After the dog excrement attack in the Hanover State Opera, ballet director Marco Goecke apologizes. However, he reinforces his criticism of the attacked editor. She reacts indignantly to the statements – and for her part does not regret her harsh reviews of Goecke’s plays.
After the scandal in the Hanover State Opera about a dog excrement attack by ballet director Marco Goecke on FAZ journalist Wiebke Hüster, the attacker apologized for the “action that should not be approved”. The editor, however, continues to criticize the 50-year-old in a letter and to some media.
The ballet director, who has since been suspended, explained his attack by saying, among other things, that the journalist had personally attacked him “at the level of a turd” for years with her sometimes devastating criticism. In a review of a choreography by Goecke, which is currently being performed by the renowned Nederlandse Dans Theater, Hüster speaks, among other things, of “disgrace” and “impudence”. Goecke sees this as the “bottom drawer”.
In the 3sat program “Kulturzeit”, the journalist said that she understood the broad reaction in the media to the dog excrement attack as support: “It’s pure solidarity, it’s also a piece of consolation.” Goecke’s words after the action would have shocked her again. “In the beginning, of course, he says he wants to apologize, but then he immediately switches back and reinforces the allegations that he has already made against me, and says that this is destructive reporting that is harmful to the cultural sector and he calls me hateful . And at the end of that ‘excuse me’ he says he wants those reasons to be used now so that you can get some understanding of what he’s doing. What kind of an apology is that supposed to be? That’s a justification.”
The editor rejected Goecke’s allegations that fewer viewers would come to the performances because of her criticism and drew attention to the corona pandemic, because of which all facilities were struggling with a decline in viewers. Hüster also did not regret her harsh criticism of Goecke’s choreographies with attributions such as “disgrace” and “insolence” in the 3sat program. “It’s not a play,” she said, referring to the choreography by Nederlandse Dans Theater. It is much more a wild sequence of movements. As a consequence of the attack, she would no longer attend any Goecke events in her life, said Hüster.
(This article was first published on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.)
