Jan Hempel and the German Swimming Association (DSV) reach an out-of-court agreement in the dispute over how to deal with the former diver’s years of sexual abuse by his coach. The high compensation payment to Hempel worsens the DSV’s financial situation.
Jan Hempel receives compensation of 600,000 euros from the German Swimming Association (DSV) for serious abuse by his coach Werner Langer. 15 months after Hempel in the ARD documentary “Abused” After speaking about his ordeal for the first time, both sides reached an out-of-court agreement, thereby avoiding a legal battle that would last for years. An agreement on compensation of this amount in connection with the issue of abuse is a unique event in German sport.
Hempel’s lawyer, the Munich sports lawyer Thomas Summerer, had earmarked a lawsuit amount of 3.5 million euros in the event of a legal dispute. According to ARD information, an arbitrator had suggested 800,000 euros, the DSV leadership had received a mandate of 600,000 euros from the regional associations for the final negotiations, which the parties ultimately agreed on.
According to both sides, the settlement guarantees Hempel a fixed payment of 300,000 euros and a payment of the same amount in monthly installments over ten years. This will also be paid to the surviving dependents in the event of death. In addition, the DSV plans to set up a fund “to strengthen the area of prevention of sexual violence in the association in the long term and to provide full-time support.”
“Moral obligation”
“It is of central importance for the DSV to ensure the integrity and safety of our members and activists. This decision reflects our moral obligation and deep respect for Jan Hempel and all those affected,” said DSV Vice President Wolfgang Rupieper. Hempel’s lawyer Thomas Summerer said: “I am very happy that we were able to find an out-of-court solution that combines legal and moral claims. A longer process, possibly over several instances, would have done more harm than good to my client.”
According to his own statements, Hempel was abused almost daily between 1982 and 1996 by his then coach Werner Langer, who committed suicide in 2001. He accused the DSV of organizational negligence, that the association’s structures had facilitated the coach’s actions, and that those within the DSV had remained silent. A court case on this basis would have set a precedent in German sport.
DSV breaks away from its own Legal opinion
After Hempel first demanded compensation and compensation for pain and suffering, the DSV fundamentally ruled out compensation payments regardless of the person, citing association and non-profit law. Under increasing pressure from the opposing side and from the public, the DSV has now apparently broken away from this legal opinion.
The agreement was preceded by an arbitration procedure led by Achim Späth, the former presiding judge at the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court and chairman of the Federal Court of the German Football Association. The independent commission led by the Cologne sociologist Bettina Rulofs, which was commissioned by the DSV to examine the Hempel case and other issues presented in the ARD documentary, was not involved in the arbitration procedure.
Interim report discloses details of the arbitration process
However, in a recently submitted internal interim report to the top of the association, which was available to ARD-Sportschau, the commission referred to the minutes of the arbitration proceedings. Accordingly, Arbitrator Späth predicted the possible duration of the process if it were processed by state courts alone through all domestic instances to be around five years.
In addition to a possible compensation payment, the DSV was threatened with further costs and fees amounting to six figures. Proceedings through several instances, it was said, would also entail “further economic risks for the association due to the loss of reputation associated with the conduct of the legal proceedings” as well as “possible dangers to public funding and uncertain reactions from sponsors”.
In the arbitration, “above all, the moral obligation of the DSV to provide compensation, the expected but uncontrollable reactions of the press and public, the health and economic risks on the part of the claimant as well as the burden on the claimant due to assessments and other evidence collection that will foreseeably become necessary” will be discussed been.
From the perspective of the processing commission, there is “no doubt that acceptance of the arbitration result can help to avoid retraumatization of Jan Hempel in the context of lengthy legal proceedings and to optimally satisfy all other interests of both Jan Hempel and the DSV and its members.”
Two further proceedings burden DSV
However, the DSV cannot feel like a winner. The association, which is financed with more than five million euros annually from taxpayers’ money, is under severe economic pressure. The dual leadership of the association, consisting of Wolfgang Rupieper and Kai Morgenroth, had to plan high reserves not only for the Hempel case.
In February 2024, the trial brought by former DSV top official Lutz Buschkow against the association will continue before the Halle/Saale labor court. The DSV initially suspended Buschkow after the publication of the ARD documentation and finally terminated him without notice in mid-October 2022, accusing him of knowing about the abuse of Hempel but remaining silent.
Former sports director Thomas Kurschilgen is also defending himself against his immediate dismissal in March 2021. At that time, alleged failures in dealing with allegations of abuse also played a role. It was about the case of the former national open water coach Stefan Lurz, who was sentenced to a suspended sentence for sexually abusing a woman under protection at the federal base in Würzburg. The second hearing date at the Kassel regional court is scheduled for November 23rd.
Criticism from those affected by abuse
In the trials with Kurschilgen and Buschkow, a sum of millions is probably at stake for the DSV. It is unclear to what extent he would be able to cope with a possible loss of this amount. According to ARD information, the possibility of putting a mortgage on the association’s headquarters in Kassel has already been discussed internally. The general meeting on December 9th could be a test for the DSV.
The reaction of another person affected by abuse shows how difficult the process of coming to terms with the situation will remain. Franz Marbaise, like Hempel, a former diver who, according to his own statements, was abused by his trainer at the federal base in Aachen in the late 1960s, would have liked the Hempel case to be dealt with in court.
“These arbitration procedures exist for one reason: They are intended to help keep the public out of it. There will be no justification for the verdict. That’s why no other affected person can follow them and evaluate their own case themselves,” Marbaise told ARD: “With justice or reparation It has nothing to do with it.” Marbaise added that he could not imagine any financial or moral compensation: “In the end, the loser will always be Jan Hempel.”