A “high-ranking manager” of the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra is accused of being abusive at a company party – the proceedings are ongoing. Now the mayor is intervening.
There were allegedly assaults at a company party at the Cologne Philharmonic on October 4, 2022: Two employees had complained about the abusive behavior of a “high-ranking manager.” But the incident has not yet been sufficiently clarified: on November 18, a meeting apparently took place between management and the works council – but little happened. When five months later nothing had happened, those affected turned to the complaints office. Themis Journalists Matthias Bendorf and Tim Attenberger have reported on this case for the Cologne City Gazette researched for a long time.
The frightening thing is that the cases are not reported to Themis nor with the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board, Mayor Henriette Rekerlanded. She only found out about the incidents on May 26. An official warning followed on May 27: “The complaints from the above-mentioned affected employees made it clear that Köln-Musik does not have a sufficiently functioning complaints office in accordance with the AGG, or at least no sufficiently functioning complaints procedure.” And in fact, the incident has not really been resolved to this day. Until January 16, 2024, the law firm was Seitz as an AGG advisory center. It came to “no clear legal conclusion” and spoke of “rather low intensity.” The supervisory board, however, stated that the manager’s behavior was “inappropriate and overstepping boundaries.” Themis criticised that »Cologne Music has no knowledge of how to carry out such a procedure.« The director of the Cologne Philharmonic is Louwrens Langevoort.
BackstageClassical There is (as yet unconfirmed) information that young men and ushers have been repeatedly harassed by the “high-ranking manager” in the Philharmonie – there were already complaints in 2007, but these remained without consequences.
Especially after the current debate about the Cologne GMD François-Xavier Roth and the Dickpick affair need to be clarified. It is becoming increasingly clear that Cologne obviously has a structural leadership problem.
