The SED victims’ representative Evelyn Zupke sharply criticized the reaction of the sports committee chairman Frank Ullrich to a report in connection with his doping past.
Evelyn Zupke sees Frank Ullrich in no way relieved by the expertise of the former constitutional judge Udo Steiner, which was commissioned by the German Ski Association (DSV). “Professor Steiner’s two-page statement deals exclusively with the work of a commission of the German Ski Association in 2009, which at the time recommended that legal action against Frank Ullrich be refrained from. It is, so to speak, a report on a report“, Zupke told the ARD doping editorial team.
Ullrich’s role “still unclear”
The Federal Commissioner for the Victims of the SED Dictatorship added that Steiner’s statement was only about whether the evidence provided by the Commission at the time met constitutional requirements. “The expert neither looked into the various archives nor included more recent findings from the last 14 years of research on the GDR forced doping system.“
Regarding the content of the expert opinion, she says: “Unfortunately, Frank Ullrich’s role in relation to the issue of doping remains unclear.Zupke said: “You lack the understanding that Ullrich”tried to give the impression that this new report exonerates him“The content doesn’t say that.
At a meeting of the sports committee in May 2022, Zupke himself made Ullrich promise to have his own report prepared on his past and even pre-formulated key questions. There is still no report commissioned by Ullrich. Zupke had already described the lack of such an investigation as “highly disrespectful to his fellow MPs and beyond shameful to the victims” designated.
Deputy Krämer: Case closed at this point in time
Zupke himself had researched Stasi files on the GDR doping state plan 14.25 and the involvement of the biathlon division and had come to the conclusion: that Ullrich as a trainer “She found it “very difficult to imagine that she had no knowledge of doping or the procedures”.“.
Philip Krämer (Alliance 90/The Greens), Ullrich’s deputy on the sports committee, interprets the situation differently than Zupke. When asked by ARD, Krämer explained: “But if a former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court acts as an advocate and therefore also uses his name to stand up for Frank Ullrich, the case is closed for me at this point in time.” In principle, however, he “still thinks it makes sense“that Ullrich”precisely out of respect for those affected by the SED doping system“Have your own report prepared.
DSV: No influence from Ullrich
The statement states that the DSV Commission was in 2011 “with understandable justification” came to the conclusion that Ullrich had “In an unconsciously controlled repression mechanism, things were arranged for themselves in such a way that they were merely training aids“. The assessment of evidence is “free from evaluation errors and in accordance with the principles of the rule of law“, says Steiner, which is available to the ARD doping editorial team.
The study, which was carried out in 2011 under the direction of the then DSV vice-president and current president Franz Steinle, was repeatedly criticized as not being independent and not in-depth enough.
Because “in the past months“The study was repeatedly referred to, the DSV”once again, of his own free will, the work of the commission at that time by an independent expert” have it checked, the DSV told ARD upon request. Ullrich, a spokesman said, had not previously contacted the association about this.
With regard to two key witnesses for the prosecution, the former biathletes Jens Steinigen and Jürgen Wirth, Steiner’s assessment stated: Their statements in a hearing on May 25, 2009 had “The allegations previously made against Frank Ullrich have not been credibly confirmed”. Wirth later told Deutschlandfunk about Ullrich’s role that he found his refusal to acknowledge his past shameful. He could not be reached for a current comment. Steinigen did not want to comment further on the matter when asked by ARD.