The doctor in the dock clearly shows his anger.

"I believe that I have always examined correctly," says Anton R., and shortly thereafter, with audible excitement in his voice: "Any general practitioner and psychotherapist would have given these students sick leave.

It's a mess that I'm sitting here.”

Julia Schaaf

Editor in the "Life" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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However, the Tiergarten district court must now decide on this.

Anton R. is accused of giving students and trainees sick leave between January 2014 and January 2016 without prior examination.

The public prosecutor needed 25 minutes on Wednesday to read out the indictment, because in 176 cases it was bureaucratically stated "The patient cannot attend school" or because a certificate of incapacity for work was issued.

Some patients came only a few times, for others 30 certificates are listed, sometimes a few days apart, in other cases months.

The public prosecutor is convinced that the doctor issued the certificates “without examining the respective patients or asking questions about their state of health”.

He was aware that in this way absences from school or from the training providers should be excused.

It is unclear why the allegations are only being heard now

Anton R., a lumbering man in corduroy trousers and a duffle coat, has a doctorate in medicine and is now 74 years old.

He still runs his practice in the Tiergarten district.

Why the allegations are only now being discussed remains unclear at the start of the trial on Wednesday.

The patients from back then who are now summoned as witnesses have themselves already been through criminal proceedings for using incorrect health certificates.

Some claim they were actually ill when they went to see Dr.

R. would have gotten a certificate.

Others confirm the allegations.

"More than 50 percent of the time I wasn't sick," says a 24-year-old man.

At the time, he had completed a measure of the employment office and was bullied there so much that he did not want to go to work.

But he didn't tell the doctor and psychotherapist about it - out of shame.

Instead, he spoke of "stomach problems".

However, he was never physically examined.

A 27-year-old man admits he "didn't feel like going to school at times".

"I was just young."

As can be seen from the descriptions of the witnesses, the doctor used to process his patients directly at the reception desk.

Some report a queue, everyone says that, compared to other doctors, you got in quickly - and quickly got out again.

dr

R. only asked about complaints and then wanted to know for how long the certificate should be issued.

"I was allowed to choose," says a young man.

Apparently the practice of Dr.

R. a relevant reputation.

"People had already heard that you could be given sick leave without extensive examinations," says a man in his mid-twenties who now works in the IT industry.

"That was generally known in youth circles at the time." The process is continuing.