Austria News

Yesterday local politicans of Graz were discussing if it should be legal to use mobile phones in public transports in their provincial capital of Styria.

The answer was unmistakable and crystal clear. It is a crime, and it’s going to be prohibited.

The prime mover of the “mobile phone prohibition” is Graz mayor Siegfried Nagl from the Peoples Party. It was apparently a big concern to him to make this law come true.

The only political party which is not so excited about this kind of law is Jörg Haiders “BZÖ”. “The mobile phone ban is absurd and mindless”, says the local council of the BZÖ in Graz Gerald Grosz.

But the BZÖ won’t have any chance to fight against the decision. Peoples Party and the Greens have the majority in Graz, and they want to have the mobile phonephobic law. The Greens only demanded that nobody should be kicked out of a public transport if he is using his mobile phone.

If all those horrible things, which recently happened in Austria, have something positive, it’s a political discussion about a harder punishment for child abusers and sex offenders.

Now also Freedom Party chairman Heinz Christian Strache promised to fight for a harder punishment for sex maniacs. Strache demands: “No freedom for child abusers!”

Child abusers and sex offenders must stay in prison until the rest of their life, confirms the Freedom Party chairman in his latest press release.

Strache wants to invite all political parties to improve the Austrian law and the protective measuress against such kind of criminals. The politican demands “zero tolerance”, and cofirms his opinion that there is no space in the Austrian society for those beasts in human shape.

Peoples Party and BZÖ agree to the claims of the Freedom Party in their press releases. There was no reaction from Socialdemocrats and Greens until now.

Austrias newspaper “Ober- österreichische Nachrichten” wrote about the childhood of Josef Fritzl in todays issue.

The second world war was over when he was 10 years old. His home town Amstetten was totally destroyed by Allied bombers, and occupied by the Russian army.

Fritzl grew up in very poor conditions, and lived alone with his mother. His parents divorced after his birth. The father left Amstetten was never seen again.

His mother was a mysterious woman. She always had to protect her eyes with her hands against the sunlight.

Little Josef was bad at school, and used to play a lot of football in the streets of Amstetten with his friends. According to the opinion of a former playmate he was also a very bad football player. His playmates used to call him with his second name: “Fritzl!”

Austrias justice minister Maria Berger is against a hard punishment for Josef Fritzl.

“15 years are enough. 20 years the maximum”, she says.

Austrias Interior Minister Günther Platter from the Peoples Party claimed a hard punishment for sex offenders. The Socialdemocratic justice minister disagrees.

The justice minister also criticizes the behaviour of Lower Austrias minister president Erwin Pröll (Peoples Party). “Pröll has obtruded himself to help the victims”, she moans in an interview of Austrias daily newspaper “Kurier”.

The story about Josef Fritzl and his family breaks all records at austrianews.co.uk.

Yesterday 6.397 people were visiting the website, and 10.985 impressions were counted.

Ranking of the top three days at austrianews.co.uk:
1st … 29th April 2008: 6.397 visits/10.985 impressions
2nd … 28th April 2008: 4.245 visits/6.772 impressions
3rd … 12th October: 2.257 visits/3.602 impressions

Most of the visitors come from the United States which have a large large majority. Visitors from Great Britain, Canada and Austrialia are also overrepresented.

Exotic countries were also seen again yesterday. Uganda, Bangladesh, and Guatemala were some of them.

Yesterday the accused incest committer Josef Fritzl was talking to the police for the first time.

He admited the rapings of his daughter during the last 24 years in the cellar. One of the seven babies which were born below ground level, died during the birth. Fritzl has thrown the dead baby into the burning heating boiler.

Now he has also told about the reason of his despicable act. He was afraid his daughter could take drugs. That’s why she had to live for 24 years in the underground. “The rapings just happened”, he explained.

Another Austrian “dungeon victim”, Natascha Kampusch, told in the news that she wants to help the victims from Amstetten. Natascha Kampusch wants to help with conversations and also offers financial help.

Inconceivable case of incest in Austria!

A man from the Lower Austrian town of Amstetten locked up his daughter for 24 years in a cellar, and fathered her seven times.

The martyrdom started when she was 11 years old. She was raped, made pregnant, and locked up in the cellar by her own father. Officially she was considered as missing.

Three children lived by her mother without any medicine in the cellar. One died during the birth, and the rest of the seven children were living officially as foundlings by grandparents.

Unbelievable: the mother of the tortured girl lived all the time upstairs on the first floor, and had no idea what is going on.

It’s not clear yet how the victim was able to escape out of the cellar. One of her daughters, the 19-year old girl called Kerstin, is laying fatally ill in hospital.

At this moment the dungeon in the cellar was not found. The police fears it could be secured by booby mines.

All neighbours are shocked and cannot believe what happened next to their doors.

picture © Mayangsari | Dreamstime.com

A woman from Salzburg gave her neighbour a box of chocolate.

Today she has to appear before a court, because the public prosecution department of Salzburg thinks giving a special type of chocolate fulfils the criminal offence of an harmful threat.

According to Austrian medias the woman has to expect one year prison.

Two months ago a mayor from Lower Austria was poisened with a special type of chocolate. Now it seems giving this certain chocolate brand as a present is a vicious crime.

The football fever around the Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland has now also captured the holy priests.

Austrias clerics also want to be a part of the Football Euro.

Auxiliary bishop Franz Scharl is going to pledge 18 sacral action forces today, but this should be just the beginning for a religious offensive during the European event.

The priests who are official members of the Football Euro 2008 organisation, receive a special education for their task. They should cheer up fans from unlucky teams, and calm down violent hooligans with peaceful biblical quotations.

It’s planned to have more than 80 of those “football priests” in Vienna and Lower Austria.

Austrian midwifes criticize the high amount of Caesarean operations.

Every fourth baby in Austria is born that way.

The federal state of Burgenland in the leader of Caesarean operations. The midwifes in Austria are not happy with such a development.

“Soon every second baby is born by Caesarean operation”, moans a speaker of the midwifes.

The expert explains: “Many mothers feel cheated after such an operation. They were not able to feel the true experience of birth, and the pain after the operation is horrible.”

The World Health Organisation recommends a Cesarean operation only if there are going to be complications by a natural birth. In Austria the amount of Cesarean operations has doubled in the last several years.

Another strange court decision in context to child abuse is reported in todays Austrian newspaper “Kronen Zeitung”.

A 55-year-old man was sentenced to a prison term of 10 months for raping a 4-year-old girl several times. Even employees of the court house were shaking their heads after such a decision. As the man already spent 10 months in prison before, he was a free man after the trial.

Josef Fritzl may also hope to find such a genle judge. His barrister is one of the best in Austria. It seems money is not a big issue for Josef Fritzl.

The barrister of Fritzl already caused a stir when he told that his client should not be in prison. Yesterday he described Josef Fritzl as caring person and loving father, who worries about his family now. “If he would be a monster, his 19-year-old daughter would never arrive in hospital”, the barrister told yesterday on Austrian TV.

Another statement of the barrister on TV: “It’s not proven if my client has raped his daughter.”

Austrians are quite upset about such opinions. The barrister receives a lot of hate e-mails. “He should be also locked in a dungeon with Josef Fritzl”, was the reaction of the vast majority.

A former lodger of the “horror house” claims that Fritzl has once told him he is going to make history with his house.

There is a story about the new life of Josef Fritzl in todays issue of Austrias biggest newspaper “Kronen Zeitung”.

Being in prison is not a new experience to him. At the end of the 60’s he was in prison for 18 months, because of several sexual attacks and rapes. Fritzl was also known as exhibitionist.

But this time the situation is a bit different. This time he won’t leave the prison after 18 months.

The Austrian newspaper also reports about the fear of Josef Fritzl in prison. He receives many death threats from inmates. The guards have to keep him away from other prisoners. Fritzl is allowed to go to the shower alone, and he can also go his daily walks in the prison yard without any other prisoners.

Most of the time Fritzl is sitting in his prison cell watching TV. He prefers to watch news and reports about himself. He may enjoy that a lot.

Also his appetite does not suffer in prison. Yesterday he has enjoyed fish with potatoes and red cabbage. The guards attest him a very good appetite.

According to Austrias biggest newspaper “Kronen Zeitung”, the 5-year-old son of Josef Fritzl Felix, was very excited about his first time in a car when he was released from his prison in the cellar, and brought to his new home with the other family members.

For you and me it’s nothing special to go to work everyday, see the nature, houses, and other people walking through the streets.

For 5-year-old Felix it was the very first time. The little boy was born in the dungeon of Amstetten, and had to stay there his first 5 years. He knew the world outside his dungeon only from television.

According to the “Kronen Zeitung”, he was watching out of the car window the whole way through with open mouth. To a policeman he said: “the world is so nice”.

It’s difficult not to be touched by such a story.

Since last Sunday, the whole world knows his name.

The man who locked up his own daughter in the cellar for 24 years, raped, and made her pregnant 6 times.

But who is that man who can do such cruel things to his own daughter?

The 73-year-old has also seven children with his wife, and is known as a very good technican. He has visited the polytechnic school for electrical engineering. His first employer was the VÖEST, a world famous steel factory in the city of Linz.

Between 1969 and 1971 he was working for a building material company in Amstetten. He was constructing concrete pipe machines, and one of the best and most intelligent workers.

In 1993 he changed his field of activity and bought a restaurant in a little village close to the town of Amstetten.

In the past years Josef Fritzl was known as a successful businessman. He also started dealing with real estates. He bought houses in Lower Austrias capital St. Pölten, as well as in the Lower Austrian town of Waidhofen/Ybbs, and rented them as apartments.

The only strange thing his neighbours recognised was, that he was never seen with his children in public.

The horrible dungeon affair in Lower Austria, brought a new record of visitors to austrianews.co.uk.

4.245 visitors and 6.772 impressions were counted yesterday, on Monday the 28th April 2008, at austrianews.co.uk. Most of the visitors came through Google, searching for “austria news”, “austrian news”, “news in austria”, and “austria newspaper”.

The background of the visitors are countries from the whole world. During last night most of the visitors came from the United States, Canada and Australia. But there were also some visitors from exotic countries like Thailand, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia or Colombia.

The story with the second most visitors is now the case of the rapist in Vorarlberg, who won the trial against his victim in a bizarre lawsuit, because the victim was talking bad about the rapist in a newspaper interview. This story brought 2.257 people, who made 3.602 clicks, to austrianews.co.uk on Friday the 12th October 2007.

The police of Vienna is upset about dirty windows in their offices.

Now they have found the right idea to solve the problem. Prisoners should care about clean windows on their police stations.

The policemen are quite enthusiastic about their idea. They could save time and money, and the prisoners won’t be bored. “Sweating instead of sitting”, is the catchy slogan of the Viennese vice police president for the prisoners of Vienna.

The police union is not so excited about the idea. “You need extra staff to control and observe the prisoners. This is quite expensive. It’s cheaper to keep them in their prisons, and employ a professional cleaning service for the dirty windows”, says one spokesman.

A prostitute from China has killed her Chinese workmate.

The reason can be found in the commercial competition. The 47-year-old lady of pleasure from China made too much business. The other one was not happy about that, because she was not able to earn the same.

First the police and some newspapers suspected a participation of the Chinese Mafia. But all those presumptions were not true. It was another prostitute who was working in the same brothel.

The murder already happened on the 15th April. The victim was knocked out and strangled by her 35-year-old colleague.

The 18.000 inhabitant town of Braunau is located directly on the border to Germany.

Only the Inn river and a bridge, can be found between Braunau and its German neighbour town Simbach.

Now those two towns seems to be in a serious conflict. The reason is a six metres long, and 1 1/2 tons heavy sculpture in Simbach, which is located directly on the river, and can be seen from the other side of the water.

The controversial sculpture shows a naked buttocks to the direction of Simbachs neighbour town Braunau. For the people of Braunau an inexcusable insult.

Even the vice mayor of Braunau raises his voice against the German provocation. “We don’t like it”, he says.

The Germans claim the sculpture is an expression of the freedom of art.

Observers say there was always a rivalry between the Austrian Braunau and the German Simbach.

Photographer: Vinicius Tupinamba | Agency: Dreamstime.com

If you want to spend a silent and peaceful holiday, you should not choose a youth hostel for your accommodation.

Such a wise understanding was totally ignored by an 24-year-old tourist from Australia in Vienna.

The young man was not able to bear the noise of a whole school class, which also found a place in the youth hostel. Several times he was talking to the teachers, that the pupils should reduce their noise level.

His act was not crowned with success. In the next morning during the breakfast the pupils had their usual sound intensity again.

Now the tourist from Australia don’t wanted to waste his time with words again. He took a knife and a knuckle duster, to force a silence breakfast by violence.

The angry man was arrested by the police.

In todays “Pressestunde”, a TV-show with a politican and two journalists, shown every Sunday morning on Austrian TV, the BZÖ politican of the “orange party” Peter Westenthaler, was talking about the Austrian law in relation to the incest crime of Amstetten.

He said that there is something wrong with the law in Austria. There must be a harder punishment for child abusers. Westenthaler also criticized Austrias justice minister Maria Berger. “She is protecting sex offenders and child abusers with low jail sentences and preterm releases from prison”, he told. The BZÖ politican thinks that Berger is ready to resign.

Westenthaler also does not understand why she is demanding a “second chance” for sex offenders. “The victim has no second chance either”, he explains.

The politican of the orange BZÖ party wants to have the most highest possible protection for children. That’s why he is going to introduce a motion of no confidence against the Austrian justice minister tomorrow in the parliament.

The first rumours about the sex crimes of Josef Fritzl in the 60’s are true.

He has raped a nurse in 1967. He entered the apartment of the nurse through a window, and sexually abused her. Now another women claims that she was also raped by the monster of Amstetten in those years, but she was too shy to go to the police.

But this was not everything in Fritzls past. Another time during the 60’s he tried to rape a woman again, but this victim was too strong. She was able to defend herself.

Not enough there is also one more note about a sexual attack in the documents of the police about him.

For those crimes Fritzl was in prison for several months. He was released in 1969, and moved from Linz to Amstetten.

All those criminal acts were officially deleted by the Austrian authorities after 15 years. In 1984 he was a man without previous criminal convictions anymore. The same year when he locked up his daughter in the cellar.

Now an uncleared murder case from 1986 is becoming topical again. The victim Martina Posch had the same face like Fritzls daughter. Austrias daily newspaper “Kronen Zeitung” compared the two faces in todays issue, and the similarity is amazing indeed.

A former friend of Josef Fritz told in an Austrian television interview some minutes ago, that everytime he tried to phone him, his wife told that he cannot come to the telephone, because he is working in the cellar.

© Photographer: Stockphotonyc | Agency: Dreamstime.com

According to Austrias biggest daily newspaper “Kronen Zeitung”, Josef Fritzl has already raped a woman before he started to lock up his daughter and do the same to her.

It’s written that he has raped a woman in the city of Linz.

Fritzl was caught, brought before the court, and found guilty. But he was not thrown into prison for a long time. Unfortunately the daily newspaper “Kronen Zeitung” did not write more details about this case.

The Lower Austrian can expect a mild judgement, is written in Austrias newspaper. 15 years would be the maximum, but a much lower imprisonment is assumed. The important question is going to be, if the has killed one of the babies during birth or not. If the baby wasn’t viable, it’s not possible to accuse him of a murder.

At the moment Fritzl is jailed in a two men cell in the prison of Lower Austrias capital St. Pölten. Austrian reporters tell that he has a good life there. Yesterday he has received appetizing apricot dumplings for lunch.

© Photographer: Stockphotonyc | Agency: Dreamstime.com

According to the latest news of Austrias newspapers and medias in the scandal of Amstetten, the police knew about the dungeon in the cellar.

The suspect has already received an official planning permission for this kind of cellar in the 70’s. So the authorities knew about the whole cellar. There were no secret rooms.

The planning permission was confirmed on the 31th October 1978.

On the 26th July 1983 the whole cellar was reviewed by the building commission of Amstetten. The individual structure of the cellar was not suspicious in those times. “It was normal to build cellars like that during the cold war”, explains a spokesman of Amstetten.

It’s not known yet if and what was changed from 1983 until today, but the assumption is obvious that something was changed

New details appeared in the unbelievable dungeon incest affair of Lower Austria.

The victim, who was raped by her father the first time when she was 11 years old, tried to escape two times from her home.

The second time was in August 1984, and this was one time too much for her father. He decided to etherise, and displace her into the cellar. His wife and the police he told that she escaped a third time. Nobody was able to find her again.

In the cellar he continued to rape her almost every day. During the last 24 years, the victim gave birth to 7 children. One died because of a lack of medical care during the birth. 3 lived with her mother in the cellar, and the other three officially upstairs as foundlings on the first floor.

The man told he has found them always infront of his door. It’s told those three children lived a normal life, are known as very friendly and popular in the neighbourhood, and very good at school.

The victim was able to escape out of her prison when one of the children was brought fatally ill into hospital. Because the girl is suffering under a strange and serious disease, the doctors were searching for the biological mother through the medias. This was the chance for the victim to convince the father to let her go, and visit the suffering daughter in hospital.

Now the police has also found the dungeon. The place was secured by an electrical number code, and consists of several bed rooms, as well as a kitchen and a toilet. All rooms had only a height of 1,70 metres. The victim was only able to walk crouched. She looks much older than 44 years, and has grey hair.

Was Wolfgang Prikopil the only involved committer in the kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch?

The official version of the story says “yes”, but now more and more doubts appear that Priklopil was not the only one.

Even the chief of the new “Kampusch commission” voices doubts that Wolfgang Priklopil was able to do everything alone.

In an interview in the Austrian daily newspaper “Der Standard”, he answered the question if complices are possible with “yes”.

Natascha Kampusch herself always denies the possibility that more than one person was involved in the crime, but the police is going to continue the resumed investigations.

A new survey has revealed that Austrians don’t like to think positive.

52 percent of all Austrians say their life is predetermined by their personal destiny. Only 21 percent have the opion the destiny could be a chance to turn things into a better situation.

42 percent of the Austrians answered the question “Is positive thinking the key to a better life?” with “yes”. 46 percent answered “I am not sure”, and 12 percent are convinced that positive thinking is not advantageous in life.

Only one third of the Austrian population think that motivation and positive thinking makes sense.

Tourists who just stay for one day, are very imporant for the net product of Salzburg.

Those people generate an added value of 83 million Euro during the whole year. Now the city of Salzburg wanted to know what are they doing, and why they are coming to Salzburg.

The result of that inquiry shows quite interesting conclusions.

5,5 million tourists visit the city of Salzburg just for one day during the year. With this they create 1.800 full time jobs. The biggest profiteers can be found in the gastronomy, retail business, cultural facilities and touristical transport operators.

The average “one day visitor” of Salzburg spends 30 Euro during his stay. This seems to be quite low compared to visitors of a congress, or the Salzburg Festival.

The most popular activities of that kind of visitor are eating, going for a walk, and shopping.

81 percent of all visitors eat their lunch in a restaurant. 76 percent just enjoy to walk through the streets, and look inside the shopping windows. Every second one day visitor wants to see the sights and touristical attractions of Salzburg. 29 percent only come for a shopping tour.

The most popular months for Salzburg tourists to visit the city are August, July and on the third place September.

54 percent come on a day during the week. 46 percent prefer the weekend.

The average access route amounts 64 minutes. The average stay was noticed by 5 hours and 30 minutes. Every second one day visitor comes from the federal state of Salzburg. 30 are Bavarians from Germany, and 20 percent are visitors from the rest of Austria.

31 percent of all expenses were done in the commerce. 28 percent in the gastronomy, and 10 percent for touristical purposes.

-link: Hotels in Salzburg