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Munich / Bad Hersfeld (dpa / lhe) - Dieter Wedel was a giant in the German film and television industry.
In the 1990s hardly anything went without him.
He has created cult films such as the multi-part series “Der Schattenmann” or “Der große Bellheim”.
But for some time now, a real criminal case has overshadowed the life's work of the now 81-year-old director.
The latest chapter in it: The Munich I public prosecutor's office has brought charges against him after three years of investigation on charges of rape, as the authority announced on Friday.
If the Munich District Court I allows the indictment, the famous filmmaker, who vigorously denied the allegations, will be brought to justice.
After the allegations became known, Wedel resigned as director of the Bad Hersfeld Festival in January 2018.
According to the indictment, he is said to have raped the then 27-year-old actress Jany Tempel in a luxury hotel in Munich "at a time that can no longer be precisely determined between June and October 1996, presumably at the end of October 1996".
She is said to have met Wedel for an interview and read an erotic scene with him.
According to the public prosecutor, Wedel is said to have "made the decision to have sexual intercourse with the injured party and, if necessary, to overcome any resistance by force".
After a physical altercation, he is said to have raped her.
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According to the public prosecutor's office, the 20-page indictment cites more than 20 witnesses, an expert and calendar entries as evidence.
Wedel himself is said to have commented on the allegations in 2019.
How exactly, the public prosecutor left open.
Wedel has publicly denied the allegations and even made an affidavit.
At the end of August 2018, he told the “Bild” newspaper: “I'm now glad that this investigation is underway.
I trust the public prosecutor. "
For Wedel, the presumption of innocence applies until a final decision in the criminal proceedings.
According to his lawyer Alexander Stevens, the alleged victim Tempel initially does not want to comment on the prosecutor's decision.
Stevens himself tweeted: "That was a right and important step today for all real victims of sexual violence."
Wedel's lawyer Dörthe Korn also speaks up - with sharp criticism: «The preliminary investigation, which was initiated and accompanied by an almost unprecedented public prejudice, has been going on for more than three years without any radical new points of view affecting ours 81-year-old clients have surrendered, ”said the lawyer from Peter Gauweiler's law firm on Friday, according to the announcement.
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It happened almost 25 years ago, she emphasizes.
"The allegation is ultimately based solely on the assertion of the co-plaintiff, which she made to a press organ under the reservation that the alleged act was statute-barred and the truth of her accusation could no longer be checked in a court case."
According to the public prosecutor's office, the act that Wedel has been accused of has not yet become statute-barred due to a 2015 amendment to the criminal code.
According to public prosecutor Anne Leiding, the statute of limitations for sexual offenses is usually 20 years.
Thus, the alleged act would not have been statute-barred until 2019 - one year after the investigation began.
"When the investigation began in 2018, the statute of limitations was interrupted," says Leiding.
Wedel is probably the best-known German cultural worker who was accused in the so-called #MeToo debate of having assaulted women.
The case started rolling in early 2018.
At that time, three actresses accused Wedel in "Zeit-Magazin" of having sexually harassed her in the 1990s.
The #MeToo debate started in 2017.
Women in particular posted millions of their experiences of sexual assault on social networks.
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The investigations by the public prosecutor's office dragged on for a long time - according to the authority, mainly because witnesses abroad had to be heard.
"The considerable duration of the investigation is mainly due to the fact that the facts were a long time ago," the authority justified the duration of the proceedings on Friday.
It was only at the end of January that the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office rejected a complaint from Temple's attorney Stevens about the long investigation period against the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office.
"My client now thinks it's a farce," Stevens said at the time.
“The Weinstein case in the US was much more complex.
And that has long been completed. "
Allegations against the US film producer Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault and abuse of power had triggered the worldwide MeToo movement.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210305-99-707656 / 2
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