Anti-discri­mi­na­ti­on of­fi­cers

The Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts stands for a place of work and stu­dy cha­rac­te­ri­zed by re­spect and to­le­ran­ce, whe­re fri­end­ly, appre­cia­ti­ve and re­spec­t­ful in­ter­ac­tion is cul­ti­va­ted.

Ne­vertheless, si­tua­ti­ons can ari­se in the uni­ver­si­ty con­text that are un­sett­ling, ir­ri­ta­ting, dis­ad­van­ta­ge­ous or frigh­ten­ing. As ad­vi­sors at the HfMDK, we are here to sup­port you in the­se si­tua­ti­ons.

Ver­bal or non-ver­bal dis­pa­ra­ge­ment be­cau­se of

• skin co­lor or eth­nic ori­gin
• so­ci­al ori­gin
• gen­der
• re­li­gi­on or be­lief
• disa­bi­li­ty
• age
• se­xu­al iden­ti­ty

The­re are ver­bal, non-ver­bal and phy­si­cal forms of se­xu­al ha­rass­ment:

Examp­les of ver­bal forms:

• se­xu­al­ly sug­ges­ti­ve re­marks and jo­kes
• in­trusi­ve and of­fen­si­ve comments about clot­hing, ap­pearan­ce or pri­va­te life
• am­bi­guous comments with se­xu­al con­no­ta­ti­ons
• Ques­ti­ons with se­xu­al con­tent, e.g. about pri­va­te life or pri­va­cy,
• Re­quests for in­ti­ma­te or se­xu­al acts, e.g. "Sit on my lap!"
• se­xua­li­zed or in­ap­pro­pria­te in­vi­ta­ti­ons to a date
• pro­mi­ses of be­ne­fits in re­turn for se­xu­al fa­vors
• Extor­ti­on of se­xu­al fa­vors

Examp­les of the non-ver­bal le­vel:

• in­trusi­ve or in­timi­da­ting sta­res or sug­ges­ti­ve looks
• Whist­ling be­hind
• Han­ging up or dis­tri­bu­ting por­no­gra­phic ma­te­ri­al
• in­de­cent ex­po­sure
• Stal­king

Examp­les of forms of ha­rass­ment on a phy­si­cal le­vel:

• any un­wan­ted tou­ch­ing (pat­ting, stro­king, pin­ching, hug­ging, kis­sing), even if the tou­ch­ing ap­pears to be ac­ci­den­tal
• phy­si­cal ad­van­ces, jost­ling, not main­tai­ning the usu­al phy­si­cal di­stan­ce (ap­prox. one ar­m's length)
• phy­si­cal vio­lence and any form of se­xua­li­zed as­s­ault, in­clu­ding rape

Se­xu­al bounda­ry vio­la­ti­ons can also oc­cur on a di­gi­tal le­vel:

• un­wan­ted emails, text messa­ges, pho­tos or vi­de­os with a se­xu­al re­fe­rence
• in­ap­pro­pria­te and in­trusi­ve ad­van­ces on so­ci­al net­works

Se­xu­al ha­rass­ment is pro­hi­bi­ted.

The bounda­ry bet­ween flir­ting and se­xu­al ha­rass­ment is clear­ly de­fi­ned. Flir­ting oc­curs with mu­tu­al con­sent. As­s­aul­ti­ve be­ha­vi­or oc­curs wi­t­hout the con­sent of the other per­son. Take your fee­lings se­rious­ly if you ex­pe­ri­ence or ob­ser­ve a si­tua­ti­on as un­plea­sant, in­ap­pro­pria­te or frigh­ten­ing.

All coun­selors are sub­ject to le­gal con­fi­den­tia­li­ty. We will help you to clas­si­fy and pro­cess what has hap­pen­ed, cla­ri­fy your op­ti­ons for ac­tion tog­e­ther with you and in­form you about other coun­se­ling ser­vices. You will also find help here in de­ci­ding whe­ther a for­mal com­p­laint should be made.

A for­mal com­p­laint can be sub­mit­ted to the com­p­laints of­fice. The com­p­laint opens a pro­ce­du­re that in­vol­ves the uni­ver­si­ty ma­nage­ment and in which the na­mes of tho­se in­vol­ved be­co­me known. It is the­re­fo­re no lon­ger sub­ject to con­fi­den­tia­li­ty. Howe­ver, the uni­ver­si­ty ma­nage­ment will take your pro­tec­tion con­cerns into ac­count and work to en­su­re that the com­p­lai­nant is not dis­ad­van­ta­ged. The pro­ce­du­re opens up the pos­si­bi­li­ty of im­po­sing sanc­tions against the discri­mi­na­ting per­sons.

You can also use our coun­se­ling ser­vice while main­tai­ning your an­ony­mi­ty by in­vol­ving a third per­son you trust or by using a pseud­onym.

Po­si­ti­on pa­per and re­com­men­da­ti­ons of the RKM (2024)

The Ger­man uni­ver­si­ties of mu­sic re­co­gni­ze that the­re is ab­u­se of power at their uni­ver­si­ties and want to take ac­tive ac­tion against it. The Rec­tor­s' Con­fe­rence of Ger­man Uni­ver­si­ties of Mu­sic (RKM) un­ani­mously adop­ted a po­si­ti­on pa­per and re­com­men­da­ti­ons for ac­tion on this key to­pic at its mee­ting in Ham­burg from May 6 to 8, 2024. HfMDK Pre­si­dent Prof. El­mar Ful­da was part of the working group that de­ve­lo­ped the­se pa­pers. The re­com­men­da­ti­ons for ac­tion are in­ten­ded to ser­ve as an ex­pan­da­ble tool­box for fu­ture pre­ven­ti­on mea­su­res and help uni­ver­si­ty ma­nage­ment to iden­ti­fy and chan­ge struc­tures that en­cou­ra­ge ab­u­si­ve be­ha­vi­or.

Re­com­men­da­ti­on on mea­su­res against ab­u­se of power by the HRK (2024)

Ca­ses of ab­u­se of power at uni­ver­si­ties in re­cent ye­ars, par­ti­cu­lar­ly against stu­dents and qua­li­fy­ing aca­de­mics, make it clear that a con­ti­nuous re­view and, if ne­cessa­ry, ex­pan­si­on of exis­ting pro­tec­tive mea­su­res is ne­cessa­ry. At its mee­ting in Ful­da on May 14, 2024, the Ge­ne­ral As­sem­bly of the Ger­man Rec­tor­s' Con­fe­rence (HRK) the­re­fo­re adop­ted a re­com­men­da­ti­on on mea­su­res to make vi­si­ble, sanc­tion and pre­vent ab­u­ses of power and to pro­vi­de the best pos­si­ble sup­port for tho­se af­fec­ted.

ADi­Be - Hes­se-wide anti-discri­mi­na­ti­on coun­se­ling

The ADi­Be net­work Hes­sen, a ser­vice of the anti-discri­mi­na­ti­on of­fice of the sta­te of Hes­sen, of­fers ex­ten­ded and com­pre­hen­si­ve anti-discri­mi­na­ti­on coun­se­ling. An­yo­ne who feels dis­ad­van­ta­ged on ra­ci­al grounds, be­cau­se of their eth­nic ori­gin, gen­der or gen­der iden­ti­ty, re­li­gi­on or ideo­lo­gy, disa­bi­li­ty, age or se­xu­al iden­ti­ty can turn to the of­fice in con­fi­dence.

Fe­deral Anti-Discri­mi­na­ti­on Agen­cy

The Fe­deral Anti-Discri­mi­na­ti­on Agen­cy sup­ports peop­le who are af­fec­ted by discri­mi­na­ti­on. It pro­vi­des in­for­ma­ti­on on what discri­mi­na­ti­on is and what can be done about it, con­duc­ts sci­en­ti­fic stu­dies and re­ports to the Ger­man Bun­des­tag. An­yo­ne who has ex­pe­ri­en­ced discri­mi­na­ti­on can turn to us for ad­vice.

OFEK e.V.

OFEK e.V. is the first coun­se­ling cen­ter in Ger­ma­ny that spe­cia­li­zes in anti-Se­mi­tism and com­mu­ni­ty-ba­sed coun­se­ling for tho­se af­fec­ted. OFEK ad­vi­ses, ac­com­pa­nies and sup­ports tho­se af­fec­ted, their re­la­ti­ves and wit­nes­ses of anti-Se­mi­tic in­ci­dents and acts of vio­lence.

RIAS Hes­se

The Re­cher­che- und In­for­ma­ti­ons­stel­le An­ti­se­mi­tis­mus Hes­sen (RIAS Hes­sen) is pri­ma­ri­ly de­di­ca­ted to sup­por­ting tho­se af­fec­ted by anti-Se­mi­tic in­ci­dents and do­cu­men­ting anti-Se­mi­tism throughout Hes­se. RIAS Hes­sen is af­fi­lia­ted with the Hes­se De­mo­cra­cy Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mar­burg.