Pedophilia debate (Alliance 90 / The Greens)

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The pedophilia debate in Germany in 2013 was a public debate about how the party Die Grünen dealt with party-affiliated persons, members, party groups and representatives of the pedophile movement as well as their role in the early phase of the party in the early 1980s. This debate mainly dealt with processes and texts from the pedophilia debate of the 1970s and 1980s , which were already the subject of press coverage in the 1980s .

The trigger was the awarding of the Theodor Heuss Prize 2013 to MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit .

The party responded by commissioning and funding a research project at the Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research on "Scope, context and effects of pedophile demands in the milieus of the New Social Movements and the Greens", which was headed by the Göttingen political scientist and party researcher Franz Walter . Walter and his Göttingen colleague Stephan Klecha presented the first results by September 2013. At that time there were two specific cases of abuse that could not be clearly assigned to the Green Party as an institution.

In 2015, the party's federal executive board decided to make “a payment in recognition of the grave suffering inflicted on them” as compensation to three victims of abuse.

Beginning in the 1970s

Various actors, including members of the pedophile movement , sought to lift or lower the age of consent and legalize consensual pedosexual contacts. Support from the left-alternative spectrum, the Greens and the gay movement ebbed in the 1990s after feminists protested against support for pedophiles and served prison terms as some of the protagonists of the pedophile movement.

Federal working groups

Federal working group for gays, pederasts and transsexuals

The "Federal Working Group for Gays, Pederasts and Transsexuals" (BAG SchwuP) sat down u. a. advocate the legalization of pederastic practices. In 1984 the BAG SchwuP was upgraded by being assigned to the “Law and Society” working group of the Bundestag parliamentary group and financed by the federal party and the Bundestag parliamentary group. Its last coordinator was Dieter Fritz Ullmann , who was convicted of child sexual abuse at least six times and was imprisoned again and again from 1980 onwards. At the same time, Ullmann was active at the state and, from 1985, at the federal level with the Greens. In 1987 the BAG SchwuP was dissolved.

Federal Working Group on Commune Movement

In addition to the BAG SchwuP, there was a second BAG in the Greens, the Federal Association of Commune Movement of the Greens , in which a pedophile was active. Her spokesman was Hermann Meer, who also directed the Emmaus Center Dachsberg. From June 21 to 24, 1984, the Federal Association of Communes Movement hosted a strategy debate at Stettenfels Castle near Heilbronn. The impetus for the meeting was provided by Rudolf Bahro , who founded the municipal BAG in 1983. People from the Indian community also took part.

Demands and party resolutions

Federal program of the Greens (1980–1993)

From March 21 to 23, 1980, the second federal party conference of the Greens took place in Saarbrücken. Initially, demands were made to abolish Section 218 of the Criminal Code on abortion , to abolish discrimination against homosexuals and to mitigate Sections 174 and 176 of the Criminal Code on sexuality with children. Thereupon a group of delegates around Baldur Springmann threatened to leave the party.

With participation u. a. of the actor Cornelius Littmann , the lawyer Otto Schily and the chairman of the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives Environmental Protection Roland Vogt , an additional resolution was drafted, which framed the demands for revision of §§ 174 and 176. In the approved federal program it says under point 4.3 " Against the discrimination of sexual outsiders ":

"Comment on the text of the resolution on §§ 174 and 176:
Unfortunately, this resolution could not be discussed together at the party congress. Even at the party base, this question has so far not been discussed, or only rarely discussed. This is neither in the interests of those affected, nor of the applicant, nor of the party as a whole. We therefore believe that Paragraph 521 should be understood as follows: it is a mandate to the party in all its divisions to deal intensively with the effects of these criminal offenses. Of course, this mandate does not determine the outcome of this discussion. A commission will be formed to assist with the discussion. In view of the justified concerns and fears associated with this topic, we consider it necessary that this topic be dealt with in detail at one of the next party congresses with the participation of those affected and experts.
The text of the resolution reads: - Sections 174 and 176 StGB are to be worded in such a way that only the use or threat of violence or abuse of a relationship of dependency in sexual acts are punishable. "

- Federal program of the Greens, 1980

This passage can also be found in the revised version from 1982, it remained formally part of the federal program valid until 1993.

State party congresses in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1985

At the state party conference of the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia on March 9, 1985 in Lüdenscheid , a twenty-person working group “LAG SchwuP” submitted a 21-page draft entitled “Sexuality and Rule”. Despite a number of warnings from their own ranks, the delegates approved the content on March 10th after almost three hours of discussion with 76 to 53 votes, but only as a "working paper" due to points of dissent still needing clarification. The core theses were:

"Consensual sexuality is a form of communication between people of any age, gender, religion or race and must be protected from any restriction [...] Non-violent sexuality must be free for everyone." Only where "violence and dependence" are involved, the practice of sexuality is not acceptable. “Nonviolent sexuality” should “never be the subject of criminal prosecution”. Therefore, “all criminal offenses that threaten non-violent sexuality with punishment should be deleted”. "The entire sexual criminal law must be deleted" and "merged into a new paragraph under the aspect of the use of force".

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Friedhelm Farthmann ( SPD ) found that the paper aroused “disgust among the majority of the population”. Prime Minister Johannes Rau (SPD) saw the Greens' election chances to be reduced by the paper. Federal Minister of Justice Hans A. Engelhard ( FDP ) accused “considerable parts of the North Rhine-Westphalian Greens” that if it were up to them, “boys and girls who are already six years old on their way to school would no longer be safe from being emotionally harmed by sexual attacks by adults”. . The German Child Protection Association (DKSB) accused the Greens of wanting to release the child as a pleasure object.

Strong criticism also came from individual district associations and members of the Greens, who threatened to "boycott the election campaign for the state elections that took place two months later".

Just seven days after the party congress, the state main committee suspended the decision by 40 to 4 votes because of serious concerns, but was unable to reverse it. The state main committee convened a special state delegates' conference in Bad Godesberg on March 30, 1985 , which passed a "new part of the program" Sexuality and Domination "in which only the abolition of Paragraphs 175 and 182 (sexual abuse of young people) was demanded the Greens / NRW adjusted their demands to those of the Federal Greens ”.

AK "Children and Young People" in Baden-Württemberg

The working group "Children and Young People" of the Greens in Baden-Württemberg declared in April 1985: "Consensual sexual relationships between adults and children must be free of punishment". And further: "Since children are human, no one has the right, under whatever pretext, to disregard their rights to self-determination and personal happiness."

Election programs of the Alternative List Berlin

The Alternative List for Democracy and Environmental Protection (AL) stated in an election manifesto:

“It is inhumane to only allow sexuality to a certain age and under certain conditions. If adolescents wish to live with their peers or elders outside of the family, be it because their parents do not accept their homosexuality, or because they have pedosexual inclinations, or for other reasons, they must be given the opportunity to do so . "

In the 1981 election manifesto, the AL called for sexual acts with children to be punished only if violence is used or a dependency relationship is exploited.

Non-partisan groups with ties to the Greens

Emmaus Center Dachsberg

According to the accounts of two former roommates, children living there were regularly sexually assaulted in the Emmaus community in Kamp-Lintfort in the 1980s. According to these witnesses, Hermann Meer, the head of this commune, was actively involved. Meer, who openly admitted to his pedophilia , was also a member of the NRW state executive committee of the Greens at the time .

Meer tried to justify pedophilia with reference to ancient Greece. This is also reflected in the preparation reader for the meeting at Stettenfels Castle. This had the author's line " Michaela von Freyhold , Die Grünen" and was provided with the location "Dachsberg". Meer's commune was closely linked to activities that took place under the umbrella of the Greens.

In the 1970s he was a member of the CDU parliamentary group in the city council of Herne and was a direct candidate for the CDU in Wanne-Eickel in state elections. When Meer left the Union and joined the Greens can no longer be reconstructed today. It is certain that in 1979 and 1980 he was a member of the NRW state executive committee of the Greens and continued to be active there in the 1980s.

On September 24th and 25th, 1983, the Green Party Executive Committee of North Rhine-Westphalia hosted a children and youth congress in the Emmaus-Zentrum Dachsberg, which focused on the topic of sex with children. The congress was organized by Werner Vogel . Vogel was one of the first members of the Green Party in the Bundestag in 1983, and since 1980 he has also been a member of the state board of the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia. He did not take up his Bundestag mandate because of his Nazi past.

Indian commune

Representatives of the Indian commune appeared at the first party congress in Karlsruhe . The aggressive Indian community from Nuremberg propagated a right to " free love " between children and adults. Members of the Indian community took part in the children's and youth congress in the Emmaus Center Dachsberg and in June 1984 also in the meeting of the BGA community at Stettenfels Castle. For Hermann Meer, working with the Indians proved difficult. In a taz report from July 9, 1984, Meer commented on the meeting at Stettenfels Castle as follows: “I cannot support the fact that they” - the Indians - “managed to make this congress their congress again. “The Indian commune participated several times in federal party conferences of the Greens. At the Green Party Congress in Dortmund in 1980, members of the Indian commune propagated sex with children from the podium.

Statements by prominent Greens

Daniel Cohn-Bendit

Passages from the partly autobiographical work The Great Bazaar by Daniel Cohn-Bendit - published in 1975, several years before the founding of the Green Party - was the occasion in March 2013 for Andreas Voßkuhle , President of the Federal Constitutional Court , to give his laudation for the award of the Theodor-Heuss- To cancel the price to Cohn-Bendit. Vosskuhle justified his decision by stating that the award winner had "expressed himself in a not unproblematic manner about the sexuality between adults and children".

In an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel in May 2013, Cohn-Bendit stated that The Grand Bazaar was “not only terribly badly written, but also a strange colportage of fiction and experience”. The book "emerged from an interview, as a kind of manifesto against bourgeois society".

In 1978, Cohn-Bendit was responsible for PflasterStrand under press law . There was to read:

“Last year a 6 year old comrade girl seduced me. It was one of the most beautiful and speechless experiences I have ever had. Maybe it was so beautiful because it was so speechless. It was the only time that it wasn't too early for me. But that was not important at the moment, nor is it important now to write a treatise on the pros and cons of pederasty. "

- Anonymous : Paved beach , 1978

He was also criticized in an article by the journalist Christian Füller of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), because the Frankfurter city magazine PflasterStrand , for which Cohn-Bendit was responsible for press law, published some articles with pedophile content. "Under Cohn-Bendit's responsibility, there were far more pedophile utterances" than previously assumed. "In the paved beach," repulsive texts could be found again and again. "This was taken up by the taz , Die Zeit and the Rheinische Post . Cohn-Bendit himself justified such publications in 1978 with "the maxim, in case of doubt, for publication, because what cooks in the dark is more terrible than what is naked in the light". According to Silke Hoock in the WAZ , it is “difficult” for some to “trust Cohn-Bendit's apology.” Eckhard Stratmann-Mertens , co-founder of the Greens, “openly accused his former party friend of lying.” Magnus Klaue found himself in the Jungle World It is “consequent that the Greens of all people now have a“ pedophilia problem ””.

Also part of the criticism is his appearance on a French talk show on Antenne 2 (now France 2), in which he repeated his views:

«Vous savez la sexualité d'un gosse c'est absolument fantastique. […] Vous savez quand une petite fille de cinq ans commence à vous déshabiller, c'est fantastique car c'est un jeu érotico-maniaque. »

“You know, a child's sexuality is absolutely fantastic. […] You know, when a little five year old girl starts to undress you, that's great. It's great because it's a game, an incredibly erotic game. "

- Daniel Cohn-Bendit : Antenne 2 , talk show "Apostrophes" from April 23, 1982

In an interview with Der Spiegel , he justified this statement as a situation-related provocation to another person present, the conservative writer Paul Guth . Cohn-Bendit contradicted the view that the legalization of sex with children was a minority position among the Greens in the 1980s. In his defense, he said: "You just have to look at the age ratings for sex with adults: That was mainstream with the Greens".

In April 1981, Daniel Cohn-Bendit brought up a possible Bundestag candidacy for Dieter Ullmann from the Berlin Alternative List. Ullmann was head of the Federal Working Group for Gays, Pederasts and Transsexuals and was imprisoned for the sexual abuse of children. “Then Dieter Ullmann, who is now still in jail, comes to the Berlin House of Representatives. We will make him a candidate for the Bundestag. In Berlin, the Bundestag candidates have always been presented in proportion to their party's share of the vote and then elected unanimously. Let's see whether the CDU also does the same with the Knacki from the alternative list. "

The feminist journalist Alice Schwarzer commented in 2001: “Of course Daniel Cohn-Bendit is not a pedophile […] But he is - and always was - a child of his time. Even more: he was a leader of his time. What he has thought and done does not only concern him and those directly affected, it concerns all of us. ”However, she expected“ that he does not talk himself out again, but that he takes responsibility for what he thought , did and preached. "

His former companion, world editor Thomas Schmid , defended his integrity in his article "Cohn-Bendit was wrong - but he was not a pedophile".

The laudator Roger de Weck urged "standards of a democratic debate", took the " Citoyen Cohn-Bendit" against "defamation" and warned that in Western democracies "hatred is acceptable".

Volker Beck

Volker Beck was in 1988 in the volume published by Joachim S. Hohmann “The Pedosexual Complex. Handbook for those affected and their opponents ”represented with an essay. In 2007, Beck stated that the print was not authorized and had been falsified through free editing by the publisher. In addition, even criminologists from the Federal Criminal Police Office suggested at the time to distinguish between non-violent and violent sexual contact between adults and children. The author of the article complains that in 1973 the special committee of the German Bundestag “decided in favor of a general criminal liability for sexuality with children” .

Beck made the following statements, among others:

"A decriminalization of pedosexuality is urgently needed in view of the current state of its global criminalization, not least because it is maintained in contradiction to the rule of law."

- Volker Beck : Change the criminal law? Plea for a realistic reorientation of sexual politics, p. 266.

“Only a mobilization of the gay movement for the legally unproblematic equality of homo- and heterosexuality, in contrast to pedosexuality, through the deletion of § 175 StGB and for the rights of homosexuals will prevent a sex-repressive climate from cementing - a prerequisite for one day to take up the fight for the at least partial decriminalization of pedosexuality. "

- Volker Beck : Change the criminal law? Plea for a realistic reorientation of sexual politics, p. 268.

"As a criminal law perspective, z. B. to consider an amendment, which on the one hand puts the current 'age of consent' of 14 years up for discussion (in the Netherlands there have been such initiatives with considerable success!) Or also a penalty clause. "

- Volker Beck : Change the criminal law? Plea for a realistic reorientation of sexual politics, p. 263.

In 1989 Beck pushed through a party resolution: “The demand for the abolition of Section 13 of the Criminal Code (“ Offenses against sexual self-determination ”) or a deletion of Sections 174 and 176 (“ Sexual abuse of wards ”and“ Sexual abuse of children "), As it is discussed by parts of the gay movement, is completely unacceptable for DIE GRÜNEN."

Jürgen Trittin said of Beck: "That was essentially thanks to Volker Beck , who freed the green gay policy from pedophile influences."

The Bavarian State Association of the Junge Union (JU) made an out-of-court commitment to Beck on May 29, 2013 not to distribute the book contribution Das Strafrechtalten "without pointing out that the reprint at that time was not authorized and in the sense of free editing by the publisher was falsified ".

On September 20, 2013, two days before the 2013 federal election , Spiegel Online reported that Beck's book contribution had “not been falsified in terms of content” and called Beck’s declaration a “deception of the public”. The news magazine also published the original manuscript of the controversial text.

Beck stuck to his statement that the editor had falsified the meaning of the text. After it was found, he had passed the original manuscript on to various media three days before the Spiegel online publication.

The title, a subheading and a sentence have been changed. Beck had given his book contribution the following title: “ Reformist awakening and farewell to a 'radical' demand - a plea for a realistic reorientation of sexual (criminal law) policy with a view to decriminalizing pedosexuality” . The editor made it: “ Change the criminal law? Plea for a realistic reorientation of sexual politics ”. Beck's subheading read: " Possibilities and strategies of a new sexual (criminal) policy - also for the area of ​​pedosexuality" , from which became: "How can one change sexual criminal law ?" The sentence in the book (p. 263): " A trust in obtaining a majority for a reduction in sex criminal law in parliament, no matter how strong public pressure may be, seems to be quite naive ”is continued in the original manuscript (p. 10) with:“ and the revolution, well ... . ".

Beck told the Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) that the editor had "wrung away" (FR) his, Beck's, central statement, namely the "farewell to a radical demand" - the demand for the abolition of all sexual criminal law. According to the FR Beck's statement, the headline clearly did not fit into the editor's concept: "[...] it was a clear rejection of a demand that was common in the gay movement at the time".

Sexual abuse in the Berlin regional association

In May 2015, the Berlin green state chairmen Bettina Jarasch and Daniel Wesener presented a report by the commission on the reappraisal of the position of the Berlin state association of Bündnis 90 / DIE GRÜNEN on pedophilia and sexual violence against children from the founding phase up to the 1990s . Jarasch described the fact that in the Alternative List for Democracy and Environmental Protection “at least two criminally convicted pedosexuals were tolerated for 'for years'” was “the institutional failure of our party”. In addition, it was reported in the Tagesspiegel that there had been “massive sexual abuse of children” in the Berlin regional association and that up to 1000 children were affected, according to a statement by MP Thomas Birk ; the “gay group of our party was more or less a pedagogical area until 1993”. In this regard, Jarasch and Wesener stated that the number mentioned was “a speculative statement about possible victims”, which could not be found in the present report. They also emphasized that evidence of sexual abuse "in green party contexts" has not yet been successful.

Debate ahead of the 2013 federal election

Evaluation by politicians and parties

Reactions from Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen

As early as 1993, Volker Beck wrote in the taz retrospectively : "For a long time in the gay movement we had raved about" consensual "and" equal "pedophile relationships and raved about the structural asymmetry."

The party clearly distanced itself from positions that had been occupied by minority movements in the early years: “Demands for the impunity of sexuality by adults with children and pedophile acts were and are unacceptable and wrong. We regret that in the early years of the Green Party there was room for these debates and demands. That is a mistake for which our party bears responsibility without any ifs or buts. ... Pedophile demands and debates have no place in our party. "

Long-time member of the Bundestag, Marieluise Beck , demanded that the situation of the time be taken into account: “It was about the difficult liberation from the lead-heavy sexual morality of the post-war period. Those who wanted to overcome the bourgeoisie of their parents were not always sure-footed in their standards. ”Federal chairwoman Claudia Roth apologized in June 2013 and admitted that in the early days of the Greens there were“ people and groups who tried to To use the greens as a platform for unacceptable positions ”.

After a victim and a witness testified about pedophile attacks by a Green politician in the 1980s, the second federal chairman, Cem Özdemir, was concerned: “We take the information that someone who has abused children was involved with the Greens and what they do whose environment a green event took place, very seriously. "

Silke Krebs , Minister in the State Ministry of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said in a session of the state parliament: "Daniel Cohn-Bendit's statements about fictional experiences in his time in children's shops are unbearable and clear misconduct, which he is rightly accused of."

Party chairman Claudia Roth accused several Union politicians of hypocrisy and said that the chairman of the CSU regional group in the Bundestag, Gerda Hasselfeldt , Union faction leader Volker Kauder or the later CSU chairman Horst Seehofer had voted against the criminality of rape in marriage in 1997 in the Bundestag.

Voices of former Greens

Eckhard Stratmann-Mertens , founding member of the Greens and a party member until 1999, explained in 2013: “... There was a group around 1980 called the Indian Commune. They came from Nuremberg. This group then took part in some federal party conferences. They described themselves as a children's rights initiative that created a very open mood for pedosexual contacts. "

Voices from the CDU / CSU and the BdV

In a debate in the German Bundestag in December 2009, the CDU member of the Bundestag and chairwoman of the Association of Expellees (BdV) Erika Steinbach pointed out that Volker Beck had called for a "decriminalization of pedosexuality" in 1988 in Der pedosexual complex , whereupon Beck explained to her that it was a falsified and unauthorized article from which he had distanced himself several times. In addition, he campaigned for the punishment of the sexual abuse of children, and his suggestion goes back to the fact that serious sexual abuse of children has become a separate crime in the penal code . Steinbach admitted that he did not know that the article had been falsified, was pleased with Beck's point of view and thanked for the explanation. Nevertheless, Steinbach repeated her assertion in March 2010 in front of the Bundestag as well as in a radio interview as BdV chairwoman in April 2011. Beck said that Steinbach lacked “the decency necessary to apologize anyway”. In the renewed debate in May 2013, Steinbach asked for clarification "whether active politicians still belonged to the group of party members who once campaigned for pedophile goals". In numerous press releases in 2013 she called for the resignation of Cohn-Bendit and Beck.

After verbal statements by CSU General Secretary Alexander Dobrindt in May 2013 against Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the federal managing director of Bündnis90 / Die Grünen Steffi Lemke Dobrindt accused “the most evil and absolutely unacceptable slander”. On the other hand, the CSU chairman Horst Seehofer Dobrindt agreed and said: “You can get to the heart of things, as our Secretary General has now done.” Dobrindt described the parliamentary manager of the Greens, Volker Beck, as “the chairman of the Pedophile AG ”and asked him to resign. In an interim injunction, Dobrindt was forbidden by the Berlin Regional Court under threat of a fine of up to 250,000 euros or up to six months in custody from expressing verbatim or analogous expression that Volker Beck was "chairman of the pedophile group". After Dobrindt objected to the injunction, the court sentenced him on October 28, 2013 to refrain from commenting. Beck was not chairman of the "BAG SchwuP", but took part in some of its events. After the separation of the “BAG SchwuP” from the Bundestag faction of the Greens, the “BAG Schwule” was founded and Beck became its spokesman. In response to the criticism, the CSU changed the statement to the effect that Beck was the "chairman of the successor organization to the pedophile group". At the end of July 2013, Dobrindt was not ready to apologize for his allegations against Beck and statements against Cohn-Bendit. He spoke of a “cover-up” and explained: “The Greens would do well to use the same standards in their own ranks that they previously applied to church institutions.” In addition, the Greens should set up a contact point for the victims.

The deputy CSU general secretary Dorothee Bär accused the Greens of delaying the investigation in order to save themselves through the general election.

The CDU parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament published a brochure entitled “The Inappropriate Silence of the Greens” - An Analysis of the Greens' Past .

Open letter from the CDU / CSU

In an open letter, Bär and six female members of the Federal Board of Directors of the Junge Union demanded that the top candidate for the federal election, Katrin Göring-Eckardt , be actively involved in investigating Jürgen Trittin's alleged “pedophilia entanglements”, and “an overarching consensus for a zero A policy of tolerance towards pedophilia ”. Göring-Eckardt replied that the party had "expressly apologized for the aberrations of its early days". This was done "in great seriousness and in concern for those who suffered from the misunderstood tolerance of pedophile liberalization attempts". At the same time, Göring-Eckardt pointed out that "the traditional sexual morality of the old Federal Republic, which was generally the subject of the liberalization debates of the time, caused a lot of suffering," and cited as an example the 1997 against a majority of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group Marital rape as punishable by the Bundestag .

Voices from other parties

SPD general secretary Andrea Nahles commented on the debate: "The Greens are striving to educate themselves, that is obviously also necessary".

Bavaria's FDP general secretary, Miriam Greeting, insinuated that the Greens “would like to see themselves as guardians of the grail of morality and decency”, but “tolerated perverts in their own party for years and ignored their victims coldly”. She called for Cohn-Bendit to be excluded from the party, as he had "disqualified himself for any constitutional party".

The General Secretary of the FDP Lower Saxony, Gero Hocker , also spoke up and "asked (...) whether the Lower Saxony state association of the Greens, which was influential in the 1980s, was also involved in the trivialization of pedo-crime". He expects "from the two state chairmen as quickly as possible a clear distance and unreserved explanation".

Reviews in the press

The deputy editor-in-chief of the time Bernd Ulrich criticized the party on August 4, 2013 for the lack of clarification of the allegations. So it is not enough to just proclaim "that it was only words and no deeds, only individuals, but not the party". While green politicians expressed their dismay "when the abuse cases in Catholic schools became known" they are doing even less for the education today than the Catholic Church at the time. They “stand in their way of self-righteousness when dealing with the pedophilia allegations”.

Christian Bommarius wrote on June 25, 2013 in the Frankfurter Rundschau : "The debate about how the Greens dealt with pedophiles in their own ranks over twenty years ago seems downright ghostly." He demanded that the Greens be given the right to error on this topic should admit and stated: "Apparently Alexander Dobrindt believes he has legitimized character assassination because he rejects pedophilia." Similarly, Peter Müller criticized the CSU general secretary in Spiegel : "By placing MP Volker Beck in the corner of pedophiles." , General Secretary Alexander Dobrindt wants to discredit the Greens. Breaking taboos is calculated coolly. […] Dobrindt throws rubbish, but he does it without emotion. He has nothing against Beck, not at all. He defamed because it fits into his political concept. Dobrindt doesn't want to reach people's heads, he aims at the stomach. "

In the Cicero on May 21, Alexander Kissler raised the question of whether former members of the BAG SchwuP continued to pursue “the old criminal goal on new paths, inside and outside the party” and criticized the fact that the Greens, as a decidedly hierarchical movement, “did not have a sufficiently developed one Sensorium for the power imbalance between children and adults ”. In addition, he traced the pedophile aspirations within the party.

Gerhard Amendt criticizes the Greens in particular for their current handling of the allegations: “The appalling lack of empathy for children, which still marks the Greens 'vacillating position, cannot be remedied by the fact that the Greens' sexual-political past, as in the case of Dany Cohn-Bendit and Volker Beck is taken off the radar of the public. ”Also, they would not live up to the demands they make on others, because they“ what the Greens rightly accused church officials and sponsors of children's homes as obscuring sexual abuse , (...) it would seem, (...) now do it yourself.

In a Focus online article from July 31, Michael Wolffsohn assumed a lack of will to provide information and criticized the "media gentleness with which the debate about the pedophile past of the Greens was softened". Wolffsohn suspects that this is due to the fact that journalists, as can be statistically proven, disproportionately often belonged to the Greens.

Christian Füller wrote in an article published in the FAZ on September 14th that the Greens were “interspersed with all kinds of pedophile groups” as a party. He locates the cause of the lack of victim protection deep in the party's ideology - in the belief in a better world. The separation from the pederasts was not, as shown, an act of political hygiene, but they left the parliamentary group of their own accord in order to increase their influence over the party.

International media

The pedophilia debate and the controversy surrounding Daniel Cohn-Bendit also received attention in the international press. Kate Connolly reported on May 14th for the British daily newspaper The Guardian about the pedophile efforts within the party The Greens in the 80s. A comparison is made with “UK's Pedophile Information Exchange”. This is what a British group of pedophile activists founded in 1974 with ambitions similar to the BAG SchwuP called itself.

On May 18, the British daily The Independent reported on the subject.

In Switzerland, the debate was picked up on May 14 by Ulrich Schmid in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung . In it he states that "almost all the major media products in the country [Germany] now state self-righteousness, stubborn conservatism, Manichean virtuosity and a disturbing disdain for less educated but happy polluters practically every week", but assesses the fact that the Greens "Let it be scientifically clarified how great the influence of groups in the party was in the seventies and eighties that approved of, even propagated, child sex" as a sign of the ability to self-criticize. The Tages-Anzeiger limited its reporting on May 13 to the Cohn-Bendit case.

In Austria, Der Standard , Der Kurier and Die Presse addressed the allegations against the Greens on May 13th. For the latter, Karl Gaulhofer commented that these accusations “do not at all fit the image of the Virtue Party, whose functionaries have outraged the abuse cases in the Catholic Church louder than anyone else” and that they are “embarrassed today”, pedophile aspirations at the time to have tolerated and supported.

Outside Europe, the debate was covered on May 15 by The Hindu , India's second largest English-language daily newspaper. The Malaysian New Straits Times also looked at it.

In the Israeli Haaretz of May 24th, the journalist Benny Zahl complains about Daniel Cohn-Bendit that the world has apparently lost its sense of humor (“The world, as it looks today, has lost its sense of humor”) and no real distinction is made between fantasies and deeds ("the fate of those who say things that touch upon perverse sex - even if in jest or with a wink - is the same as the fate of those who actually have perverse sex.").

Scientific review by Walter and Klecha

In June 2013, the federal executive committee Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen commissioned the Institute for Democracy Research at the University of Göttingen to investigate "the scope, context and effects of pedophile demands in the milieus of the new social movements and the Greens ". In charge is Franz Walter . The report, financed by the party with 209,000 euros, should be available by the end of 2014.

Interim results 2013

In September 2013 Walter and his Göttingen colleague Stephan Klecha announced that Jürgen Trittin was responsible for the local election program of the Alternative Green Initiative List (AGIL) in Göttingen in 1981 , in which the group "Homosexual Action Göttingen" was next A comprehensive equality of homosexuals also called for paragraphs 174 (sexual abuse of wards) and 176 (sexual abuse of children) of the Criminal Code to be worded in such a way that “only the use or threat of violence or the abuse of a dependency relationship are punishable”.

Walter criticized the fact that “leading politicians” of the Greens “for reasons of election tactics display a lack of speech when investigating allegations of pedophilia”. The commissioned researchers stated a “mixture of perplexity, paralysis, yes: fear of the debate”.

Klecha defended Trittin by pointing out that the CDU and CSU had not found marital rape and punishment of children to be punishable until the late 1990s . In addition, parts of the CDU supported the Colonia Dignidad in Chile, where there were very serious cases of torture and sexual abuse of children. "Those who are now starting to formulate moral standards must be careful that they do not feel the same way afterwards as the Greens are now," said Klecha. The contemporary understanding of homosexuality has changed significantly. If, as demanded by the CDU , there should be a general aid fund because the "discourse at that time favored pedophilia", "the Union parties [...] would also have to pay into it". The CSU politician Horst Seehofer describes the references to the attitude towards rape in marriage as a "distraction attempt" and emphasizes that the question at the time was "how to make it legally tangible - not about tolerance and acceptance". Klecha pointed out that a distinction must be made between “whether you are responsible for an election program that contains nonsense that may not have caught your attention, or whether you philosophize about sex with children like Daniel Cohn-Bendit or whether you are accused of like Hermann Meer , at that time member of the NRW state board, to have sexually abused children in his municipality. ”However, this difference was“ difficult to convey ”in election campaign times. Furthermore, he stated on the status of the investigation with regard to the party history of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen that there have been indications of two cases of pedosexual abuse for which it is not clear “whether the Greens as an institution can be held responsible for it”.

Final report November 2014

On November 12, 2014, Franz Walter and the Green Federal Chairwoman Simone Peter presented the preliminary final report on the Greens and pedosexuality in Berlin .

criticism

Monika Frommel criticizes that the Göttingen Institute works with a "shortened method" and does "moral politics in the form of party research". She accuses them of a lack of historical contextualization: "... it obviously makes no sense to simply search for 'suspicious' and 'morally disreputable' formulations in the papers of individual groups or parties instead of determining the associated legal and political goals."

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research: The pedophilia controversy among the Greens - interim report. (PDF) December 2013
  2. ↑ Sexuality: Powerful taboo . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1980 ( online ).
  3. ↑ a b Pedophiles had infiltrated Greens more than previously known . Spiegel Online , May 12, 2013.
  4. ↑ Reiner Burger: A triumph of the pederasts. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , May 19, 2013.
  5. ↑ Comments on sexuality with children: Vosskuhle cancels speech for Cohn-Bendit . Spiegel Online , March 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b c Mira Gajevic: Pedophilia affair with the Greens: “Not the best time to educate” . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 17, 2013; Interview with Stephan Klecha.
  7. ↑ TAZ: Greens Take Responsibility , September 22, 2015; ( online )
  8. ^ Abuse debate: Greens funded pedophile committee in the 1980s . Spiegel Online, May 12, 2013.
  9. ↑ a b c d Jan Fleischhauer , Ann-Katrin Müller, René Pfister: Shadows of the Past . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 2013 ( online ).
  10. ↑ Abuse debate among the Greens: Pedophile activist was convicted criminal . Spiegel Online, May 26, 2013.
  11. ↑ Die Welt: Everyday Abuse in a Green Commune , June 21, 2013 (accessed November 10, 2014)
  12. ↑ a b c d e Claudia Kade, Matthias Kamann, Laura Réthy: "They played with children, that made me queasy" . In: The world. July 28, 2013.
  13. ↑ Lilian Klotzsch, Richard Stöss: Die Grünen, in: Richard Stöss (Ed.): Party Handbook: The Parties of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945–1980, Volume 2 , Westdeutscher Verlag 1984, pp. 1509–1598, here p. 1536 .
  14. ^ Franz Walter and Stephan Klecha: Distancing tango in the pedo question. Faz , August 12, 2013.
  15. ↑ boell.de (PDF) Federal Program (1980), p. 39, pdf
  16. ↑ a b c torso by SchwuP . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1985 ( online ).
  17. ↑ a b Sebastian Haunss: Identity in motion: processes of collective identity in the autonomous and in the gay movement VS Verlag, 2004, pp 221-222.
  18. ^ Matthias Drobinski : Pedophilia allegations against the Greens. Taboo and tolerance . In: Süddeutsche. May 26, 2013.
  19. ↑ Jan Fleischhauer: The Greens, Sex and Children . Spiegel Online , February 19, 2010.
  20. ↑ Jan Fleischhauer: Debate about Catholic Abuse: The Greens, Sex and Children , Spiegel Online , February 19, 2010.
  21. ↑ Sigrid Kneist and Hans Monath: “We separated ourselves from pedophiles too late” , interview with Renate Künast, Tagesspiegel , June 6, 2013.
  22. ↑ Claudia Kade: Greens boss shocked by disclosure of pedophilia . In: The world. July 21, 2013.
  23. ↑ a b Freia Peters: The everyday abuse in a green commune . In: The world. July 21, 2013.
  24. ↑ Lars-Oliver Christoph: Pedophilia debate now also reaches the Greens in Herne , Der Westen , October 20, 2013.
  25. ↑ "They played with children, it made me feel queasy" , Welt Online , July 28, 2013.
  26. ↑ Pascal Beucker: 25 years of Greens in the Bundestag: The alternative old Nazi ; Spiegel Online, March 3, 2008
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  28. ↑ Martin Teigeler: Pedophiles among the Greens: "It was sucking up" ( Memento from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , wdr.de
  29. ^ Daniel Cohn-Bendit : The great bazaar . Conversations with Michel Lévy, Jean-Marc Salmon, Maren Sell . 1st edition. Trikont-Verlag , Munich 1975, ISBN 3-920385-82-9 , Little Big Men, p. 139–147 (French: Le Grand Bazar . Translated by Thomas Hartmann).
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  31. ↑ a b Christian Füller : Dany's Fantasies and Dreams In: FAZ April 29, 2013
  32. ↑ a b Magnus Klaue: Little Big Men In: Jungle World June 6, 2013
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  34. ^ A b Silke Hoock: The repressed pedophilia scandal among the Greens In: WAZ July 25, 2013
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  38. ↑ Christian Füller : Dany's fantasies and dreams. FAZ , April 29, 2013, accessed on April 13, 2014 .
  39. ↑ a b Michael Schwelien: Dany conveys “feeling” , Die Zeit , April 17, 1981.
  40. ↑ Abuse debate among the Greens: Pedophile activist was convicted criminal . Spiegel Online , May 26, 2013.
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  43. ↑ Roger de Weck: Prize speech at the award ceremony of the 48th Theodor Heuss Prize , 2013.
  44. ↑ Members watch . Answer by Volker Beck, August 17, 2007.
  45. ↑ Volker Beck: Change the criminal law? Plea for a realistic reorientation of sexual politics, in: Joachim S. Hohmann (Ed.): The Pedosexual Complex. Handbook for those affected and their opponents, Berlin / Frankfurt 1988, p. 266.
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  57. ↑ a b Pedophilia dispute: New attack against Greens . rp-online, May 21, 2013.
  58. ↑ Roth announces apology in pedophilia debate . Focus Online, June 2, 2013.
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  61. ↑ Roth accuses Union of hypocrisy. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 17th September 2013.
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  66. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: Attack on Volker Beck: Steinbach moves into the mud battle , Spiegel Online , April 7, 2011.
  67. ^ Pedophile allegation against Cohn-Bendit: Greens accuse CSU man Dobrindt of defamation , Spiegel Online, May 14, 2013.
  68. ↑ Jochen Gaugele, Claus Christian Malzahn, Peter Issig: Seehofer doubts green pedophilia education , Welt , May 17, 2013.
  69. ^ Ralf Schuler: Child sex affair with the Greens. CSU wants to resign from parliamentary group leader Volker Beck. In: BILD , May 23, 2013 (with several corrective comments by the editors), accessed on August 4, 2013
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  73. ↑ Volker Beck is not the head of a pedophile group , N24 , October 28, 2013.
  74. ↑ Dispute with the Greens: Dobrindt does not want to bow down , Abendzeitung Munich , May 30, 2013.
  75. ↑ Jochen Gaugele: Dobrindt accuses the Greens of "covering up" . In: The world. July 28, 2013.
  76. ↑ Claudia Kade: Greens chief shocked by revelation of pedophilia , Welt , July 21, 2013.
  77. ^ "The inappropriate silence of the Greens". An analysis of the pedophile past of the Greens ( memento from September 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 848 kB) , CDU-Hessen, July 2013.
  78. ↑ Jutta Rippegather: CDU is drilling into green wounds . In: Frankfurter Rundschau. 17th July 2013.
  79. ↑ letter appeal: Union increased in pedophilia affair pressure on green top , Spiegel Online , September 17, 2013.
  80. ^ Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Independent Enlightenment of the Green Past ( Memento of September 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Open Letter, September 17, 2013.
  81. ↑ Claudia Kade, Thomas Vitzthum: CDU demands victim fund for abused children. In: The world. July 27, 2013.
  82. ↑ GRUSS calls for Cohn-Bendit to be excluded from the party, Bundespresseportal, July 25, 2013.
  83. ↑ Gero Hocker: Are the Greens from Lower Saxony also involved in the pedophile scandal Bundespresseportal, July 29, 2013.
  84. ↑ Bernd Ulrich : The all too good. In: The time. 4th August 2013.
  85. ^ Christian Bommarius: Greens and Pedophilia. The right to error. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , May 31, 2013; Retrieved August 5, 2013.
  86. ^ Peter Müller: CSU. The dirt-Kampagnero, . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 2013 ( online ).
  87. ↑ Alexander Kissler : Fetishization of sexuality beyond borders. In: Cicero. 21st May 2013.
  88. ^ Gerhard Amendt : The Greens in the frenzy of sexual liberation. In: The world. 22. July 2013.
  89. ↑ Today in the feature sections , Spiegel Online, July 26, 2013.
  90. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn : How green-red media soften the debate about child abuse among the Greens , Focus Online July 31, 2013.
  91. ↑ Christian Füller: Sexual Liberation. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 14, 2013, accessed on September 17, 2013 .
  92. ↑ Kate Connolly: Green party in Germany to investigate backing for pedophiles in 80s. In: The Guardian. May 14, 2013.
  93. ^ Tony Paterson: Investigation launched over German Green party's support for pedophiles in the 1980s. In: The Independent. May 18, 2013.
  94. ↑ Ulrich Schmid: Confused about past aberrations. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. May 14, 2013.
  95. ↑ “I wanted to make myself more dangerous than I am” , in: Tages-Anzeiger , May 13, 2013.
  96. ↑ Spiegel: German Greens campaigned for pedophiles in the eighties. In: The Standard. 13th of May 2013.
  97. ^ Pedophiles infiltrated the Greens Der Kurier, May 13, 2013.
  98. ^ Karl Gaulhofer: The ugly side of the German Greens. In: The press. 13th of May 2013.
  99. ↑ German Greens to probe 80s backing for pedophile. In: The Hindu. May 15, 2013.
  100. ^ German opposition party to examine pedophile past. ( Memento of August 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: New Straits Times. May 25, 2013.
  101. ^ Benny paragraph : Playing with ire. In: Haaretz. May 24, 2013.
  102. ^ Pedophilia reappraisal: Greens let research project cost 209,000 euros , Spiegel Online, June 28, 2013.
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  104. ↑ tagesspiegel.de
  105. ^ Taz: Pedophilia Affair and the Greens - The fatal spiral of silence
  106. ↑ AGIL: Wahlprogramm, 1981, page 33 (photocopy on Spiegel Online )
  107. Jump up in pedophilia discussion under pressure , on: Deutschlandradio, September 16, 2013.
  108. ^ Pedophilia Debate: Serious allegations against CDU and CSU . On: Nordbayern.de , September 18, 2013.
  109. ^ Pedophilia-friendly book chapter - Beck manuscript surfaced . n-tv , September 20, 2013.
  110. ↑ The Greens and Pedosexuality. Results of the research project ( Memento of December 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), abridged version on the Greens website , November 12, 2014
  111. ↑ Ann-Katrin Müller, Christian Teevs: Pedophilia Debate among the Greens: “Ignorance and lack of sovereignty” . Spiegel Online , November 12, 2014
  112. ↑ Johannes Leithäuser: Pedophilia accusation against Greens: Many excuses and an attempt to explain . In: FAZ , November 12, 2014
  113. ↑ Monika Frommel: Reply to Stephan Klecha . In: processes 204. Journal for civil rights and social policy. Berlin 2013, pp. 124–126.
  114. ↑ Compare critically: Florian G. Mildenberger : Review in: Fachprosaforschung - Grenzüberreitungen. Volume 10, 2014, pp. 324-332.