When things weren’t going well in the Volkswagen empire, Ulrich Hackenberg often came into play. The gifted car engineer was something of a problem solver in the company. When the model brand Audi was weakening, the then chairman of the supervisory board, Ferdinand Piëch, and his CEO, Martin Winterkorn, sent their best man to Ingolstadt. That was 2013 and Audi, although still the most important profit generator, needed a refresh of its aging model fleet. The brand with the four rings no longer lived up to the slogan “Advancement through technology”. A case for “Hacki”, as the head of development in the group at the time was called, who was responsible for the diesel engines, among other things. For him, the assignment was a return, as he had started his career at Audi in 1985 after studying mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University. And his time at Audi is now bringing him to court, a good decade after the diesel scandal was exposed. The Munich public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against him and three other former Audi managers, including his successor on the board, Stefan Knirsch. They are accused, among other things, of fraud, indirect false certification and criminal advertising – offenses that are related to the systematic deception of authorities and customers. The trial before the Munich II Regional Court begins this Monday. The headquarters were searched in the spring of 2017. In the eleventh year after the emissions manipulation at Volkswagen became known, only the second criminal trial is taking place in Munich. Bavarian investigators had already searched Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt and the production site in Neckarsulm in spring 2017. The factory near Heilbronn primarily produces the Audi series A5 up to and including the A8. Meanwhile, the raid on the Munich location of the major law firm Jones Day caused a stir and a legal dispute with US lawyers. The international law firm interviewed more than 700 Volkswagen and Audi employees and viewed numerous documents. Only the Federal Constitutional Court decided that the prosecution could not use the confiscated documents for investigative purposes against VW or Audi employees. Nevertheless, charges were later brought against the former CEO of Audi, Rupert Stadler.More on the topicAudi is considered the nucleus of emissions manipulation in the VW Group. And Hackenberg wasn’t just a central figure at Audi. In 2007 he moved to Wolfsburg with the later VW boss Martin Winterkorn and took over the management of technical development for the entire group. His name is closely linked to the Volkswagen Group’s modular system, which made production more efficient and cost-effective. And he was involved in the development of the diesel engine generations in question, which bore the internal designation EA189 or EA896/EA897 and were used across brands. The charges against Hackenberg and two other former Audi board members in the first Corona summer of 2020 as well as the investigations against at least nine other suspects almost went under. In the following years it stayed that way, also because the proceedings against Stadler, the former board member Wolfgang Hatz and two co-defendants dragged on. It was not until the summer of 2023 that the first verdict in Germany in a criminal trial in the diesel scandal was reached. At that time, Stadler was sentenced to a suspended sentence for fraud – a decision that was confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice just a few weeks ago. 434,420 vehicles with manipulated engines In the meantime, the way would have long been clear for a trial against Hackenberg before the criminal chamber chaired by Stefan Weickert. However, the experienced judge retired. In a new constellation, the Fifth Large Criminal Chamber approved the indictment in November 2024 – but without the third Audi board member who was originally accused. The former head of department is accused in the indictment of having initiated the development of engines whose controls were equipped with an inadmissible software function. These engines were installed in Audi, VW and Porsche vehicles. Hackenberg and the former top manager Knirsch are said to have learned about the manipulations at different times between October 2013 and September 2015, but did nothing to stop the further sale of the cars. According to an earlier statement from the Munich public prosecutor’s office, 434,420 Audi, VW and Porsche vehicles with manipulated engines were sold in the United States and on the European market during the period mentioned. In contrast to Knirsch, who told the “Heilbronner Stimme” in 2016 that he had learned about the scandal from the press, Hackenberg has not made any similar statements in public. The name Hackenberg also does not appear in the comprehensive settlement that Volkswagen concluded with some high-ranking ex-managers – including Martin Winterkorn – and a number of manager liability insurers. However, sources from the F.A.Z. confirm that the VW Group has now reached an agreement with its former top manager. However, this is not an indicator of a personal admission of guilt by Hackenberg, because it only concerns the liability dispute between the top manager and his former employer. In total, the emissions scandal has cost VW more than 30 billion euros in fines, damages and settlements to date. By taking recourse against formerly high-ranking managers, VW is distributing these positions across several shoulders. As in all other criminal proceedings, the presumption of innocence continues to apply to Hackenberg, Knirsch and the two co-defendants.
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