Nikolaus D. said on Thursday in front of the Erfurt regional court that he always tried to give the students the feeling that they were not just being exploited. With every sexual act he asked whether it was possible and whether they wanted to do it. It is the small attempts at justification that the 58-year-old defendant makes when he admits that he has abused students at the Erfurt Queen Luise High School for years. D. worked at the school for 17 years as a teacher of music and the Catholic religion as well as a choir director; his musicals and concerts were a flagship of the high school.
The prosecution accuses him of 69 cases of sexual abuse of those under his protection, three schoolgirls, and two counts of rape. In two cases the abuse began when the students were 15 years old; The two young women are present in the courtroom on Thursday as co-plaintiffs. He didn’t plan the relationships, says D., they developed like that, with the girls who were in the school choir and the vocal group, there were lots of rehearsals every week before performances. And it wasn’t just about sex, he also cooked with one of the students, watched films, ate ice cream or went on excursions.
But the presiding judge Holger Pröbstel does not accept Nikolaus D.’s attempts to put his guilt into perspective. “If you think as a man with the wrong body part, then your character is unsuitable as a teacher.” D. occasionally had sexual relationships with two of the three students at the same time. In one case, the abuse only ended because the mother found out about it and “caused trouble.” The mother also intervened in the abuse case, which lasted until the beginning of 2025. The judge wants to know why D. didn’t stop. “There was so much going on that I would have had to turn myself in,” replies the defendant.
Judge: Students couldn’t do anything against him
D.’s defense lawyers had confirmed what had happened in two cases as confessions from the defendant: There were numerous cases of touching in the genital area, which then led to oral sex and, in one case, to sexual intercourse dozens of times. The abuse took place at school, in the defendant’s home and in his van, which was used for trips into the surrounding area and was equipped with a bed. Once, the music teacher inserted a flute into the student’s vagina in the wild.
D. was married for more than twenty years and has two adult daughters. His marriage failed because he had a relationship with a trainee teacher. He had sexual contact with a student while he was still married. The judge said he had the impression “that a grown man was living out his sexual fantasies.” He wasn’t interested in the students as personalities; he used them because they couldn’t oppose him. Didn’t he ask himself that he was putting his entire social existence at risk? “You always hoped it wouldn’t come out,” says D. He was already afraid, so he drank alcohol more and more often and talked to a doctor about a withdrawal treatment – but he didn’t say the reason for his problem.
More cases in the same school
At school, no one ever asked him about his interactions with students, says D. But Judge Pröbstel doubts that. “I can’t imagine that no one brought it up.” It was “an open secret” what D. was doing. After his arrest in the summer of 2025, a colleague at school said: “Thank God it’s finally over.”
Last October, a teacher at the same school was sentenced to five years and three months for abusing a student for years. The cases caused a stir in Erfurt. The principal resigned from his position a month and a half ago. Disciplinary proceedings are ongoing against three other teachers “on suspicion of official misconduct,” as the Thuringian Ministry of Education confirmed to the FAZ.
D. offered the co-plaintiffs present an apology and payment of reparation. In the case of long-term abuse, it should be 10,000 euros; the co-plaintiff wants to accept this. In the second case, D. offered 5000 euros; The second co-plaintiff rejects this as well as an apology. D. did not comment on the third case, which involves the accusation of rape, on Thursday; the defense denies the accusation. D. lived in a relationship with the person concerned, says his defense attorney. Whether she and the other two co-plaintiffs will testify themselves will be clarified on the next day of the trial.
