Manager fired by Barenboim is reinstated by court order

Manager fired by Barenboim is reinstated by court order

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norman lebrecht

July 08, 2020

A Berlin labout court has ruled that an event manager, Lutz Imhof, be given back his job from which he was fired after a complaint by Daniel Barenboim.

Barenboim, it was alleged, was forced to walk 200 metres on his own two feet after Imhof’s security men refused to let his chauffeur drive through a barrier to the Waldbühne stage in August 2018.

Interior and sports senator Andreas Geisel promptly demoted Imhof to a peripheral post in the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen. Imhof called his lawyers and the court has ruled he should now get his job back. Unless Barenboim appeals.

 

Comments

  • Micaelo Cassetti says:

    Good for Herr Imhof!!

  • Barenboim is a great director but it’s true that there’are a lot of stories about his management like Maazel and Boehm in the past.

    • Henry williams says:

      Did he do the 3 years military service in israel when he was 18. I have not heard him speak about it. Perhaps shani will know.

  • Jan Kaznowski says:

    Surely the grievance here is against senator Andreas Geisel as DB would not have had the power to fire.

    It’s a shame that young girl in Berlin didn’t fight back after (as reported in SB) Danny-Boy stopped her contract being renewed after some disagreement.

    PS: there’s a wonderful story about Bernstein arriving at the newly opened Heathrow Terminal 5 where taxis / limos weren’t at that time allowed to stop, and he had to get on a bus with the general public 😉 Makes DB’s 200m walk nothing

    • Tamino says:

      Terminal 5 was not opened during Bernstein’s life time. Check your sources.

      • Jan Kaznowski says:

        ===Check your sources.

        Tamino – you need to assume goodwill. Source is Charlie Harmon book.

        OK it wasn’t terminal 5, but it was definitely Heathrow because of one night at Heathrow Airport Sheraton (“One of Harry Kraut’s money saving gambits” ) where for some temporary reason taxis couldn’t go a pickup. “Why are we travelling like guinea pigs ?” demanded Lenny as he was pushed onto the very public bus

  • John Borstlap says:

    Obviously, DB wanted to save the endurance of his feet for the concert.

  • Jan Kaznowski says:

    Barenboim met the Senator at the post-concert party and apparently complained directly. Also it looks like there were actually two casualties :

    Lutz Imhof (60)
    Matthias Lück (48)
    https://www.bz-berlin.de/leute/warum-barenboim-zu-fuss-gehen-musste-und-dann-zwei-manager-flogen

  • Steve says:

    200 m…on his own two feet? LOL what a baby

    • Mick the Knife says:

      Maybe considering that he is 77 and his job is standing for 2 hours, he isn’t such a baby. If he was a violinist he could probably due it. But he was a pianist.

  • David says:

    My god, how petty can this man get.

  • Tamino says:

    A few things that got lost in translation with the article above:
    The musicians of the orchestra were let through the gate in a bus, but Barenboim in his limo was not, because the security didn’t recognise him. I would be angry too, if that happened to me.
    The managers were demoted, not fired, to other jobs within the same administration.
    The Barenboim story was only the last drop, after a lot of mischievous stories before about the two managers.

  • Alviano says:

    Another “tired old man”…..

  • Michael Fine says:

    Barenboim’s arrogance knows no bounds …

  • Paul Dawson says:

    Shades of Plebgate. It was within Barenboim’s gift to complain, but not to fire and not to appeal. The facts paint his conduct as shabby enough: why the embroidery?

  • Sweedmusic says:

    According to the linked newspaper article the event with Barenboim was just the last drop. Seemingly more important the manager had refused to comply with the wishes of Hertha BSC, the local soccer club playing in Bundesliga. 😉

  • Jonas says:

    He is the WORST. blah

  • V. Lind says:

    Diva complex. I remember when one of those American movie stars appearing in a West End play — can’t recall who for sure so I will not libel anyone, though it was not Nicole Kidman — demanded a limo to drive her the 200 yards or so from her hotel to the theatre. (The producers were shocked — they had deliberately housed her close to make it easy for her). At the same time one of the grandes dames of the British theatre, appearing elsewhere at the time,said she travelled to the theatre on the tube. And this was someone who might be recognised by anyone, as she had done film and TV.

    I loathe entitlement.

  • Esther Cavett says:

    Danny probably most hated the fact that he wasn’t recognised !

  • Rob van der Hilst says:

    That someone is a great artist does not mean that he automatically is a great person.
    #AskHisChildren

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