Claim for further compensation dismissed

According to a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court, victims of state doping in the GDR have no additional right to compensation. On Wednesday, the highest German administrative court in Leipzig dismissed a former canoe athlete’s lawsuit for so-called administrative rehabilitation. This could have resulted in a victim’s pension or help for specific suffering. (Ref. 8 C 6.23)

The lawsuit was filed by a 67-year-old woman who, as a teenager in the 1960s and 1970s, had participated in canoeing as a competitive sport with the sports clubs Stahl Brandenburg, Motor Süd Brandenburg and ASK Potsdam. She was given doping substances of unknown composition.

According to the court, the woman suffered numerous health problems as a result, including kidney problems and a stroke. She is severely disabled and has been unable to work since she was 43 years old. According to the first doping victim assistance law, she had already received compensation from a fund.

In addition to material support, the lawsuit for administrative rehabilitation was also about being recognized as a victim of state arbitrariness, her lawyer said. In his opinion, athletes in the GDR were political tools. “And anyone who is a political tool is also politically persecuted.”

The former athlete had already failed in the first instance at the Potsdam Administrative Court. The federal judges confirmed this ruling. The secret administration of doping substances did not serve the political persecution of those affected and it was not a so-called arbitrary act in an individual case. The aim of the trainers responsible at that time was not to consciously disadvantage or harm the athletes.

Anno Hecker Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Anno Hecker Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 15 Anno Hecker Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3

The Administrative Rehabilitation Act, under which the 67-year-old wanted to assert claims, is primarily aimed at politically persecuted people. From the Senate’s perspective, the legislature would have to decide whether and how to include the group of GDR doping victims in this group, said presiding judge Petra Hoock.