Investigators resign - Freiburg

[gooner]

5 out of the 6 investigators looking into the Freiburg University have resigned over what they see as a lack of independence investigating it.

The epicentre of manipulations of West German top sports was Freiburg. For nine years, 2007 – 2016, an independent commission tried to dig out the secrets in this town in South West Germany. But it was rewarded with failure. Five out of six recognized anti-doping experts resigned from their assignment in the beginning of March. They protested against alleged loss of independence.

Hans Hoppeler (Bern), Hellmut Mahler (Duesseldorf), Perikles Simon (Mainz), Fritz Sörgel (Nuremberg), and Gerhard Treutlein (Heidelberg) were assigned to investigate, together with Criminology and Mafia expert Letizia Paoli from the University of Leuven, the scandal-stricken sports medicine department at the University of Freiburg. With the exception of Paoli, everybody signed a public statement: "Whilst intending to deliver a trustworthy investigation, we cannot in any way compromise as to the unlimited independence which the commission had been guaranteed."

In their statement, all five experts severely criticized their employer, the University of Freiburg. They mainly held Hans-Jochen Schiewer, Headmaster and Director of the institution, responsible for the collapsed investigation.

In a personal letter, which Play the Game has access to, they addressed the Headmaster: "You, Headmaster Schiewer, are, due to the revocation by you personally of the commission's full independence, to be held responsible for our inevitable resignation. Furthermore, you are responsible for the failure of this historical task of bringing light to the dark Freiburg and German doping legacy."

Apparently, the scientists were allowed only to occupy themselves with Professor Joseph Keul, one of the top sports medics of the time in Germany.

Until his death in 2000, Keul kept West Germany's Olympic teams under his wings. Numerous top athletes were doped in his department and advised on how to enhance their performance with drugs and methods forbidden in sports. Among others, the doctors in Keul's department handled the doping of the German bicycle team Telekom/T-Mobile for almost fifteen years. It was not until the year 2007 that the German news magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ uncovered the fraud and forced the university to finally turn its back on this period in its sports medicine.

It was precisely in 2007, the scientists started to scan Keul's past. However, they never looked into his even more famous colleague and long-time Freiburg rival, Professor Armin Kluemper.

"Doc", once a household name all over the world, developed doping programmes for entire sports associations. According to documents available, almost all levels of the German Cycling Federation were subscribers to anabolic substances in the 1970's and 1980's. It has also been documented that Kluemper was active in doping within West German football. And it has already been a stated fact for decades that he supplied performance enhancers to West German athletes. "Doc" Kluemper is now 80 years old and is living in South Africa. He does not want to talk to journalists.

http://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2016/0155_germany-intends-to-keep-its-doping-secret/

 

[sniper]

thanks for posting this up. Very interesting.

This scandal goes to the heart of German topsport - past and present - and, most frighteningly for the Germans, to the heart of their soccer success. It is clear why this investigation is being frustrated, as it no doubt carries straight into the present.
I assume the Headmaster received some good money for frustrating the research, though i find it odd that he alone is credited for doing so. Can he exert that much pressure all by himself?
If we're lucky, more details will leak into the public domain.
btw, why didn't Paoli sign the statement.

 

[gooner]

Re:

thanks for posting this up. Very interesting.

This scandal goes to the heart of German topsport - past and present - and, most frighteningly for the Germans, to the heart of their soccer success. It is clear why this investigation is being frustrated, as it no doubt carries straight into the present.
I assume the Headmaster received some good money for frustrating the research, though i find it odd that he alone is credited for doing so. Can he exert that much pressure all by himself?
If we're lucky, more details will leak into the public domain.
btw, why didn't Paoli sign the statement.

At the end of the article.

Letizia Paoli, the criminologist from Leuven in Belgium keeps silent as to the present dispute. She is tied by a contract between her university and the one in Freiburg.

Although as the article says, she has also complained in the past about it.

 

[sniper]

ok, cheers!