MoveIt! rviz MotionPlanning plugin broken Robot geometry

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I followed the Moveit Setup Assistant Tutorial to configure a manipulator for use with MoveIt. I did

• load the URDF/Xacro file
• set the virtual joint
• add a planning group
• define a robot pose
• generate the configuration files without problems.

I left out the end effector part, because I do not have a real end effector. The manipulator has three DOF.

Now, when I start the demo.launch file rviz starts up, but the robot geometry is broken. The position of every link under "MotionPlanning->Scene Robot" is [0,0,0] and its orientation is set to some obviously incorrect value. Metaphorically speaking, the robot in rviz consists of a heap of links (robot parts).

Furthermore, I am missing the interactive markers. Searching the web the missing markers relate to the message No active joints or end effectors found for group ''. which I receive during the launch of rviz and which I cannot get rid of.

I have tested my xacro file with gazebo and it works flawlessly.

Here my updated and simplified SRDF file:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<robot name="mugator_manip">
    <group name="manipulator">
        <chain base_link="rotatory_base" tip_link="rotatory_drive" />
    </group>
    <group_state name="home" group="manipulator">
        <joint name="q0" value="0" />
    </group_state>
    <virtual_joint name="virtual_joint" type="fixed" parent_frame="world" child_link="footprint" />
    <disable_collisions link1="rotatory_base" link2="rotatory_drive" reason="Adjacent" />
</robot>

And the relevant output during launch of rviz:

[ INFO] [1510658130.699292603]: MoveGroup context using planning plugin ompl_interface/OMPLPlanner
[ INFO] [1510658130.699318489]: MoveGroup context initialization complete

You can start planning now!

libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
[ INFO] [1510658134.100829824]: Loading robot model 'mugator_manip'...
[ INFO] [1510658134.548891308]: Starting scene monitor
[ INFO] [1510658134.554074274]: Listening to '/move_group/monitored_planning_scene'
[ INFO] [1510658134.875040587]: No active joints or end effectors found for group ''. Make sure you have defined an end effector in your SRDF file and that kinematics.yaml is loaded in this node's namespace.
[ INFO] [1510658134.875249162]: No active joints or end effectors found for group 'manipulator'. Make sure you have defined an end effector in your SRDF file and that kinematics.yaml is loaded in this node's namespace.
[ INFO] [1510658134.876849619]: No active joints or end effectors found for group 'manipulator'. Make sure you have defined an end effector in your SRDF file and that kinematics.yaml is loaded in this node's namespace.
[ INFO] [1510658134.877298190]: Constructing new MoveGroup connection for group 'manipulator' in namespace ''
[ INFO] [1510658136.007301565]: Ready to take commands for planning group manipulator.
[ INFO] [1510658136.007387218]: Looking around: no
[ INFO] [1510658136.007429894]: Replanning: no

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: Screen shot of rviz:

Edit: Screen shot of the Displays area of rviz.

Edit: Simplified URDF file which still shows a broken geometry:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<robot name="mugator_manip" xmlns:xacro="http://www.ros.org/wiki/xacro">
  <gazebo>
    <static>false</static>
    <plugin filename="libgazebo_ros_control.so" name="gazebo_ros_control">
      <robotNamespace>/mugator_manip</robotNamespace>
    </plugin>
  </gazebo>

  <link name="footprint"/>

  <joint name="p_joint" type="fixed">
    <parent link="footprint"/>
    <origin rpy="0 0 0" xyz="0 0 0.19"/>
    <child link="rotatory_base"/>
  </joint ...