The director of one of Germany’s top ballet companies has been suspended and is under police investigation after he attacked an art historian with dog feces, CNN reports.

According to an article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday, Marco Gecke, head of the ballet company at the Hannover State Opera, initially verbally attacked journalist Wibke Huster during the intermission of the ballet’s premiere.

According to the newspaper, the attack was allegedly linked to an earlier review Huster had written.

FAZ reports that Gecke threatened a critic to ban her from the Hannover State Opera and then “put a paper bag of dog excrement on her face”.

Gekke apologized to Huster for his “totally unacceptable actions” in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. “Looking back, I realize it was an awkward act in the heat of the moment,” he said, adding that there was a busy period with two premieres in a short amount of time.

“an attempt at intimidation”

FAZ wrote in their article: “We believe that the humiliating act, in addition to the offense of bodily injury, is also an attempt to intimidate a free critical view of art.”

A spokesman for the Hannover police confirmed that the assault and beating of Huster was under investigation. No charges were brought.

The Hanover State Opera immediately apologized to Haster “personally and publicly”, citing “a flagrant violation of her personal integrity”.

He was banned from entering the Opera House

On Monday, the Hannover State Opera suspended Gecke from work, banning him from the opera. “The ballet director Marco Gecke violated all the principles of the Hannover State Opera with his impulsive reaction to the journalist Wibke Huster last Saturday evening, he deeply, personally offended Ms. Huster and thus upset the public, staff and society in the most extreme way. “, the Hanover State Opera said in a statement to CNN.

The head of the regional union of journalists, Frank Rieger, called the attack on Huster “an attack on press freedom.” “An artist must tolerate criticism, even if it may seem excessive,” Rieger wrote in a tweet. “Anyone who responds to criticism with violence is unacceptable.”

Source: CNN