09/10/2025
During the last 15 months I have been involved in a working group for the prevention of abuse of power in German-language musicology. At this year's conference of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, we presented a preliminary report of our activities, including a large survey on the relevance of the topic in German music studies that clearly showed the need to take measures of prevention and intervention. My deepest respect and gratitude goes to Ina Knoth, who meticulously compiled most of the report, and to my dear colleagues Cornelia Bartsch, Beate Kraus, and Paolina Aquilino from our highly engaged team. If interested, please see the first comment to find the report and evaluation of the survey on the GfM website.
Also, we succeeded in recruiting and electing a group of ombudspersons that will appear as trustful representatives of the GfM for potential cases of all kinds of abuse of power. I am glad that Christoph Flamm, Manuel Gervink, Ariane Jeßulat, Sabine Meine, and Josephine Pritz have agreed to take this responsible task. Thanks go also to the GfM board who have carefully accompanied and supported this endeavour.