Despite an apology from the Hanover Opera, the Lower Saxony Journalists’ Association is demanding exemplary sanctions against Marco Goecke.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2/13/2023 at 5:14 PM, updated 2/13/2023 at 5:26 PM
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According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Marco Goecke, ballet director of the Hanover State Theater (photo), accused the journalist of being “responsible for the subscription cancellations in Hanover”. DPA/ABACA
The director of the Hanover Opera Ballet attacked a critic of a major German daily newspaper with dog feces and smeared her face with feces, the newspaper, the police and the opera announced on Monday. In a press release, the opera announced that it would suspend Marco Goecke from his duties “with immediate effect” and “prohibit him from access” to the institution “in order to protect the ballet and the theater from further damage”.
“Saturday evening, on the sidelines of the premiere of the ballet Faith – Love – Hope at the Hanover Opera, a disgusting incident happened,” says the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) in a forum on its website. “During the break, the director of the Hanover Ballet, Marco Goecke, first verbally and then physically attacked our dance critic Wiebke Hüster, reports the daily newspaper. In the opera hall, fifty-year-old Goecke stood in front of our critic (who did not know him personally until then) to ask him what she was doing at the premiere. Apparently dissatisfied with one of his former critics, “he first threatened him with a house ban, then accused him of being responsible for the subscription cancellations in Hanover,” the FAZ continued. Marco Goecke, who could no longer control himself, “pulled out a paper bag full of piles of animals and smeared it in the face of our critic,” adds the newspaper, which is known for its seriousness.
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A bag full of animal poop
A spokeswoman for the Hanover police confirmed to AFP that a 57-year-old woman had filed a complaint “because her face had been smeared with dog poo”. The excrement was not confiscated, so the police had to be content with testimony, she said. An investigation has been opened.
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, this “humiliating act” is an attempt to intimidate “free and critical art appreciation”. On its website, the Hanover Opera “deeply regrets” the “escalation” between Marco Goecke and the FAZ critic. The opera, which “apologized to the journalist,” said it is reviewing, discussing and “acting accordingly” on the labor law action against its ballet director. “We deeply regret that our public has been disturbed by this incident,” the institution wrote again.
The president of the section of the Association of German Journalists for Lower Saxony (state capital Hanover), Frank Rieger, called for stronger action by the opera against the ballet director. “The communication of the Hanover Opera is completely inadequate, because the aggression against the journalists of the FAZ is also an attack on the freedom of the press,” Frank Rieger is quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The incident occurred on the occasion of the premiere of Faith – Love – Hope, a ballet choreographed by Frenchman Guillaume Hulot, a graduate of the Paris Opera Dance School and the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris. The director of the Hanover Ballet was suspended. Marco Goecke was also “requested to make a comprehensive apology in the coming days”.
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