Life and Death in Austria [MEGATHREAD]

[Syt]

Your new one place stop for news from the land of Mozart, Hitler and Swarovski!



http://www.thelocal.at/20150113/german-axe-killer-lives-with-corpse-for-three-months

German axe killer kept body for three months

On Tuesday evening police arrested a 52-year-old German man in Vienna for the apparent axe murder of his room mate.

Vienna's specialized armed police unit WEGA arrived around 10 pm in the messie apartment building in Aichholzgasse, to find the badly decomposed body of an as-yet unidentified victim, with the axe still embedded in the corpse, and covered with a blanket.

The apartment was totally trashed, according to police, but was still home to the suspect, who is thought to have lived with the body in the living room for around three and a half months.

The suspect surrendered himself peacefully in the bedroom.

While police don't have confirmation of the corpse's identity, they suspect that a 50-year-old migrant worker from Poland who was sharing the apartment became the victim after some kind of dispute.

Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that the 52-year-old suspect had been staying with a friend, and had complained he couldn't sleep at his own apartment because of the body in the living room.  The friend told another friend, who was so disturbed that he contacted the police station in Ottakring.

According to the acquaintance, the German suspect was suffering from a severe mental illness.  He has already confessed to the murder in custody, however the background of the killing and the identity of the victim have not been disclosed.

The Vienna prosecutor's office has ordered an autopsy.

I find it amusing that only the friend of a friend was disturbed enough to call the police.

[Syt]

Also, a man in Styria is collecting girl's braids.

http://www.thelocal.at/20150112/plait-thief-strikes-again-in-styria

Creepy 'plait thief' strikes again in Styria

Police are appealing for witnesses after a strange man cut off a seven-year-old's long plaited hair as she was on her way to school in eastern Styria last week.

Police fear that a man known locally as the "Zopfabschneider" (plait cutter) is back after going quiet for a few years. In April 2011 there were several reported incidents of a man aged between 40 and 50, who spoke the local dialect, approaching young girls and snipping off their plaits.

He was described as balding, with short grey hair and stubble. He was dressed in a black jacket with a neon green lining and blue jeans. He also wore a black woolen hat edged with blue, and brown shoes.

In the latest incident a seven-year-old girl and her nine-year-old brother were on their way to school in Bad Gleichenberg at 7.15am on Thursday when a man aged between 40 and 50 approached them, spoke to them, and walked down the road with them.

As they passed the tourism school he took a pair of silver scissors out of his jacket and cut off the little girl's plait. He then ran away, and the children ran to school and reported what had happened.

[Monoriu]

Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans.  A lot more. 

[Caliga]

Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans.  A lot more.

[The Larch]

Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans.  A lot more.

Friendly tip: don't say to an Austrian that he's German. They can get mad about it. 

[CountDeMoney]

Maybe if Germans acted more like Zee Germans and less like the girl on the Swiss Miss box, Russia wouldn't be as annoying these days. Goddammit.

[Iormlund]

I find it amusing that only the friend of a friend was disturbed enough to call the police.

He was probably a foreigner. 

[Josephus]

I can't believe Austria is still a country.

Didn't someone put an end to that in 1938?

[DontSayBanana]

Friendly tip: don't say to an Austrian that he's German. They can get mad about it. 

Luckily for Mono, Syt's a German living in Austria.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20150115/hitlers-childhood-home-in-legal-battle

Hitler's childhood home in legal battle

Austria's government has made an offer to buy the house where Adolf Hitler spent his early years, and is looking at options that would allow it to expropriate the house should the owner refuse to sell.

The move is the latest in efforts by the government to ensure that the house does not become a shrine for Hitler's admirers.

Municipal officials in Braunau, where the house is located, already complain that it draws neo-Nazi visitors to the town.

Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundböck said on Wednesday that his ministry expects expert opinions by the end of the month on expropriation and other legal options - which he stressed would be a "last resort".

He said that won't be necessary if the owner - a woman whom authorities have refused to identify - accepts a government offer to buy it and agrees to a fair price, as the house is in need of some renovation.

She reportedly has turned down past offers, however.

The Interior Ministry has been the main tenant of the building since 1972,  subletting it to various charitable organisations. But the building has stood empty since a workshop for the mentally disabled moved out more than three years ago.

The approximately 800 square metre property currently costs €4,800 a month. The tenancy agreement states that it may not be used as a museum, or in any historical context, and that the owner must consent to any new tenant.

The most recent suggestion was that it could be used as an adult education centre, but the owner rejected this plan, reportedly because of the renovations the house would need.

So yeah, this has been going on for years. The owner has in recent years refused offers to sell, vetoed any new use of the property, and also refuses to cover costs of necessary repairs and renovations. At the same time, the houses in the street have been under protection since before the war for their historic value.

The only solutions are either dispossession (which is a huge legal fight), or waiting for the house to deteriorate to the point where it's a safety hazard and has to be either repaired by the owner or torn down (which will also be a long legal fight).

The entrance still bears the initials "MB", btw, from when Martin Bormann owned the place. When Hitler drove through Braunau during the Anschluss, eye witnesses say that he didn't look at his birth house even once, and never visited the town after.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20150119/russian-mobster-nabbed-at-vienna-railway-station

Russian mobster nabbed at Vienna railway station

Austrian police commandos have arrested the alleged head of an "extremely brutal" Russian organised crime gang wanted for a string of killings in the north Caucasus, authorities said Monday.

The group "is believed to have carried out numerous murders of government officials and leading police officers and their families from 2008" in North Ossetia, Austrian federal police said.

The alleged victims include the Russian republic's deputy vice-president, the deputy public prosecutor, a mayor and the chief of police, they said in a statement.

The gang's head, Aslan Gagiev, 43, who was arrested at Vienna's main train station on Saturday, allegedly personally shot dead at least six people in 2012-13 and seriously injured three others.

Gagiev fled abroad in 2013 and Interpol Moscow last December informed Austrian authorities that he might be living there, prompting local police to investigate.

Gagiev, who was using a forged Bulgarian passport, was "completely surprised" when he was arrested and did not resist. He will be extradited to Russia, the Austrian police said.

[Syt]

And this is also ongoing:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/17/us-austria-saudi-centre-idUSKBN0KQ0KA20150117

Austria mulls quitting Saudi-backed religious center in Vienna

(Reuters) - Chancellor Werner Faymann has called for Austria to withdraw from a Saudi-sponsored religious dialogue center in Vienna that has become embroiled in controversy over Saudi Arabia's human rights record.

He became the latest and most senior Austrian politician to suggest quitting the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), which was opened in 2012.

Riyadh paid for the baroque palace that houses the center, and is footing its budget for the first three years.

"This center does not fulfill at all the mandate of dialogue and is silent about basic issues of human rights. We will not tolerate this. It is clear to me from today's perspective that we should get out," Faymann told newspaper Der Standard in an interview published on Saturday.

Austria has been particularly critical in recent days over Saudi Arabia's flogging of an atheist and civil rights blogger, sentenced to 1,000 lashes for charges including insulting Islam.

The Foreign Ministry called in the Saudi ambassador to protest, although a second round of public flogging scheduled for Friday was postponed.

Former Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner, the center's deputy head who came under fire last year for comments that appeared to play down Saudi Arabia's human rights record, told the APA news agency she would soon resign from the post.

Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz of the conservative People's Party has called for restraint while he draws up a report by mid-year on whether KAICIID is adhering to its mission.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Roman Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn have also warned against rash action.

Despite Riyadh's funding, KAICIID is not a Saudi entity.

It is backed by an international treaty signed by Austria, Spain and Saudi Arabia. The Vatican is a founding observer and gets representation on its board, which by treaty must have three Christians, three Muslims, a Jew, a Hindu and a Buddhist.

Last November, senior Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders condemned violence by jihadi militants such as Islamic State at a KAICIID conference.

No one at the center was immediately available for comment on Faymann's intervention.

Bandion-Ortner (a former judge) was criticized for saying that the full cover up of women in Saudi-Arabis isn't so bad, and that the dress actually feels comfy, kind of like a judge's robe. Oh, and telling critics that it's not like there's public flogging/executions every Friday.

[CountDeMoney]

and that the dress actually feels comfy, kind of like a judge's robe.

If only we all could walk around with nothing on underneath.  Think how liberating.

[Tonitrus]

Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans.  A lot more.

Friendly tip: don't say to an Austrian that he's German. They can get mad about it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsVGtLAYRDA

[Syt]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/11359867/British-paratrooper-charged-with-rape-of-six-year-old-Austrian-girl.html

British paratrooper charged with rape of six-year-old Austrian girl

Unnamed British paratrooper charged with rape and grievous sexual abuse of a minor after allegedly climbing into girl's bedroom while in Austria on week of ski training

Austrian prosecutors said on Wednesday that they have charged a British soldier for allegedly breaking into a local family's house and sexually abusing their six-year-old daughter.

The paratrooper, 30, who has not been named, has been charged with rape and grievous sexual abuse of a minor, said Hansjoerg Mayr, public prosecutor in the western Austrian state of Tyrol.
"The trial will start on March 10," Mr Mayr said. The defendant faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The soldier, who was taking part in a week of ski training in the Alps, was tackled by the girl's father in the house in Neustift during the alleged incident late last year, and has been in Austrian custody ever since.

He is serving with 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.

An Army spokesman said in December, shortly after his arrest: "The Army is aware of the arrest and detention of a soldier in Neustift, Austria, on the morning of 29 November. This is a matter for the Austrian authorities and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."

According to the Austrian newspaper Heute, the girl's father caught the "half-naked" soldier in the act of attacking his daughter, and "beat him bloody" before police arrived.

The soldier broke into a house in the small town Neustift, in the Stubaital valley, an area of ski resorts south of Innsbruck, gaining access to the girl's bedroom through a window.

Neustift, which has fewer than 5,000 permanent inhabitants, attracts more than a million overnight visitors each year.

Two things:
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
2. This seems like a weird assault - did he walk around town peeking into windows looking for a sleeping little girl? I didn't see anything on whether the soldier knew the family, or on which floor he broke in.