Accused of Prostitution, UGA Professor to Retire

A University of Georgia tenured, well-respected Goethe scholar was . He was arrested on June 7 by Gwinnett County Police in a Norcross motel, where he had allegedly agreed to meet a customer--who was, in fact, a undercover police officer.

According to an email from Gwinnett County Police Officials, detectives located an ad in the transsexual escort services section of backpage.com. The subject's name was 'Sasha,' the email said.

Detectives arranged a meeting with "Sasha" at the Guest House Inn (2050 Willow Trail) in Norcross.  The room had been rented by Reinhart.  The undercover detective and Reinhart allegedly came to an agreement of $60 for thirty minutes of "services." Reinhart was then taken into custody.

He was charged with prostitution and with keeping a place of prostitution--in this case, the motel room. He was kept in jail several hours before posting bond and returning to Athens.

On Friday, said they had reached an agreement with Reinhart, the A.G. Steer Professor of Goethe Studies, that allows him to retire at the end of spring semester 2013.

According to a story in the Athens Banner Herald, Reinhard won't teach any more classes, says UGA spokesman Tom Jackson, but will be assigned to duties outside the classroom. He is said to be a wonderful teacher, well-liked by students and colleagues.

On the website for UGA Germanic and Slavic Studies, there's a page devoted to Professor Reinhart. it says his current projects include:

"A monograph on Iqbal and Goethe and editorship of the English-language translation (by Michael Metzger) of Katharina Mommsen's Goethe und die arabische Welt. With Peter Ochs, Professor in Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, he is co-organizer of an international conference for October 2012 at the University of Georgia called "Reparative Reasoning: Bridging the East/West Divide in the Philosophy and Poetry of Muhammad Iqbal."

The ABH story says that Reinhart agrees to leave the university on May 10, and not to sue the university or the Board of Regents. UGA officials will take no action to revoke the respected professor's tenure.