To avert a lawsuit worth millions
Sexually abused Hempel has an offer from the DSV
06/14/2023, 11:30 a.m
For years, Jan Hempel has been exposed to the sexualized violence of his trainer Werner Langer, the water jumper makes serious allegations against the German Swimming Association. In the dispute over admissions of guilt and compensation for pain and suffering, the DSV is now making the former world-class athlete an offer.
The German Swimming Association wants to prevent a possible claim for damages by former world-class water jumper Jan Hempel. One is in an “intensive exchange” with Hempel’s lawyer Thomas Summerer and is “trying to find an amicable solution for all parties and thus avert a lengthy legal dispute,” said the DSV at the request of the ARD.
Accordingly, the association submitted a “concrete offer” in order to find a solution “promptly”. The association leadership thus followed a recommendation of the independent review commission, which the DSV had set up in the course of the “Causa Hempel”.
According to ARD information, the DSV has not yet made any proposals for specific compensation payments. An independent arbitrator should work out possible solutions. The DSV did not want to officially comment on these points. However, the association generally excludes compensation payments with reference to non-profit law.
DSV is said to have known since 1997
In the dispute over compensation for pain and suffering, Hempel had set a deadline for DSV, according to his manager Oliver Hillebrecht. If the DSV does not respond to the five different offers submitted with a serious answer by June 6th, it will go to court. According to ARD, Hillebrecht received the current offer from DSV on Monday. “We have to examine the offer,” said the lawyer.
In an ARD documentary entitled “Abused – Sexualized Violence in German Swimming”, Hempel made the allegations of sexual abuse against his coach, who died in 2001, public for the first time last August. Accordingly, Langer had passed from 1982 to 1996 at the Olympic silver medalist in Atlanta in 1996 – including during the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
In the film, Hempel accused the DSV of knowing about the allegations in 1997 but not having done anything decisive. The case triggered a broad discussion about abuse and violence in German sport and how to deal with it. On March 1, an independent review commission began its work.