According to the public prosecutor’s office, 58,000 depictions of child abuse were found on actor Florian Teichtmeister. His lawyer Michael Rami called it a purely “digital crime”. “From a child protection point of view, that’s cynical,” says psychologist Hedwig Wölfl from the child protection organization “Die Möwe”. “The legal distinction is one thing, what it means for the children or young people affected is simply a most serious violation of limits and simply violence.” You shouldn’t trivialize that with such wording.
One or two affected children per class
“This one case of a prominent person, who is now becoming known in the media, faces a huge number of unreported cases,” says Wölfl. The “seagull” would accompany several hundred cases of serious sexual violence every year. “We have to assume that a lot of cases will never be discovered.” One has to assume that “in every school class there are one or two children who experience sexual violence in a criminally relevant context and that until they grow up, up to the age of 18”. The percentage of pedophiles is very low and the number of those who become perpetrators is even lower. Most abusers do not have pedophilic tendencies, they are concerned with abuse of power, which they commit on a sexual level.
Ruzowitzky: Understanding of “Corsage” maker
Stefan Ruzowitzky, who won an Oscar himself, understands “Corsage” maker Marie Kreutzer, who did not withdraw the film in which Florian Teichtmeister plays Emperor Franz Joseph. He himself would not have known how he would react in such a case. From a distance, it is also incomprehensible how early the filmmakers realized what had happened. “A lot of people must have noticed that,” said Ruzowitzky, who didn’t know himself, “some knew more, some didn’t know anything”.
Cut out Teichtmeister “practically impossible”
The director believes that cutting out Teichtmeister afterwards is practically impossible with such a big role and “probably also a legal problem”. Director Sebastian Brauneis, on the other hand, points out that there are “overshoot reserves” for funding that could have been used for exactly that purpose, “unless you were so shocked at the time (…) that you didn’t realize it was aware of what that means”. But he could only speculate about that.
Psychologist: Interrupt productions
Psychologist Wölfl advises interrupting all productions until all allegations have been clarified if it turns out that the public prosecutor’s office is investigating an employee during an ongoing production. You can also ask the public prosecutor’s office whether the allegations are intensifying. It is a “typical dynamic” that afterwards everyone would say that something seemed strange to them and that rumors had made the rounds. “This is almost always the case with all forms of violence against children.” Repression is a protective mechanism for those affected, while for everyone else not looking is “out of place”.
Hardly any maximum penalties imposed
Harder penalties are currently being demanded from many sides, from the Chancellor down. “I think it would be important to exhaust the range of penalties that we already have. They are far from being exhausted,” criticizes “Möwe” psychologist Hedwig Wölfl. More important than higher penalties would be protection officers, child protection concepts and clear codes of conduct “where every actor, every director signs” and an Austria-wide child protection law.
Where victims of child abuse can find help:
Wired advice: 147
The Seagull: 01 532 1515, online at: www.die-moewe.at
Advice and emergency phone Pro Juventute: 058 618 80 80
The White Ring/Call for Victims: 0800 112 112