Dhe gallerist Johann König has obtained an injunction against the “Zeit” before the district court of Hamburg (Az. 324 O 397/22). In a sensational article, the newspaper reported on alleged sexual assaults by König on several women. The newspaper has now been largely forbidden from doing so, says King’s lawyer Simon Bergmann, which relates to the “most serious allegations” about which “Zeit” wrote. On request, the “Zeit” in turn announced that the district court had passed a decision that “deems the reporting to be permissible in decisive parts”. Individual passages of the attacked text have been adjusted or removed. The article is still online with the corresponding changes.
Die Zeit reported at the end of August about alleged sexual assaults by König, which anonymous victims reported. One of the women testified about König’s alleged behavior towards her by using her first and last name.
But now, says King’s lawyer, “Zeit” is forbidden to “raise the suspicion that King sexually harassed at least five women in October 2019, molested them with lewd remarks and played off his power over them”. Prohibited is “also the raising of the suspicion that Mr. König inappropriately touched several women in October 2017 at various parties on the occasion of the French art fair FIAC in Paris”.
Allegations of harassment “can continue to be reported as suspicions in their predominant substance,” replies a spokeswoman for the “Zeit” publishing house, “explicitly about the allegation of a sudden kiss, groping of several women, licking an ear and the alleged attempt by Johann Königs to force a woman into a toilet stall”. Also allowed is the passage of the contested article, “which refers to the reporting of suspicions about the allegation of border crossing against a business partner (sexualized behavior, physical distancing, verbal abuse)”.
Insofar as the Hamburg Regional Court has partially approved “evidence by witnesses ‘from hearsay'”, an appeal will be lodged and the prohibition of further parts of the article will be requested, says König’s lawyer. In addition, claims for damages and compensation for pain and suffering are asserted. As far as the court has forbidden parts of the reporting, one examines legal remedies, it is said on the other side. The “debate about MeToo in the art scene”, which is “in full swing”, could “continue to be conducted in the future on the basis of the research”, states the “Zeit”. Meanwhile, the artist Monica Bonvicini informed the magazine “Monopol” that she was no longer being represented by the König Galerie for the time being. She is waiting “until the allegations made against Johann König have been clarified”.
