The Global Sociology Blog

Since the initial articles and my initial post on this story, there has been a flurry of articles as more details have emerged. Nothing that invalidates my patriarchal interpretation, though.

The first questions that emerged regarded who knew what? Did F.’s wife know? His children? His tenants? The neighbors? In particular, according to Der Spiegel, the police considered the probability of accomplices, since the dungeon setup is so complex, with electronic locks of different types and a steel door so heavy that no one man could have installed it alone. But so far, this is only speculation since the old guy ain’t talking while he is in protective custody.

Then comes the question of collective guilt.

“More than 200 people came to Amstetten’s main square on Tuesday evening and lit candles for the victims of the family tragedy. The event was organized by a spontaneously founded citizens’ initiative. Earlier the town’s mayor had said: “We want to show that this is not a town of criminals and to counteract the impression of Amstetten which has arisen.”

“We have been surrounded by shock, sadness, anger, perhaps even hate in the last few days,” says local priest Peter Bösendorfer. “We were forced to recognize that there is something in our town that we cannot comprehend.” The town’s residents now had to “help and show solidarity so that a life is possible for the children and women.”

That will not be easy, because in a town of 23,000 like Amstetten, “everyone constantly runs into each other,” says Lina Angermeier. “None of the (F.) family can really ever live here again — if they want to be free, not only from fear, but also from allegations.”“

And this is particularly interesting because of the history of this town (hat tip to commenter Joe), as stated in the Ground Report:

“Now it has come to light that the sleepy town of Amstetten, where the horrifying tragedy took place, has a dark past. Amstetten was the site of two subcamps of the Mauthausen-Gusen NaziMauthausen-Gusen complex camps were the last concentration camps to close in as Hitler’s Nazi army was defeated in World War II.” concentration camp complex named Frauenlager and Mannerlager. The

On of the camps was especially for women and unspeakable horrors were committed there. The camps were staffed by local people and were still open when F. was 10 years old. How much impact does this collective past have on socialization in this town? It is impossible to know and it is clear that the authorities and the government are trying very hard to individualize this crime, that is, to avoid any notion of collective responsibility or collective guilt in this (via Liberation).

What is embarrassing though, is that the man had already been found guilty of rape and attempted rape in the 1960s and was sentenced to 18 months in prison (18 months for rape??). The police is also investigating a possible connection with a 1986 murder. With all this, one has to wonder why he was allowed to adopt and foster three of his daughter’s children (which he fathered but no one knew that at the time).

What is more appalling, of course, is the information that has emerged on the man himself: the omnipotent patriarch he tried to become. First, he raped his daughter regularly in front of their children (how can this not be seen as the ultimate representation of power?). Second, he threatened his prisoners with gas poisoning if something happened to him (gas poisoning… one cannot help but think that this evokes the concentration camps), if they tried to harm him or escape.

According to testimonies, F. behaved like a tyrant and ran his households (both of them) like a military unit (big surprise that this guy would be a control freak). Via Le Nouvel Observateur, F.’s sister-in-law stated that he never tolerated being contradicted and that everyone was afraid of him, which is why her sister (F’s wife) never went against him.

“Christine [the sister-in-law] said: “He behaved like a drill instructor with his children. They had to stop whatever they were doing and stand still when he would enter the room — even if they were in the middle of playing some game.”" (The Guardian)

The product of this monster is a deeply traumatized, and financially ruined, family as the old bastard is leaving them only millions in debt and enormous health problems (the Guardian):

“Then there is the ‘downstairs family’ – Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, five – who remained in the tiny prison, never once seeing daylight and knowing only four other faces in their whole lives. Kerstin is comatose in hospital, suffering from renal failure. It was her life-threatening illness that would eventually betray Fritzl’s monstrous secret.

Her two brothers are stooped, anaemic and barely able to communicate in anything other than their own peculiar growling language. A seventh child, Alexander’s twin, died three days after birth, his body incinerated by Fritzl in the house’s furnace.

Perhaps the worst fears are for Elisabeth. She is said to be ‘deeply distressed’, agreeing to talk to doctors and detectives only on the promise that she will have no further contact with her father. At the age of only 42, her crudely cut hair is completely white, her lips are shrunken around toothless gums, her face is deeply lined, her body painfully thin, her skin almost transparent. According to a forensic psychiatrist, Dr Guntram Knecht, she has been ‘destroyed by all means’. Of all those Fritzl damaged, she was the only one to know she was a victim. If she can live with her children again, ‘it will be because of her desire to be a mother,’ he said.” (…)

Today the family is slowly acclimatising in a special area set aside for them at the clinic. Elisabeth and her mother are said to have have wept for hours together, with Rosemarie saying over and over: ‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea.’

After their initial delights at seeing the sun for the first time, and riding in cars, Stefan and Felix can clamber back into the dark confines of a special container set up in the clinic to help them adjust to life outside.

Felix often crawls in there, and sits humming an unknown melody to himself. Police believe his mother used it to soothe him to sleep.

‘It can’t be called a good-night song really, as there was never any night in the cellar,’ said Chief Inspector Etz.”"

All the while, F.s would take vacations with male friends to Thailand (sexual tourism, anyone?) and buy lingerie obviously too small for his wife that even his friends noticed.

Monster.