When I first proposed to write this text I was actually thinking about the infamous Fritzl case in Austria, this quiet and unsuspicious man who had held his daughter locked up in the basement of his house for a quarter of a century, together with the children that stem from their incestuous relationship. If I wouldn’t have known the recent cases of child abuse in Ireland, and the following reactions of the Catholic Church, especially in Spain, I might have commented widely on another Austrian case,
that of Natascha Kampusch who fled from her kidnapper just some months before, after being his hostage for eight years. And I would probably have linked these examples with Austria’s general repressive attitude, the remains of the Biedermeier-culture that have managed to survive the turmoil of two great wars, the Economic Miracle and the opening of an iron curtain that had shaded the country for four decades.

In fact, I intended to garnish this text with the title “Fuck the children”, referring to a tasteless joke that we liked to tell in Austria in the early 90s, featuring the American president at that time, Bill Clinton, and the Austrian cardinal Hans Hermann Groër who had been accused of abusing minors in his time as Benedict Padre:

Clinton takes Groër, accompanied by two young ministrants, on a ride on his Air Force One Jet. Suddenly, the pilot appears in the cabin, with a parachute in his hand, and proclaims that the plane will crash. “We only have three parachutes,” he says, “and this one is mine,” as he opens the door and jumps out. Groër looks at Clinton and asks who should take advantage of the remaining two livesaving devices. “You and me”, replies Clinton, without any doubt. “But, the children…?” asks the Cardinal. “Oh, fuck
the children!” – “Ah, so there is still time for that…?”

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