It took a while, but now the German Tennis Federation has published the results of an investigation into abuse of power. However, much remains in the dark.
There have been at least four cases of interpersonal violence in German tennis over the past four decades. This is the result of an independent commission’s review of allegations of abuse of power in German tennis, which the German Tennis Federation has now published. On the advice of the commission, the report was not made fully accessible for privacy reasons.
Interpersonal violence is understood to mean psychological, physical and sexual violence as well as neglect. In addition, evidence of a “large number of further cases” was found, according to the three-page letter from the commission, which included former tennis pro Eric Jelen.
Defendant rejected accusations
Last year, research by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR and Sportschau uncovered several cases of abuse of power by the then DTB vice-president Dirk Hordorff. The now deceased Hordorff resigned from his post as a result, but always rejected the allegations of sexualized violence and abuse of power as “simply untrue”.
The commission also criticized the fact that the association did not have a protection concept for the prevention of interpersonal violence during the period of the four known cases. This had favored the cases. In the meantime, the DTB has installed a corresponding protection concept that meets the requirements of the German Olympic Sports Confederation.
