Critical reports

Festival sued cultural journalist without success

The Salzburg Festival Fund and Festival Director Markus Hinterhäuser have suffered a first-instance defeat in a legal dispute against cultural journalist Axel Brüggemann.

An injunction on seven points against the publisher of the online medium "BackstageClassical" has been rejected on all points by the Hamburg Regional Court. The case was triggered by critical reports by Brüggemann.

Amount in dispute of 100,000 euros
The Festival Fund and Hinterhäuser had originally sent Brüggemann warnings relating to two texts with a value in dispute of 70,000 euros and 30,000 euros respectively. These comprised ten points. The cultural journalist agreed to cease and desist on three points because, as he admitted, mistakes had also been made.

He did not want to make any further concessions to the plaintiffs and called on his readers to provide financial support at the end of the previous year in order to be prepared for legal proceedings.

Appeal lodged against decision
According to "BackstageClassical", the Hamburg Regional Court now considered it legitimate to claim, among other things, that Hinterhäuser was concentrating on "troubleshooting" in order to silence internal and external critics.

The Salzburg Festival confirmed the court's decision on the "statements by Mr. Brüggemann that we consider to be in breach of (personal) rights". An appeal against the decision has already been lodged with the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg. This means that the decision of the Hamburg Regional Court is not legally binding.

"The Salzburg Festival Fund and Markus Hinterhäuser remain convinced that the claims for injunctive relief are justified," it said. According to the Salzburg Festival, the fact that the case is being heard in Germany is due to the fact that a German address is stated in the imprint of "BackstageClassical" and the statements in dispute are also noted in Germany.