how could it get so far? The fourth month of this year is just over and Austria has already counted nine feminicides. The last name that had to be added to this sad list is that of a mother of two: Marija M. The nurse from Vienna leaves behind two children aged twelve and three.
As a nurse, she devotedly cared for her patients, and in her role as the mother of a teenage daughter and a young son, she was completely absorbed. As a loving partner, she stood behind the father of her two children – even when he became known as the “Bierwirt”, who led a headline-grabbing trial against Sigrid Maurer or was arrested in front of his restaurant in September 2020 for rioting while drunk.
Victim wanted to draw a line
Only recently, Marija M. could no longer have endured these antics of her partner. According to information from the “Krone”, the 35-year-old recently drew a line and separated from the 42-year-old.
On Thursday evening it came to the bloody drama: The “Bierwirt” shot Marija M. – according to residents in front of the children, the mother of the victim and a neighbor – with a head shot in her apartment in Winarskyhof in Brigittenau. A little later, the drunk Albert L. is arrested in the courtyard of the residential complex with the murder weapon in one hand and a vodka bottle in the other.
“It’s so terrible. Marija was such a positive person. I only know her laughing. In the morning we did laundry together, ”said a neighbor at the“ Krone ”local inspection in Winarskyhof.
What remains now is horror at the cruelty of the bloody act, incomprehension for the ninth woman murder this year – and last but not least, deep mourning for Marija M. – a mother who had to die because she had to live her life without a violent, police-known man wanted to continue.
Women who experience violence can find help and information
- at the women’s helpline on 0800/222 555 (free of charge and around the clock) and at www.frauenhelpline.at
- at the Association of Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters (AÖF) www.aoef.at
- at the Vienna Intervention Center against Violence in the Family: www.interventionsstelle-wien.at
Victims of acts of violence and crimes can contact the victim protection organization Weißer Ring on 0800 / 112-112 and at www.opfernotruf.at
If there is a threat of acute violence, call the police emergency number immediately on 133 or 112. The deaf and hearing impaired can call for help by SMS on 0800/133 133.
Comment from “Krone” editor Gabriela Gödel: It was a murder with a run-up
The alleged perpetrator. A man who first expressed his propensity for violence in words. With disgusting, in the truest sense of the word “powerful” words. Against a politician. You, Sigrid Maurer, resisted. Vehemently. She has the position and voice to do this that many women who are victims of violence do not have. How can Sigrid Maurer be doing now, knowing that this man had a gun? And your address?
His spiral of violence continued, he should have been on trial again next week. He threatened someone with a stun gun. Now everyone asks himself: Why is there no report on his willingness to use violence? Why wasn’t he admitted because of the danger? This is only possible if the offense would be punished with more than a year in prison.
The woman who was killed, “his” wife, testified for him during the trial. That he was a good father. And yet she parted with him. That should have been her “death sentence” – as for all nine dead women this year alone! Sad common ground: Almost all perpetrators are known to the courts!
We know that the time of separation and divorce is a particularly delicate one for women. They need protection, help and care. Currently with a maximum of four hours of “supervision”! There is no money for more. Four hours for a life that is falling apart? That is not enough! Action is now the order of the day. By means of comprehensive education for men, comprehensive protection for women!