Kerstin Claus, the independent federal commissioner for the prevention of sexual abuse of children and adolescents (UBSKM), has urged all kindergartens and schools-whether public or private-to fulfil their duty to report incidents of sexualised violence. “I am talking about state responsibility” she told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” in its Saturday edition.
Claus pressed for every student file to be kept until the pupil’s hundredth birthday and called on all German states to embed compulsory school‑wide protection plans in law. “I expect a consistent reckoning with the past, but also for the future” she said.
At present, statutory regulations exist in Berlin, Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg‑Western Pomerania, North Rhine‑Westphalia, Saarland, and Schleswig‑Holstein. Sub‑statutory provisions apply in Baden‑Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland‑Palatinate, and Thuringia, where schools are required to devise their own protection plans. No binding requirement exists in Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Saxony, or Saxony‑Anhalt.
In 2025, the accident insurance fund in North Rhine‑Westphalia recorded 138 reports from schools, kindergartens and vocational schools, among the roughly 5,400 schools in the state. Of these, 79 incidents were recognised as occupational accidents, 25 were still being processed, and 34 did not meet the legal criteria for recognition. The accident funds not only provide rehabilitation services but, in certain severe cases, also offer temporary or permanent pensions.
North Rhine‑Westphalia’s education minister, Dorothee Feller (CDU), who also coordinates the union‑controlled states at the education ministers’ conference, told the newspaper that she would bring the UBSKM’s recommendations to the conference agenda. “My goal is that victims of abuse throughout Germany receive all the benefits to which they are entitled” Feller said.
