Overview
- Themis, a Berlin trust centre for culture-sector victims, says its 2025 first-contact cases reversed from mostly verbal harassment to mostly physical assaults, recording 68 reports of physical assault or rape versus 37 of verbal harassment.
- The organisation handled more than 600 consultations in 2025, including 105 first contacts, and logged 20 additional reports of physical assault in the first three months of 2026.
- Themis leaders point to persistent industry risks—dependency on bosses, close physical work on sets and orchestras—and to a rougher public tone online and offline as factors that make physical abuse more likely or more often reported.
- Themis offers free legal and psychological support and says the rising pattern has increased demand for its services and could lead to more employer complaints and formal filings under anti-discrimination rules.
- Founded in Berlin after MeToo in 2018 and backed by industry groups and broadcasters, Themis stresses its figures cover only people who sought help there and do not measure total sector-wide incidence.