The Doping Victims’ Aid Association (DOH) has accused the Federal Administrative Court (BVG) of not letting doping victims down other than federal policy. The DOH was reacting to a ruling by the BVG on Wednesday. According to its own statement, the court rejected the appeal of a former canoeist who had received harmful doping substances as part of state doping between the ages of twelve and seventeen during the GDR era and was severely disabled.
She had requested her rehabilitation according to the Administrative Rehabilitation Act (VwRehaG). Recognition is the prerequisite for assistance from the state. However, the BVG came to the conclusion that an essential criterion for the rehabilitation of GDR doping victims was not met. Accordingly, the poisoning of the athletes was neither a “political persecution” nor an “arbitrary act in an individual case”. There is a lack of a “targeted discrimination measure”.
“It was a factual hearing, as it should be,” said Michael Lehner, chairman of the DOH and lawyer for the plaintiff on Friday, “but I see a major contradiction between statements in the hearing and the verdict.” According to Lehner, the BVG also saw it how the Potsdam Administrative Court fulfills the serious injustice, the “arbitrary act in individual cases” but only in the case of politically persecuted people. “The state doping only served a political purpose. Because substances harmful to health were knowingly used, this corresponds to conscious discrimination. The athletes were solely a means to a political end.”
“Looks like a shifting of competence back and forth”
In its statement, the chamber referred to the state doping as a “serious” violation of the “principle of proportionality” (the justification was not yet available). She apparently saw the applicability of the VwRehaG, but referred to the responsibility of politicians for solving the problem: “It is up to the legislature to decide whether and to what extent it includes victims of state doping in the GDR in the compensation regulations” of the VwRehaG.
“There was an undertone of regret towards our client,” said Lehner, describing the trial in Leipzig, “along the lines of: ‘Unfortunately we can’t help you.’ To me it looks like a shifting of competence back and forth.” The Heidelberger will now increasingly approach politics with the DOH, like other supporters.
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“There is also good news,” said SPD Bundestag member Jan Plobner when asked: “The court has made it clear that it is up to the legislature to decide whether to include the victims in the compensation regulations. To this end, the SPD parliamentary group has taken a clear position in 2023 on the adjustment of the SED injustice correction laws: The victims of state-organized doping in top-class sports in the former GDR must be included in the SED injustice correction laws. I expect the Ministry of Justice to take action and submit a proposal for an amendment.”
Even before Wednesday’s verdict, Evelyn Zupke, the Federal Commissioner for the Victims of the SED Dictatorship at the German Bundestag, had complained to the FAZ about a “wasted opportunity” if the appeal were rejected: “The existing unequal treatment of those affected would continue. Anyone who has been a victim of state injustice, like the doping victims, some of whom were even minors, should be able to rely on the support of our state institutions in our democratic constitutional state.” Regarding the SPD initiative, Ms. Zupke turns to the federal government: “The ball is in our court in the field of the federal government.” The Federal Commissioner is also worried that the federal states in which victim-friendly decisions have recently been made could play a backwards role in future processes. With regard to the effect of the judgment, Lehner spoke of an increase in the “legal confusion”.
In some federal states, complaining doping victims have been rehabilitated; solutions have been found, as in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with the help of the state commissioner for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. Final judgments remain legally binding. In pending proceedings, however, it is to be expected that the highest court ruling will be taken into account. According to Lehner, this also applies to procedures at authorities. He ruled out going to the Federal Constitutional Court in view of the two or three years it would take to reach a verdict. Seriously damaged doping victims are running out of time: “And they are,” says Lehner, “tired of the fight over the many, many years.”
