The former water jumper Jan Hempel wants to sue the German Swimming Association (DSV) for damages and damages in the millions. The sports show reports. In the ARD documentary “Abusbt” last August, Hempel accused his late trainer Werner Langer of years of sexual abuse. The lawsuit is therefore about the almost unbelievable number 1200: Hempel blames his trainer Langer for so many sexual assaults. “The organization of the German Swimming Association has failed completely in monitoring and controlling its coaches,” said Hempel’s lawyer Thomas Summerer in the sports show. “There was only a cover-up. This organizational culpability means that an association is liable.” Olympic medalist and four-time European champion Hempel declined to comment further on the case.
The DSV announced on Sunday morning that “compensation payments or financial support for injured parties were being discussed”. However, financial aid options for non-profit sports associations are limited under the current legal situation. “We are therefore already in contact with other institutions such as the BMI, the DOSB or Athletes Germany about what the possibility of appropriate material compensation could look like,” said DSV Vice President Wolfgang Rupieper.
According to Hempel, he informed the association’s leadership of the events in 1997, but encountered a wall of silence. After the cover-up allegations came to light, the DSV suspended national coach Lutz Buschkow during the European Swimming Championships in Rome last August, who was said to have known about the attacks against Hempel at the time, but did not do anything about it. Buschkow, on the other hand, stated that he did not know anything about Hempel’s allegations at the time.
Marbaise also made the accusation public
Since March 1st, an independent body commissioned by the DSV has been working on cases of abuse in German swimming. According to DSV official Rupieper, the commission will deal with “all cases named in the ARD documentation in August 2022”. However, their report should only be available in a year.
There is now another case: The former Aachen water jumper Franz Marbaise made the allegation of sexual assault by a trainer public in the sports show on Sunday. At the end of the 1960s, this happened for the first time in the vicinity of the traditional Aachen club SV Neptun. Marbaise said Jan Hempel’s courageous move persuaded him to break his own silence. At that time, he was not believed in a discussion with the accused, a club manager and his parents. According to ARD information, the accused, who is now very old, is not capable of being questioned. At the same time, he was a close relation to the national coach Ursula Klinger, who has since died. She is one of those DSV officials who were responsible when Jan Hempel was abused for many years.
Hempel, 51, had previously tried to reach an out-of-court settlement with the DSV – without success. “We came across a cartel of silence,” says his lawyer Summerer, who speaks of the “crastest case of abuse that German sport has ever experienced” and emphasizes the fundamental importance of the pending proceedings: “The case definitely has precedent character.” Also because it is not aimed at the directly accused, who can no longer be convicted, but at an association whose most important task is to protect its athletes from abuse.