The wave of indignation is great after ballet director Marco Goecke rubbed dog feces on FAZ critic Wiebke Hüster.
Now he's on leave.
And has spoken up.
Update from Monday, February 13, 2023, 3:26 p.m.:
Hanover/Frankfurt – ballet director Marco Goecke was not only suspended by the Hanover State Opera with immediate effect.
On top of that, he was banned from the house.
As reported by the
Hannoversche Allgemeine
, among others , the police are also investigating Goecke.
It's about insult and assault.
First of all, witnesses would be heard, a police spokeswoman said on Monday to the
Evangelical Press Service
.
Update from Monday, February 13, 2023, 2:54 p.m .:
Hanover/Frankfurt – After his dog excrement attack on FAZ journalist Wiebke Hüster, ballet director Marco Goecke was put on leave.
Lower Saxony's Minister of Culture, Falko Mohrs (SPD), announced this to NDR on Monday.
The text reads as follows:
The first consequence is that he is on leave for the time being.
Lower Saxony's culture minister Falko Mohrs (SPD) to the NDR
He thinks the decision of the Staatstheater is right.
"Now it will be a question of what further consequences may have to look like," says Mohrs.
The ministry and the state theater would now look at them together.
A spokeswoman for the Hanover State Opera had also announced a statement for the afternoon.
Ballet director Marco Goecke on leave reports on Instagram: "There are limits!"
Meanwhile, ballet director Marco Goecke reacted on Instagram and justified his dog excrement scandal.
For him, the measure was full.
"I've been working for 25 years and I don't care about bad reviews!
But there are limits!
Nobody who has a business would put up with that,” said Goecke on Instagram.
Update from Monday, February 13, 2023, 11:57 a.m .:
Hanover/Frankfurt – More and more information is leaking out about the incident between ballet director Marco Goecke and journalist Wiebe Hüster, which took place on Saturday, February 11, 2023, at the Hanover State Opera happened.
As von Hüster told the dpa, Goecke, who had his dog with him, pulled a bag out of his pocket and rubbed the feces in her face with the open side.
When I felt what he was doing, I screamed.
FAZ journalist Wiebke Hüster to the dpa
After the theater's press spokeswoman helped her to clean herself in the manager's washroom, she drove to the Hanover-Mitte police station and filed a complaint, Hüster told the dpa.
According to the FAZ, Goecke felt provoked by Hüster's review of his ballet "In the Dutch Mountains".
He is said to have initially threatened her with a “house ban” and then accused her of being responsible for canceling subscriptions in Hanover.
Dog excrement scandal in Hanover: FAZ reacts with incomprehension to ballet director Goecke's overreaction
"But we consider the humiliating act beyond the offense of physical harm as an attempt to intimidate our free, critical view of art," says the corresponding reaction of the FAZ.
Goecke's overreaction remains a mystery to the daily newspaper.
We cannot identify any systematic injury and there is no history either.
FAZ feuilleton boss Matthias Alexander to the NDR
The criticism written by Hüster was particularly critical.
But not disparaging them in any way, according to Matthias Alexander, head of the FAZ arts section, to NDR.
"We can't see any systematic injury and there's no history either," he said.
Meanwhile, Lower Saxony's Minister of Culture, Falko Mohrs (SPD), wants to discuss "all further steps with the state theatre", as his spokeswoman told NDR on Monday.
For Mohrs it was an "unacceptable situation".
Update from Monday, February 13, 2023, 8:39 a.m.:
Hanover/Frankfurt – Now the
FAZ
has also responded with clear words to the attack on an employee by the ballet director in Hanover.
"We take the deliberate degradation and humiliation that results from the prepared excrement attack very seriously," writes the newspaper in an article in the current Monday edition.
"The incident redeems in a frighteningly actual way what is now apparently often thought and said about criticism and critics in art circles," the FAZ article continues.
Goecke's crossing of boundaries would reveal the disturbed relationship between someone active in culture and criticism.
+
Ballet director Marco Goecke is said to have been so upset by a journalist's criticism that he threw dog feces at her.
© Bernd Weissbrod/dpa/archive image
Update from Sunday, February 12, 2023, 5:37 p.m.:
Hanover – Now the person affected in the dog excrement scandal at the Hanover State Opera has spoken up.
FAZ critic Wiebke Hüster confirmed the incident to dpa and also said that she had filed a complaint.
The journalist stated that before the attack, Goecke accused her of writing reviews with personal attacks, as reported by
kreiszeitung.de
.
Goecke's management, in turn, promised that he would comment on the incident himself.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the State Opera has also confirmed that the substance that was thrown at Hüster was dog feces.
First report from Sunday, February 12, 2023, 4:51 p.m.:
Hanover – That had absolutely nothing to do with the title “Faith – Love – Hope” of the ballet, which premiered at the Hanover State Opera.
During the first break, there was an incident in the foyer between ballet director Marco Goecke and a critic from the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(FAZ), "in which her personal integrity was violated," as the State Opera itself writes in a statement on its website .
Because he didn't like her criticism: the ballet director is said to have thrown dog feces at a journalist
According to information from the
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
(HAZ), the critic is said to be the journalist Wiebke Hüster.
Goecke threw dog feces at her.
Just one day before the premiere in Hanover, Hüster's review of Marco Goecke's ballet "In the Durch Mountains" was published in The Hague, in which she sharply criticized it.
"One alternately becomes insane and kills with boredom while watching," reads the relevant article.
In addition, Hüster described the piece as "disgrace and cheek" as well as "unfocused and distracted".
The Hanover State Opera regrets the incident.
"We contacted the journalist immediately after the incident and apologized to her personally and publicly," said director Laura Berman in this context.
Hanover State Opera regrets incident – DJV Lower Saxony sees “attack on press freedom”
The State Opera would see itself as an "open place of respectful togetherness and exchange".
"Calm and care" is now required, the statement continues.
They now want to examine labor law steps against ballet director Goecke, advise each other and then act on this internal personnel matter.
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) Lower Saxony evaluates the statement of the State Opera as "insufficient".
An artist has to endure criticism, even if it seems exaggerated.
Anyone who reacts violently to criticism is unacceptable.
The attack on the journalist from the FAZ is also an attack on freedom of the press," said Rieger.
— DJV Lower Saxony (@DJVNieders) February 12, 2023
“An artist has to endure criticism, even if it seems exaggerated.
Anyone who reacts to criticism with violence is unacceptable," said state chairman Frank Rieger via Twitter.
He calls for a clearer reaction from those responsible and describes the attack on the FAZ journalist as an "attack on press freedom".