The allegations of sexism at the world-famous Bayreuth Festival in Germany have no legal repercussions. The public prosecutor’s office has closed the proceedings on suspicion of sexual harassment. The Chief Public Prosecutor Martin Dippold told the German Press Agency on request, as the dpa reported on Sunday morning.
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 prosecution and have not filed 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 – at the wrong time shortly before the opening – a #Metoo debate on its hands.
Festival boss Katharina Wagner had also confirmed that she herself was affected. “Sexual innuendos and sometimes assaults in a way, yes,” she told the German Press Agency. “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.
In the 2022 season, there were labor law consequences for one of the participants in this context, as spokesman Hubertus Herrmann announced on request. After all contributors had been “proactively” addressed by the management on the subject, employees reported and reported incidents that related to a contributor. “Action was taken and those affected were discussed in detail in a timely manner, and the consequences under labor law were drawn for the person responsible after comprehensive clarification and consideration.” 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 code of conduct will be developed preventively based on the code of conduct of the German Stage Association, training courses for managers are planned and the topic – as in the 2022 festival year – will be part of the occupational safety instructions.”