Munich sets up inquiry into Hochschule sexual abuse
mainWith one ex-rector convicted and another senior figure about to go on trial, you wonder why it has taken them so long.
The inquiry will be chaired by the former President of the Bavarian Constitutional Court, Hildegund Holzheid.
Meanwhile, a distinguished current lecturer has published an article, maintaining that the cover-up continues.
Read here.
A very long article it is but, so far, it amounts to a pile of gossip…..
no gossip, the facts are correct. And this is why the article had to be detailed and longer. You can also check the links, which provide additional info (for example excerpts from the questionnaire that was covered up by the Hochschule)
It’s a good article by Moritz and not in any way gossip. The topics he addresses have already been widely reported in the media, and some of them the subject of court rulings.
It would be a mistake to think Munich is alone with this problem. It has been common in all of the conservatories for decades. And yet few have been willing to address the issue, and especially in a written and published format. These exploitive and one-dimensional views of women in the music world are also one of the main reasons that they have faced such severe discrimination for so long, especially in the German-speaking world, France, and Italy.
My wife, who is a professor in a German conservatory, once spoke to the school’s Dean about the sexual misbehavior of students. He laughed the issue off and told Abbie that if he did anything about the problem, he’d have to fire a third of the professors. The next day, at another meeting, he made an insulting joke about the issue. And this even though a student had recently attempted suicide after a relationship with one of her professors fell apart (as almost all do.)
It’s good to see the German conservatories finally addressing this problem after decades of very irresponsible neglect. It will be an important step toward women be treated more fairly in many parts of the German music world, including in orchestras and opera houses.
“It will be an important step toward women be treated more fairly in many parts of the German music world, including in orchestras and opera houses.”
I can’t read German but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that some of the misdemeanours have occured between same sexes.
“It will be an important step toward women be treated more fairly in many parts of the German music world, including in orchestras and opera houses.”
Though not beyond the realms of possibility that some of the misdeeds occured between same sexes. I can’t read German unfortunately, so maybe Moritz mentions this.
Very true, harrassment can be homosexual as well. In the Munich, the incidents involve two men who allegedly abused women. The two cases are more extreme than usual. Based on what I have seen over many years, the vast majority of cases involve men in teaching positions sexually exploiting women students.
If you read the Spiegel-article of mid may 2018 you see the male composition-professor involved also in cases with his male students. In the intro the Spiegel says as a student comes for his composition-lesson to the professor’s home he got a explicit job by the professor’s wife meanwhile the professor worked in the same room at an Kafka-opera about “The Metamorphosis”. You have to know that this special professor has had the unusual and exotic permission by the administration, which was leaded from the now to jail convicted academy-president, to give lessons at his home. And you read about penetrations of a pre-academic student in the late 80ies. And in the end there is a story about a male-student, in this time, in the mid-90ies, as he waited for a big world-premiere at Munich Staatsoper (era P. Jonas), who was only 16 years old. Not the police helped the youngster against the sexual advances of the professor, not a gymnasium-teacher, first his female piano teacher raised a complaint against the professor at the academy and the responsible ministry. The minor-aged student was invited to administrative interviews with the academy and in the ministry. He was to forced without the company of a lawyer or mom or dad to give signature under a protocol that he backtracked the accusations against his professor which had this opera-commission over 100.000 DM got by the same ministry. Sometimes it is useful to be able to read german…, here the Spiegel, very sad, probably only at the border to be criminal but untolerable and impossible for a relation teacher/student and I think an unbearable academic administration and unacceptable bavarian politics in the ministry! Do not forget: to become a pre-academic pupil of music your parents invest vast sums of money to prepare their child for the studies, in this case they confide their minor-aged child a public music-academy. And he his nothing than as a fresh meat-bonus for a lusty professor who gorged male and female students under the eye of the presidents and ministries which still talk about future and today’s guidelines against sexual misbehaviour of professors and blank out the past. And yes, the academy-chancellor in the mid 90ies and probably co-responsible for the signatures of the minor-aged is still today the academy-chancellor. Disgusting! And if you read the press release to the planned inquiry-commission this commission is only looking in the actual situation and not in the past. Just today no word of responsibility and sorry from the academy about the failed behaving of this professor, von Bose, and his personal friend and now to jail convicted ex-president Mauser to the possible and by court and Spiegel-article openly and official victims. More Disgusting! Yes, and here the link: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/sex-skandal-an-der-musikhochschule-muenchen-a-1207253.html
Interesting. I hadn’t seen this latest article in Der Spiegel that describes the exploitation of a male student as well. This story only gets more and more bizarre.
In my post above, the first sentence in the third paragraph should read “the sexual misbehavior of professors.”