Teichtmeister: €20,000 for the Burgtheater

It had demanded about €95,000, for example, for canceled shows, newly printed programs and legal fees. However, the court found Burgtheater's complicity.

Between 2008 and 2021, Teichtmeister obtained images of abused children and young people and altered a large number of files by creating photo collages, slideshows or adding text annotations to the material. For this reason, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment last September and was admitted to a therapeutic forensic centre, where both his prison sentence and his placement in the penal system were suspended conditionally, subject to a five-year probationary period.

He has long believed in Teichtmeister's innocence

The Burgtheater initially believed the fired troupe member's protests of innocence and continued to cast him in leading roles. After his confession became known to the authorities, the plays were canceled or reworked.

According to Krohn, the court now held that Teichtmeister had not fulfilled his obligation to inform the employer about “imminent harm as a result of the criminal proceedings.” However, when Burgtheater learned of the criminal proceedings against the actor in September 2021, it “was not supposed to give much weight” to his information. Had Teichtmeister no longer worked from this point on, “any damage would have been significantly reduced.”

The court attributed the blame for the damage that occurred in the end to “two-thirds at the expense of the plaintiff and one-third at the expense of the defendant.” This results in a damages claim of €19,231, although the Burg Theater claimed a total of €94,493. The theater also had to reimburse Teichtmeister for procedural costs of €6,053. “The Burgtheater is reviewing the ruling,” the theater's press office said in response to the APA's request. The deadline for submitting an appeal is one month.