If Austria has a brand it is the fresh Alpine air. The Fritzl trial is providing the exact opposite: the stench of a moist, underventilated cellar that Josef Fritzl used as a dungeon for what he called his “second family”.

The jurors flinched when they were offered samples of material from the cellar where the only fresh air came through a narrow duct and through cracks in the brickwork. It was not an easy moment for the eight men and women, just and true. And the whole spectacle – the reminder, yet again, of a dark side to the land of skis, snow and The Sound of Music – is making Austria recoil.

“Lock him up!” screamed the tabloid Kronen Zeitung, and that is probably a fair reflection of Austrian opinions on Fritzl and his crimes. He is seen not only as an abhorrent person but also as the face of Austria they would rather forget. So the sight of Fritzl hiding his face went down well. “He’s got a lot to be ashamed of,” said Andreas Kralinger, serving up overpriced and lukewarm spaghetti to reporters in St Pölten. “We’ll all be happy if he is never seen again.”

Austria’s judicial system seems ready to oblige. The trial has been trimmed to five days and witness testimony is expected to be over after four. Much of the testimony will be forensic science reports, the analysis of psychiatrists and a statement by a surveyor describing the dungeon – yet all of this will be held in camera.

Austrians are divided between those who complain that the media is disturbing the peace by asking questions that should have been muffled, and those who sense that the whole story is rarely if ever told. Compressing an important trial into a few short days and barring the press may be intended to guard the privacy of victims – but the many conspiracy theorists reckon that something important is being quietly buried.

As far as ordinary Austrians are concerned the public trial of Fritzl effectively ended yesterday lunchtime when reporters were excluded from the courtroom until the verdict is pronounced. Thanks to his blue folder they have not even been able to see Fritzl’s face and his bulging, penetrating eyes.

“This is a secret trial,” said the respected columnist Ricardo Peyerl, “and talk of protecting the victims is really just an excuse for keeping everything in the dark.” Protesters outside the courtroom made a similar point: “End the cover-up!” announced one banner.

The curiosity about the Fritzl case is so intense that there is wall-to-wall television coverage on all Austrian channels. In Vienna, office workers crowded round TV sets for the first nonglimpse of Fritzl since he was arrested almost a year ago. But instead of a national debate – about how Austrians looked away while Fritzl was committing his crimes – the country is getting something of a circus. Performance artists lobbying for children’s rights and against paedophilia adorned themselves with plastic baby dolls and staged a reenactment of the drama outside the courthouse. There was simply nothing else for them to film.

The director Hupsi Kramer, standing outside the courthouse, said that he intended to make a film about the affair. “Better it be made by Austrians than by Hollywood,” he said, “otherwise we’ll get some synthetic American actress playing Elisabeth Fritzl.”

This is the Austrian, or at least the Viennese way: to mock and grandstand rather than to engage in any activity that could bring about political or social change. “The world looks to Austria – that’s what the headlines always say,” said Michael Hufnagel, of the Kurier Zeitung, “but the world does not get to see very much. It can, however, hear that the discussion about Josef Fritzl is not a discussion at all, because everyone has the same opinion.”

Andreas Benderl, manager of a nearby internet café, said that Fritzl should be locked up immediately so that he and other Austrians could breathe fresh air again. “We should throw away the key, just like he did to his kids,” he said.

Living underground

August 28, 1984 Josef Fritzl drugs his daughter Elisabeth and locks her in a cellar under their house in Amstetten, Austria
1988-2002 Seven children are born to Elisabeth. One, a boy, dies soon after birth. Three are kept in the cellar, three are sent to live with Joseph Fritzl’s family
April 19, 2008 Elizabeth’s eldest child, Kerstin, 19, is admitted to hospital. Doctors notify police, who issue an appeal to Elisabeth
April 25 Elisabeth, 42, sees the appeal on television and begs Fritzl to take her to the hospital
April 26 Fritzl takes Elisabeth to the hospital and releases the “cellar children”, claiming Elisabeth has returned home
April 28 Fritzl confesses to imprisoning his daughter and fathering her children. He admits burning the dead baby’s body
November 13 Fritzl charged with murder, rape, assault, incest, false imprisonment and slavery

Source: Times archives

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