The verdict is expected to be issued in writing in the next few months. According to the Burgtheater, the claimed damages amount to 94,493 euros, which includes canceled performances, newly printed programs and legal fees.
This means that the amount of damage mentioned last December has increased; according to its own statement, the castle had to file the lawsuit once more following contesting the first reminder lawsuit, which at that time amounted to 71,787 euros. “Since the costs for legal support for the Burgtheater have increased further in the meantime, the amount had to be adjusted accordingly,” the APA said in its justification.
Between 2008 and 2021, Teichtmeister obtained images of abused children and young people and changed a significant number of the files by creating collages or slide shows or adding text annotations to the material. For this, he was sentenced to two years in prison last September and admitted to a forensic-therapeutic center, whereby both his prison sentence and his placement in the penal system were conditionally suspended, subject to a five-year probationary period.
“Why didn’t you do anything?”
In advance, the castle had believed Teichtmeister’s protestations of innocence and continued to cast him in leading roles. The pieces were canceled or recast following his confession to the authorities became known. “Why didn’t you do anything? Suspend or prepare an understudy? Why did you have blinders on?”, Teichtmeister’s lawyer Manfred Arbacher-Stöger confronted the Burgtheater representative on Monday, according to a media report. “Perhaps he was naive. He told us that he would sue his then partner,” argues Burgtheater commercial director Robert Beutler.
Teichtmeister was convinced that it would have been possible for the house to reoccupy the piece “Next Door” that it occupied instead of deleting it without replacing it, which accounts for part of the damage now claimed. “There are technical aids,” the 44-year-old is quoted in the media report. “I was hoping for a diversion,” said the actor when asked why he didn’t clear the air earlier in a conversation with his employer at the time.
