Herbert Grönemeyer achieves success against publishers

The well-known German singer Herbert Grönemeyer refused to accept press coverage of a dispute with two photographers in 2014. He proceeded against three German publishers in separate legal proceedings – with success.

In December 2014, singer Herbert Grönemeyer was on a private trip with his son and his partner. An incident occurred at Cologne/Bonn airport in which the singer was involved.

A video created the impression that the singer lost control for no reason towards two photographers. The singer was of the opinion that the events had been taken out of context. The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne had prohibited the dissemination of the video of the incident (cf. Judgment of 09.03.2017 – Az. 15 U 46/16).

Three publishers had reported on the incident. Moreover, they had in part extracted images from the video and printed them. Herbert Grönemeyer felt his personality rights had been violated and sued.

The court's decisions in the Grönemeyer matter

By judgment of 05.07.2017 – Az. 28 O 177/15, 28 O 178/15 and 28 O 225/15 (Press release of 05.07.2017) the Regional Court (LG) Cologne decided that the statements are false and thus infringe Herbert Grönemeyer's personality rights. The court therefore prohibited the further dissemination of corresponding statements. According to the court's assessment, the dissemination of the images extracted from the video is also impermissible.

For example, one of the publishers was prohibited from disseminating that the singer had knocked the camera out of the hands of one of the photographers or strangled the other.

One of the publishers was furthermore ordered to pay damages and to publish a correction in the next issue of the magazine.

Conclusion

Herbert Grönemeyer prevailed in all three proceedings. However, the judgments are not final. There remains the possibility that an appeal will be filed.