Two years ago, the sports show reported on the largest abuse scandal in the history of the German Tennis Association. It was about former Vice President Dirk Hordorff, who is said to have misused a large number of young men for decades. The investigation against him was discontinued. Encouraged by reporting, a woman has now reported who is apparently also a victim of sexual violence by a German tennis coach. It turns to the associations and hardly hears anything concrete. Didn’t the German Tennis Bund learn from the Hordorff case?
When Britta K. line up in line to the tennis stadium on the Rothenbaum in line at the end of May, she is just looking forward to good tennis. “I played here in Hamburg myself, but today I want to look at it from the stands. I love the atmosphere at such tournaments.” Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff are scheduled for the afternoon.
The fact that Britta K. seems to be carefree here is not a matter of course, because she has been fighting experiences for more than 30 years that she accuses her long -time coach: “When I was 14, the first smaller attacks came. He also accompanied me to a tournament and I was alone in the car with him and there he had his hand on my knee all the time and always a bit tricked and also tried to present it so playfully”says Britta K ..
Britta K. describes serious sexual abuse
The trainer has the highest license of the German Tennis Association and is considered a success coach. “At some point he also went under the skirt and under the panties, the kisses became more massive and pressing.”
Again and again there were stark crossings. The coach said that it must remain her secret. Britta is now 17 when her trainer hired her as a babysitter in his family. “While his wife got ready in the bathroom for the night, he came into the study in which I was lying on a mattress and touched me and laid out with erect penis. And I also penetrated my fingers. I was only afraid all the time that his wife would not come in. So that I can’t get the trouble.”
No support from the DTB
We consider the descriptions to be credible, but you cannot check down to the last detail. Some contemporary witnesses confirm that they have been expressed, others not. Britta K. tries to get help at the time, but is not taken seriously according to her descriptions. She only goes to the police when the allegations are statute -barred. A common problem in cases of sexual violence.
Britta K. works therapeutically for years. But the feeling of being to blame even the attacks never completely disappears. Encouraged by ARD reports on sexualized violence, Britta K. turns to her tennis association in North Rhine-Westphalia two years ago.
“This meeting was a bit strange to me because I felt as a supplicant, not as a victim. And I believe that they were relatively happy to be able to eat quickly.”
Strongly shortened end of the Enlightenment committee
At that time, the DTB is to clarify other allegations that a sports show research had revealed: former and current professionals had accused the deceased Vice President of the German Tennis Federation, Dirk Hordorff, abuse of power and sexual violence. Investigations against Hordorff were discontinued.
One and a half years after the sports show report, a refurbishment commission comes to the end of their work. It is only shortened. Those affected are not informed. It means: “The Commission assumes that in the past four decades there have been at least four cases of interpersonal violence in German tennis.”
Those affected are dissatisfied, they had promised much more. Maximilian Abel writes to us: “Check that someone independent? I don’t think so!”. He thinks that Hordorff’s influence still has an effect. “It seems that so many people crawled into the ass that only a few get the flap even after his death.”
Hordorff dies before the end of the investigation
Tennis professional Sriram Balaji is also disappointed that his courage to speak openly was not rewarded. Through the sports show, he learns that the examination is complete: “Until then, I didn’t know what happened. Mr. Hordorff has been dead for two years now. In my survey, I never heard of them again.” There are also shortcomings in the legal process against Hordorff. In the investigation by the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office against Hordorff, Balaji declared his willingness to testify at the request of LKA Hessen. However, this never occurs, since the procedures are set, among other things, by a bureaucratic oversight. After months of processing times of the authorities, the accused dies before the Mail Balajis could have been taken up again. There is no investigation against the dead.
In the Hordorff case alone, according to our research, 14 tennis professionals reported allegations of power abuse. The DTB apparently did not deal with that. Britta K. is also not invited to the hearing by the commission.
The association explains in a press statement: “The Commission had the goal of determining conditions, structures and responsibilities in relation to past facts”.
“It was tried again to point out responsibility”
We meet Britta K. shortly afterwards in Düsseldorf. She took a lawyer. The DTB and its association from North Rhine -Westphalia sat with it for the first time at a table. After two and a half hours, the former tennis talent comes out of the conversation exhausted. On the one hand, she is glad that you can hear her hearing. However, there is little concrete from the association, especially in detail questions, says the person concerned.
“It was tried again to point out of responsibility. By saying that the coach would not have been at the DTB. So the DTB is not responsible. And now I have to tell me again very clearly that I am not concerned with compensation, but about how to deal with such things. And I believe that I am such a little light. I am not a professional player. wants things to change and that negative headlines are dealt with “.
Britta K. hopes for education and confrontation
The DTB shares us in writing: “We take this accusation very seriously – regardless of how long the incident lasts. We ask for your understanding that we will not comment on the confidential discussions (…).”
The accused coach did not report on our request.
Britta K. wants justice: “On the one hand, I want to tell it because I want to get rid of this guilt. Because I want everyone to know that I was not the one who made mistakes. (…) I want to clarify and confront the person. Hoping that other affected people can also find help if there is.”