Göttingen (Lower Saxony), Germany: University Commission Clears Arnd Krüger

The University of Göttingen declared that Arnd Krüger’s speech at a conference in June that was organized by the university will not be penalized. A commission of three scientists, all part of the staff of the University of Göttingen, came to the conclusion that Krüger’s hypothesis, widely perceived as antisemitic, did not break the “principles of good scientific practice.”

The commission went on to declare Krüger’s argumentation free of antisemitic patterns and said it was unable to detect a scientific malpractice.

Arnd Krüger, director of the Institute for Sport Studies at the University of Göttingen, claimed that the Israeli Athletes murdered at the Olympic Games of Munich in 1972 had known about the terrorist threat and sacrificed themselves for the good of Israel. Further argumentation includes an allegedly different perception of the body in Israel and an abortion rate supposedly ten times higher in Israel than in other industrial societies – a suggestion that is demonstrably false.

The Chair of the University of Göttingen had already distanced himself from the political implications of Krüger’s remarks on July 3rd. The Embassy of the State of Israel and the Central Council of Jews in Germany also protested Krüger’s speech.

Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 07-25-2008

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