German ballet director fired after dog poop attack

The Hanoverian Staatsoper is divorcing ballet director Marco Goecke over his attack with dog feces on a German journalist.

His contract as ballet director has been terminated with immediate effect and by mutual agreement, said artistic director Laura Berman in theater Ballhof Eins on Thursday. The theater management had already suspended Goecke on Monday. However, according to Berman, his plays will still be performed in Hanover.

Goecke smeared the journalist of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Wiebke Hüster, with dog excrement in the foyer of the opera in the northern German city on Saturday evening. He had previously accused her of always writing “bad, personal” reviews. Three days later, the ballet director publicly apologized – but at the same time made further allegations against the journalist. She was indignant and shocked.

According to the journalist, Goecke suddenly took a plastic bag with dog excrement from his pocket in the opera foyer and rubbed it in her face with the open side. “When I felt what he was doing, I screamed,” said the 57-year-old. She was in shock and crying.

Goecke later explained in writing: “I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to all involved, first of all to Mrs Hüster, for my absolutely unacceptable action.” The choreographer explained the attack with the “nervous tension of two premieres in quick succession”. At the same time, he again accused Hüster and spoke of “often hateful criticism”.

The disgusting attack made international headlines, including the BBC and the New York Times. The attack also sparked a debate about the tense relationship between art and criticism. (aeg/sda/dpa)