Weil and the SPD’s line of defense now goes like this: It wasn’t just about the office manager. Rather, they wanted to change administrative practice in general so that it could be attractive for “more career changers” to work in the state administration. Is this representation convincing? Two reasons speak against it. Firstly, positions of office managers or other close employees of ministers have always been filled by good people – these are positions of trust that many applicants accept even if they are paid less than the position plan stipulates. Experience shows that such an activity paves the way for advancement, for example in politics. When it comes to the really difficult search for career changers, it is more about sought-after specialists with specialist knowledge, for example IT specialists.
Secondly, it is clear from the internal files for the investigative committee, as far as they are known, that the new regulation of administrative practice was only initiated because the Ministry of Finance stood in the way for so long based on the old legal situation when it came to upgrading the office manager . This suggests the suspicion that the supposedly desired “new general practice” was just a pretext.
The investigative committee will now examine many questions, and two in particular are likely to be interesting. First: How much did Prime Minister Stephan Weil interfere to promote his office manager? If Weil himself played a significant role, it would be difficult to sacrifice Mielke as head of the State Chancellery in the event of a difficult result from the investigative committee. Then Weil’s chair would immediately wobble. Secondly: What motivated Weil and Mielke to promote this office manager so quickly despite considerable resistance from the Ministry of Finance and even from the State Chancellery? Had she been promised something that absolutely had to be kept? Before the office manager, who is also the SPD leader in the Heide district, came to work in Lower Saxony, she worked as a personal advisor to the Hamburg Finance Senator. Before that, she had worked for a while on the Hamburg Citizens’ Cum-Ex Investigative Committee. It is possible that clarifying the office manager affair will also involve finding out more about the office manager’s previous work. Many possible witnesses then come into consideration.
