Silence can be a strategy.

For the whole day there was nothing to be heard from Alfons Hörmann, the first man in organized German sport.

In any case, by the editorial deadline 30 hours after the first publication of the serious allegations against him and board members of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, there was no reaction to the questions of the FAZ about the attack on the former board member Karin Fehres.

This is unusual in the case of DOSB President Hörmann, who likes to use powerful words.

He can't stand it when people fight back and reveal how they are being put under pressure from him and, unfortunately, also from the DOSB as an institution: in the case of Karin Fehres, with the assertion of a lawyer that she was a The author of an anonymous email was found guilty of damage to the image of Hörmann and the DOSB and must be prepared for criminal charges and civil law claims if she does not confess.

Culture of fear is not a pipe dream

The outrage over Hörmann's approach seems enormous. In any case, officials reacted on Thursday. They talked more openly than they have been in a long time. You are fed up with it. And described what the President of the German Triathlon Union, Martin Engelhardt, complained about during the 2018 General Assembly of the DOSB: the president's continued unworthy leadership style. Hörmann vowed to improve at the time.

One would think that because he announced his retirement in December because of this debate anyway, he was yesterday's man. And no more figure in the passionate attempt by sports designers these days to give the DOSB dignity again with a sincere successor. But what does it mean when an honorable FAZ official - without wanting to be named - confirmed on Thursday that he had been asked whether he did not want to become DOSB boss, but that he had retired after a public attack by Hörmann ? What does it say about the mood in the DOSB when another person initially seemed ready to describe their harrowing experience with the president and then preferred to remain silent?

Two things: The portrayal of a culture of fear, as it is presented in the anonymous e-mail and as evidenced in the attorney's letter to Ms. Fehres, is not a pipe dream.

That is one of the reasons why the DOSB has the President, whom it has repeatedly elected with a large majority.

The enormous damage is homemade in the broadest sense.

The member associations should urgently talk about this.