Josef Fritzl

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Josef Fritzl (born April 9, 1935 in Amstetten ) is a legally convicted Austrian criminal who held his daughter prisoner in an underground apartment from 1984 to 2008. During this time he abused and raped her many times and fathered a total of seven children with her. He also kept three of these children in the basement apartment from their birth until 2008.

overview

Fritzl is said to have raped his then 11-year-old daughter Elisabeth for the first time in 1977.

Fritzl held his daughter, born in 1966, from August 28, 1984 to April 26, 2008 in an apartment below his house in Amstetten, Lower Austria , and raped her many times. This resulted in seven children, one of whom died shortly after birth (which the court judged as murder by omission) and three were adopted by the perpetrator as foster children. The other three children lived in the basement apartment from birth until they were released in April 2008.

The case was cleared up after one of the children who grew up in the basement, a 19-year-old woman named Kerstin at the time of the liberation, was brought to the hospital by the perpetrator because of a life-threatening illness and the doctors there asked about her identity and that of her mother, whereupon Fritzl also released his other victims. He had always told the public that his daughter had fled to a sect and abandoned the adopted children on his doorstep. With a deprivation of liberty of almost 24 years, it is one of the most serious cases of this kind in the criminal history of Austria . The perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment .

Life

Josef Fritzl was born in 1935 by Maria Fritzl, b. Nenning, born. When his mother was committed to the Mauthausen concentration camp as a criminal in April 1945 for assaulting a police officer and remained there until the liberation in May 1945, Josef Fritzl was housed with foster parents .

After compulsory school he attended a higher technical college (HTL) in St. Pölten with a focus on electrical engineering . His first employer was VÖEST in Linz . At the age of 21 he married a 17-year-old kitchen assistant. Between 1969 and 1971 he constructed concrete pipe machines for a building materials company in Amstetten . The authorities have court records according to which he was sentenced to imprisonment for rape of a 24-year-old and attempted rape of a 21-year-old in 1967 and was actually imprisoned. However, these sentences were deleted from the register after 15 years. From 1973 to 1996 he and his wife ran an inn with guest rooms and a campsite in Unterach am Attersee . In the 1980s there was a largely unsuccessful and a little later a successful fire. An initial suspicion of arson against Fritzl and one of his sons was not confirmed and the proceedings were discontinued. The inn was rebuilt. In addition to the house in which he lived, Fritzl owned five other houses in various communities in Lower Austria, which he rented out. Bankruptcy proceedings were pending in order to be able to realize the properties.

He has seven children with his wife, who was born in 1939/40. Some people around him described him as a “loving grandpa”, and he is said to have been very authoritarian towards the family.

In May 2017 it became known that Fritzl had changed his family name in prison. The Austrian Press Council sees Fritzl's protection of personality as violated in the use of the new name and his physical security in the prison is endangered by newly arriving prisoners.

Sequence of events

On August 28, 1984, Fritzl lured his then 18-year-old daughter into the cellar under a pretext, anesthetized and handcuffed her in a room specially prepared as a cell. A day later, she was reported missing. About a month after she disappeared, the father presented a letter in which the daughter asked that no one be searched for her.

In the following years, according to Fritzl's statements at the time, children of the allegedly lost daughter were repeatedly placed in front of the house. Three of them were then taken in by the “grandparents”. All seven children, including a pair of twins, were conceived by Fritzl through his incestuous relationship with his daughter and were born by her in the cellar. One of the two twin brothers died three days after giving birth and is said to have been cremated by Fritzl later. The eldest daughter, born in 1988/89, as well as a son born in 1989/90 and a son born in 2002, were held captive in the cellar together with their mother, the other children, a daughter born in 1992 and 1993, and the surviving twin son, born in 1996, had lived since their infancy as adopted or foster children with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie, after the perpetrator had staged the alleged leaving of the babies by his daughter, who was reported missing in all three cases.

With regard to the supposed grandchildren, Fritzl repeatedly managed to hide the truth from the youth welfare organization . On May 19, 1993, he reported that one of his daughters had found a nine-month-old child on the doorstep. Five days after the discovery, an official came to the conclusion that the baby must have been professionally delivered in a hospital. At the end of 1993, the Fritzl couple applied for custody of the girl, which was granted on July 1, 1994. On December 16 of the same year, Ms. Fritzl found another ten-month-old child and received an alleged call from her daughter Elisabeth half an hour later, although the couple now had a secret number. When a third foster child was added on August 3, 1997, the officials did not become suspicious. According to the Amstetten District Commission , there were a total of 21 “documentary contacts” between 1993 and 2007 , but only six home visits, the last in 1997.

Basement prison

In the basement of the house you had to go through five rooms to get to the workroom, where the entrance to the cellar prison was. This was hidden behind a shelf there. The rooms were locked with two massive doors, one behind the other, a little over a meter high. They weighed around 300 kilograms and consisted of a frame clad with sheet steel, which was filled with concrete after installation. The locking mechanism was operated with a numeric code via a radio remote control. At the first interview , Fritzl announced the code. According to his statement, the doors could have been opened from the inside in an emergency with the tools available. There are also indications from the defendant that the electronically controlled mechanism should open by itself after a while. However, this has not yet been proven.

The five rooms had a height of about 1.7 meters and a total area of ​​about 60 square meters. They were not laid out on one level; there were level differences between the rooms. From the first door a narrow corridor about five meters long led to another loophole. One room was used as a warehouse where food could be stowed away for a longer period of time. The rooms were made soundproof with rubber mats, but the initially rumored presence of a rubber cell turned out to be a rumor. Another room was equipped with a kitchenette, sink, shower, toilet and a small table. There were also two bedrooms. The rooms were furnished with what Fritzl considered necessary. There were two beds in each bedroom. There was also a refrigerator and freezer to store the food. In addition, there was a washing machine, a television with a video recorder and a radio. When the investigators entered the premises, they were in well-kept condition. In contrast, an article in the mirror says: The sanitary facilities were covered with mold, the toilet was an impertinence. A single ventilation shaft with fans stole a person's air in this prison. The prisoners must therefore have mainly been lying down and sitting.

According to the victims' statements, Fritzl threatened that gas would be introduced if something happened to him. The investigators have so far found no indication that the threat had a real background. The workshop was considered an absolute taboo area that no one was allowed to enter. Fritzl kept the basement, which was completed in 1983, a secret and did not allow anyone to photograph the new building.

Josef Fritzl's trustee, Walter Anzböck, has spoken out in favor of the family that no one should enter the cellar prison any more. After complicated organizational measures, a start was made on June 20, 2013, using machines to pour several layers of concrete into the basement, making it inaccessible.

discovery

When the oldest of the children living in the basement, Kerstin, became seriously ill, her mother was able to persuade her father to give her medical help. On Saturday, April 19, 2008, the severely convulsive and unconscious 19-year-old daughter was admitted to the Mostviertel State Hospital in Amstetten . According to Fritzl, like the previous “grandchildren”, it was stored in the home of the “grandparents”. As in previous cases, there was a “letter” from 42-year-old mother Elisabeth, this time asking for help for her sick daughter and giving vague information about the symptoms. The mother's behavior seemed strange. The doctors also urgently needed further information on the previous course of the disease. That is why the authorities were informed, which over time extended the search to the Schengen area and no longer ruled out a crime against the mother or child, and calls were circulated in the media that the mother should report. Elisabeth heard the calls on the television in the basement and urged her father to take her and the two boys to the clinic.

Exactly one week after being admitted to the hospital, on April 26, 2008, Fritzl took his daughter and the two boys out of the cellar. He told the rest of the family that the daughter had come home with the two children. This scenario had already been announced in an earlier letter for an unspecified point in time. For years he tried with great skill to portray Elisabeth as a “failed mother”. After the visit to the hospital, Elisabeth was picked up in the vicinity of the hospital on the basis of a non-anonymous but confidential message from a doctor and taken for questioning because of the missing person's report and the “suspicion of child abandonment” (suspension). After a short arrest and a subsequent long conversation and the assurance that there would be no more contact with Fritzl and that her children would be looked after, Elisabeth Fritzl was ready to give a comprehensive statement. As a result, Elisabeth was released and her father was taken into custody. A DNA test proved that Elisabeth's six living children were conceived by their father.

The wife, children and grandchildren were brought to the Amstetten-Mauer State Hospital on Sunday night , where a protected area had now been organized and they were given long-term psychotherapeutic and medical care.

Elisabeth Fritzl and her children moved out of their accommodation in the hospital in December 2008 and have been living in another Austrian state since then. The largest British tabloid, The Sun , published in its February 9, 2009 issue apparently photos taken by a paparazzo showing Elisabeth shopping with one of her daughters. The Sun article states that Elizabeth's children are (again) going to school. The corresponding edition of the Sun was not delivered in Germany and Austria and the photos did not appear on the Sun's website either.

process

Fritzl saw himself - according to his lawyer Rudolf Mayer before the trial - as the lifesaver of his daughter Kerstin, whom he took to the hospital. Mayer was of the opinion that his client did not belong in prison, but in a psychiatric hospital.

In December 2008, the indictment against Fritzl was completed. The suspect had to answer in March 2009 for murder by omission, rape, deprivation of liberty, severe coercion and incest. For the first time in Austria, the offense of slavery was also negotiated.

After a comprehensive confession, the eight jurors of the St. Pölten Regional Court found the accused unanimously guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment with admission to an institution for sane, mentally abnormal lawbreakers . Since Fritzl and the public prosecutor accepted the verdict, it was immediately final.

At the end of March 2009 a lawyer filed a complaint against Fritzl's wife and eldest son with the public prosecutor. This should now clarify whether both had known about Josef Fritzl's crimes.

In October 2012, Fritzl, who was serving his sentence in the Stein Prison , divorced his wife. She had never visited him in prison once. As a result of the divorce, she lost the pension she received for her husband.

Others

Artistic reception

literature

  • The criminal case is the basis of the novel Claustria by the French author Régis Jauffret .
  • In her poetry volume Monster Poems , published in 2013, Nora Gomringer deals with the case in the poem Elisabeth Fritzl .
  • The novel Raum by Irish author Emma Donoghue was also inspired by the Fritzl case.
  • The Fritzl case was a motif that Karen Duve also processed in her novel Macht , which appeared in 2016.

Movie and TV

  • In 2009, the fourth season of the US television series Supernatural made an allusion to Fritzl's offenses in season 4, episode 11.
  • In 2010 the British documentary Josef Fritzl: Geschichte eines Monsters (original title: Monster: The Josef Fritzl Story ) by David Notman-Watt was published .
  • The German “Tatort” production Verschleppt from 2012 also takes up the topic (see also the kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch ). In the crime story with the Saarbrücken police officers, three young girls are kidnapped and held captive for years in an underground cellar dungeon. The dungeon was created by the perpetrator himself and can be reached via a secret entrance in the basement of his house.
  • Fritzl was also mentioned on US television. In the television series Criminal Minds (Episode 5.5 original title : Cradle to Grave , German title: From the cradle to the grave ), his name is mentioned next to that of the US murderer Gary Michael Heidnik .
  • In the US TV series 30 Rock , Liz Lemon alludes to this story in episode 20 of season 5.
  • In 2015 Emma Donoghue's novel Raum was filmed by the director Lenny Abrahamson . Donoghue also wrote the script for the film. The main roles were played by Brie Larson (who won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2016), Joan Allen , William H. Macy and Jacob Tremblay . The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival 2015.
  • In the Austrian television series Braunschlag , a woman keeps her husband prisoner in the basement for 10 years. In this context, at the end of the series, the comment is made that Braunschlag is the new Amstetten.

theatre

  • On February 23, 2009 Hubert Kramar's so-called "Keller-Soap" Pension-Fritzl - a satirical farce about how the media dealt with incest and violence in the family using the example of the Amstetten criminal case - premiered in Vienna's 3raum Anatomietheater and sparked worldwide media interest out.
  • Elfriede Jelinek refers to Fritzl's crimes in FaustIn and out. Secondary drama. (World premiere at the Schauspielhaus Zürich , 2012, production by Dušan David Pařízek ) and in the stage text Tod-Krank.Doc written in 2010 (for Christoph Schlingensief, world premiere at the Theater Bremen , 2013, production by Mirko Borscht ).
  • The play Conte d'Amour by the groups Nya Rampen & Institutet, directed by Markus Öhrn, is loosely based on the case of Josef Fritzl. It was honored as the best off-theater piece at the Impulse Theater Festival 2011.

music

The criminal case is also processed in the music, for example in the songs:

Parallels

  • In 2006 Natascha Kampusch freed herself from a cellar in Austria after 8 years of imprisonment .
  • In 2008, a woman was discovered in Italy who had been held captive by her mother and siblings for 18 years.
  • In 2009 Jaycee Lee Dugard's 18-year captivity ended .
  • In June 2010 it became public in Brazil that a fisherman allegedly kept his daughter captive in a hut for twelve years. During this time he is said to have fathered seven children with her.
  • In connection with the Cleveland kidnappings , three women were freed in May 2013 who disappeared between the ages of 14 and 21, were held captive in a house by a man for nine to eleven years, and one of whom gave birth to a child during that time.
  • The Belgian Marc Dutroux held four girls or young women prisoner in one of his houses in 1995 in order to rape them and to produce pornographic material from them . All died, two of them starved to death in a basement dungeon , sat as Dutroux because of car thefts in prison. In 1996 , he abducted two girls again and held them there. Dutroux's house was searched unsuccessfully, then Dutroux made the police aware of the cellar dungeon.

literature

Fiction

Web links

 Wikinews: Amstetten criminal case - The Fritzl case  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Investigations, indictments and convictions included deprivation of liberty (Section 99 StGB), slavery ( incest case: indictment of slavery?, Noe.orf.at, August 3, 2008) (Section 104 (2) StGB), rape (Section 201 StGB) with Incest (§ 211 StGB) and murder by omission (§ 75 StGB).
  2. ^ Matthew Weaver: Timeline: Austria cellar case. The Guardian, April 28, 2008
  3. ↑ The sources vary regarding the exact date. Various newspapers and television reports mention August 24, 28, or 29, 1984 as the starting date.
  4. ↑ a b c Amstetten incest case - Who is Josef Fritzl? ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. noe.orf.at, April 29, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / noe.orf.at
  5. ↑ Mauthausen concentration camp - in the gray area of ​​the camp . In: Die Zeit , No. 51/2013
  6. ↑ VICE : Josef Fritzl stays human , 2014.
  7. ↑ The Terror of the Patriarch . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 2008 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Sex offender Fritzl was noticed by the authorities decades ago . Mirror online
  9. ↑ Netzeitung: Fritzl was a rapist on record ( Memento from February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ A b c Mathieu von Rohr, How Josef Fritzl Deceived the Authorities , Spiegel online, May 6, 2008
  11. ↑ incest case of Amstetten - 73-year-old operating inn in Unterach . ooe.orf.at, April 29, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008
  12. ↑ The family was noticed in Upper Austria . derstandard.at, APA, April 29, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008
  13. ↑ a b Police examined other properties belonging to Josef Fritzl . derstandard.at, APA, April 30, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008
  14. ↑ Bankruptcy file 14 S 24 / 06h of the Regional Court of Sankt Pölten
  15. ^ Wolfgang Höllrigl: Josef Fritzl builds 13 houses. oe24.at, November 6, 2010
  16. ↑ 68 years in April 2008, Josef Fritzl is in custody . noe.orf.at, April 29, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008
  17. ^ APA: E. Fritzl as the only one with right of residence in the house . derstandard.at, April 30, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008
  18. ↑ Amstetten incest case - who is the suspect? noe.orf.at, April 28, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008
  19. ↑ derstandard.at, December 13, 2019: Press Council reprimands "Krone": Josef F.'s new name is not of public interest. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  20. ↑ Press release no .: 64539: Serious crimes to the detriment of v. Family member (No longer available online.) Lower Austria Security Directorate, April 27, 2008, archived from the original on May 2, 2008 ; Retrieved April 29, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundespolizei.gv.at
  21. ↑ BBC News: Timeline: Austrian cellar case , March 19, 2009
  22. ↑ Incest Case - New Dungeon Details . noe.orf.at, April 30, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  23. ↑ Two steel doors locked the dungeon . ( Memento from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) nachrichten.at, APA & OÖN, May 2, 2008
  24. ↑ a b Television makes a major contribution to education. In: Radio Niederösterreich , April 28, 2008, accessed on October 16, 2019.
  25. ↑ a b c Dungeon opened: "Domestically furnished" . In: Radio Niederösterreich , April 27, 2008, accessed on October 16, 2019.
  26. ↑ Incest drama: Confession of horror . ( Memento of February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) diepresse.at, APA / editorial team, April 28, 2008
  27. ↑ A small apartment was set up in the basement . ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. noen.at, April 28, 2008; Retrieved May 1, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.noen.at
  28. ↑ incest case Amststten - Josef Fritzl is in custody . noe.orf.at, April 29, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  29. ↑ Press release Security Directorate Lower Austria: District Amstetten - Serious criminal offenses to the detriment of v. Family member ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , bundespolizei.gv.at, April 28, 2008, 11:45 a.m.; Addendum to the press release of April 27, 2008, 1:35 p.m. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundespolizei.gv.at
  30. ↑ Amstetten incest case - So they had to live in the dungeon for years (with pictures). noe.orf.at, April 28, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  31. ↑ Incest case - to open the door in an emergency? noe.orf.at, April 30, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  32. ↑ Speculation about escape hole . derstandard.at, April 30, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  33. ↑ New interrogations in the Amstetten incest case : Spiegel online
  34. ↑ Incest case - the search for clues continues . noe.orf.at, May 2, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  35. ^ Fritzl-Haus: Cellar is filled in. orf.at of June 20, 2013
  36. ↑ a b c d Press release no .: 64799: Serious offenses to the detriment of v. Family member (No longer available online.) Lower Austria Security Directorate, April 30, 2008, archived from the original on May 3, 2008 ; Retrieved April 30, 2008 .
  37. ↑ Chronicle - The mother of a seriously ill patient is urgently wanted . noe.orf.at, April 22, 2008; accessed on May 2, 208
  38. ↑ Mother is wanted internationally, kurier.at ( Memento from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  39. ↑ Chronicle - Disappeared Mother: authorities at a loss noe.orf.at, April 22, 2008, accessed on October 25, 2013
  40. ↑ Amstetten Hospital - Mother urgently needed , noe.orf.at, April 19, 2008
  41. ^ APA: Josef Fritzl was arrested only after his daughter , derstandard.at, May 2, 2008; Retrieved May 2, 2008
  42. ↑ dpa: Chronology of the abuse case in Amstetten, mdr.de/mdr-info ( Memento from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  43. ↑ OE24.at: Incest case: Victims could return to the clinic for the duration of the trial , January 23, 2009
  44. ↑ a b c OE24.at: Vortex around the first photos of Elisabeth , February 13, 2009
  45. ^ ORF: The indictment against Fritzl is final December 1, 2008; Retrieved December 27, 2008
  46. ↑ ORF: "Slave trade" for the first time in court ( Memento from August 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  47. ↑ tagesschau.de: Judgment in the abuse process ( Memento from March 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) March 19, 2009; Retrieved March 21, 2009
  48. ^ New reports in the Fritzl case
  49. ^ Divorce Behind Bars , News, October 25, 2012
  50. ↑ Fritzl divorced so his wife would go bankrupt , heute.at on October 25, 2012
  51. ^ "Claustria": The Fritzl case as a novel. In the Wiener Zeitung of January 12, 2012, accessed on January 20, 2012
  52. ↑ Interview by Marten Rolff: Do-gooders . In: sueddeutsche.de . February 13, 2016, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed November 18, 2018]).
  53. ↑ Monster: The Josef Fritzl Story in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  54. ↑ Cam: 30 Rock S05E20: “100”. whatthewhat.tv, April 22, 2011
  55. ↑ Telluride Film Review: 'Room' at variety.com, accessed September 10, 2015
  56. ↑ Die Welt : The play about Fritzl is so underground , February 24, 2009
  57. ↑ Description of the piece ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Schauspielhaus Zürich, accessed on March 25, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schauspielhaus.ch
  58. ↑ Italy: Family held woman captive for 18 years. In: the standard. June 15, 2008, accessed February 14, 2013 .
  59. ↑ Incest case: Brazilian fathered seven children with a locked daughter. In: SPIEGEL Online. June 10, 2010, accessed February 14, 2013 .
  60. ↑ orf.at indictment of rape, orf.at May 9, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Fritzl, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayrhoff, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian sex offender and kidnapper
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Amstetten