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Bayreuth: The Festival Hall on the Green Hill (2021)
Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa
The public prosecutor's office has closed the proceedings on suspicion of sexual harassment at the Bayreuth Festival.
This was announced by the senior public prosecutor Martin Dippold of the dpa news agency.
According to Dippold, the public prosecutor's office had investigated allegations by four employees that the proceedings were directed against a suspect and an unknown person.
It was "very minor harassment without any consequences at the lowest level of criminal liability," Dippold said.
»All four injured parties have no interest in criminal prosecution and have refrained from filing a criminal complaint.
Under these circumstances, there was no public interest in prosecution,” Dippold continued.
The investigation was officially initiated in the summer due to media coverage, the public prosecutor said at the time.
Shortly before the start of the festival in July, women had anonymously described sexually motivated assaults to the "Nordbayerischer Kurier".
They were touched or had to listen to lewd remarks.
The festival had a #Metoo debate just before opening.
Festival boss Katharina Wagner also confirmed that she herself was affected.
"Sexual innuendos and sometimes assaults in a way yes," she said.
"But I knew how to defend myself." She added that she "acted very, very clearly."
She was shocked by reports of assaults, insults and insults.
»Consequences under labor law for the polluter«
In the 2022 season, there were labor law consequences for one of the participants in this context, as spokesman Hubertus Herrmann announced.
After all contributors had been "proactively" addressed by the management on the subject, employees reported incidents that related to a contributor.
“Action was taken and those affected were discussed in detail with those affected and, after comprehensive clarification and consideration, the consequences under labor law were drawn for the person responsible.” Herrmann did not want to say what the nature of these consequences was.
At a works meeting in December, the permanent staff was informed about this case and again made aware of the need to contact management directly or anonymously.
»In addition, a preventive code of conduct based on the code of conduct of the German Theater Association is being developed, further training for managers is planned and the topic will be part of the occupational safety instructions – as was the case in the 2022 festival.«
wit/dpa
