End for the "Criminal from Schwetzingen"?

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Karlsruhe had to decide whether the well-known weather presenter Jörg Kachelmann was permitted to continue calling his ex-girlfriend Claudia D. the "Criminal from Schwetzingen" or whether this infringes upon the general personality rights of his former life partner and whether he must therefore cease doing so.

In the year 2010, Claudia D. had reported the weather presenter to the police on suspicion of serious rape. The presenter was then also arrested and spent several months in remand custody.

The criminal proceedings, in which Mr. Kachelmann was ultimately acquitted, attracted very high media interest, in which both parties spoke out repeatedly. Both sides maintained their respective versions of the truth despite the acquittal, so that the weather presenter repeatedly referred to his ex-girlfriend as a "criminal" or the "Criminal from Schwetzingen".

Against this statement, the ex-partner took action and demanded that the weather presenter cease these utterances. The Regional Court (LG) Karlsruhe then ordered Mr. Kachelmann to refrain from calling his ex a "criminal". The weather presenter now appealed this decision before the OLG.

Court Decision

By judgment of 22.10.2014 – Az. 6 U 152/13 (Press Release)- the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Karlsruhe decided that Jörg Kachelmann is not permitted to refer to his former life partner as a "criminal (from Schwetzingen)".

In the OLG's view, these were complex statements in which Mr. Kachelmann, on the one hand, reaffirmed the incorrectness of the allegation made against him by his ex-partner and thus made a factual assertion, and on the other hand expressed a strongly derogatory judgment of his ex.

The question of the lawfulness of the interference with the general personality right entailed by the designation as a "criminal" is to be assessed on the basis of a balancing of the respective constitutionally protected positions taking into account all the circumstances of the individual case. In the present constellation, the court does not consider it justified that the weather presenter refers to his ex-girlfriend as a "criminal (from Schwetzingen)" and thereby personally degrades her. After all, the presumption of innocence must also apply in favour of Claudia D.

It is of course open to Mr. Kachelmann to state in public utterances that the allegation of rape made against him is unfounded.

Conclusion

With this decision, the OLG takes the weather presenter's ex-girlfriend under its protection and ordered Jörg Kachelmann to cease making the defamatory statements. The court justified this on the grounds that the presumption of innocence must also apply against Claudia D., meaning she cannot be referred to as a criminal without a conviction. Had the presenter's ex-partner previously been validly convicted in criminal proceedings, the balancing exercise to be carried out in such cases would probably have been decided in favour of the weather presenter.