At the Humboldt University in Berlin, an employee is suspected of having sexually harassed female students for decades. Scientist Heike Pantelmann explains why this is easily possible.
At the Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin, students have apparently been sexually harassed by an employee for years. At the end of July, the left-wing platform indymedia.org published allegations that a permanent research assistant had repeatedly been verbally and physically abusive. Research by other media, including the daily newspaper and des daily mirror, revealed that the man had been repeatedly accused of sexual harassment since the mid-1990s. In 2007 he was therefore warned. At the end of July, the management of the HU finally commented on the case that clarifying the allegations had “top priority”. Since May, the accused employee has only been able to hold his consultation hours for female students online and in the presence of the faculty’s women’s representative. He was released this Thursday. Heike Pantelmann is the managing director of the Margherita von Brentano Center, which deals with gender studies at the Freie Universität Berlin.