Franz Fuchs
Encyclopedia
Franz Fuchs was a xenophobic
Austrian terrorist
. Between 1993 and 1997 he killed four people and injured 15, some of them seriously, using three improvised explosive device
s (IEDs) and five waves of 25 mailbombs in total.
Fuchs' mailbomb campaigns and his personality features are according to criminal psychologists, who later characterized him, as a highly intelligent but socially inept loner. His designated targets were people he either considered to be foreigners, or organisations and individuals "friendly to foreigners."
s. Early victims were the priest August Janisch (because of his help for refugee
s), Silvana Meixner (ORF
journalist for minorities
), and the Mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk
, who lost a large part of his left hand in the explosion. Other mailbombs which were discovered and neutralized were targeted at Helmut Schüller (humanitarian organisation Caritas
), the Green
politicians Madeleine Petrovic
and Terezija Stoisits
, Wolfgang Gombocz and Minister Johanna Dohnal.
While attempting to disarm an improvised explosive device
found at a bilingual school in Carinthia
, police officer Theo Kelz lost both his hands on 24 August 1994. (Kelz subsequently became the first Austrian to receive a double hand transplant, and made an impressive recovery.)
Franz Fuchs claimed responsibility for his attacks in a letter to the foreign minister of Slovenia
in September 1994, in the name of the "Salzburger Eidgenossenschaft - Bajuwarische Befreiungsarmee" (Bajuvarian Liberation Army). In a number of subsequent letters, he tried to give the impression of a larger organisation with different units. However, from the second wave of mailbombs in October 1994 not a single one went off.
On 5 February 1995, four Roma were killed in Oberwart
with an improvised explosive device
which was attached to a sign that read "Roma zurück nach Indien" ("Roma back to India.")
Between June 1995 and December 1995 he sent three more waves of mailbombs. Wave number three was targeted at TV host Arabella Kiesbauer
, Dietrich Szameit (vice-mayor of Lübeck
) and a dating agency
. Kiesbauer and Szameit did not open their letters themselves and were not hurt. Wave number four was targeted at two medics and a refugee aid worker, Maria Loley. One medic from Syria
and Maria Loley were injured; the other mailbomb, targeted at a South Korean medic was discovered and neutralized. Two mailbombs of wave number five detonated early in mailboxes, the remaining two were discovered and neutralized. This was the last incident before Fuchs was arrested.
On 26 February 2000, Fuchs was found hanged
with the cable of his electric razor in his prison cell at Graz-Karlau Prison
. The prison physician stated suicide
.
A thorough search of the two rooms in his parents' house where Fuchs had lived revealed more IEDs but no traces of the equipment which he would have needed to produce and handle the unstable explosives (including mercury fulminate
and nitroglycerol) contained in his IEDs.
Most of Fuchs' "confession letters" exhibited an aptitude at verbal expression for which he was not known. Some had referred to internal affairs in police procedures that were not accessible to the general public.
Even more doubts remain concerning Fuchs' death. How exactly a man without hands (Fuchs consistently refused having his advanced prosthetic arms fitted to him) and under almost constant video surveillance could accomplish the manipulations required to convert an electric cable into a noose
sufficiently robust for successful self-hanging was never properly explained. Moreover, no prisoner (especially not an obvious borderline personality disorder
case with a very recent record of suicidal behaviour) is supposed to be in possession of anything (including belts and even shoestrings) that could serve this purpose—most certainly not an electric cable.
Franz Fuchs - Ein Patriot, the role of Franz Fuchs was played by Austrian Karl Markovics
.
In computer games Hitman: Codename 47
and Hitman: Contracts
Franz Fuchs is an Austrian terrorist who served in Hitlerjugend as a youngster.
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
Austrian terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. Between 1993 and 1997 he killed four people and injured 15, some of them seriously, using three improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
s (IEDs) and five waves of 25 mailbombs in total.
Fuchs' mailbomb campaigns and his personality features are according to criminal psychologists, who later characterized him, as a highly intelligent but socially inept loner. His designated targets were people he either considered to be foreigners, or organisations and individuals "friendly to foreigners."
Mail bombs and IEDs
In December 1993 he started his first wave of mailbombMailbomb
A letter bomb, also called parcel bomb, mail bomb or post bomb, is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber...
s. Early victims were the priest August Janisch (because of his help for refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s), Silvana Meixner (ORF
ORF (broadcaster)
Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF, is the Austrian national public service broadcaster.Funded from a combination of a television licence fees and revenue from limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media...
journalist for minorities
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
), and the Mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk
Helmut Zilk
Helmut Zilk was an Austrian journalist and politician in the Austrian Social Democratic Party.- Biography :...
, who lost a large part of his left hand in the explosion. Other mailbombs which were discovered and neutralized were targeted at Helmut Schüller (humanitarian organisation Caritas
Caritas (charity)
Caritas Internationalis is a confederate of 164 Roman Catholic relief, development and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide....
), the Green
Austrian Green Party
The Greens – The Green Alternative is a political party in the Austrian parliament.The party was formed in 1986 with the name Grüne Alternative, following the merger of the more conservative Green party Vereinte Grüne Österreichs and the more progressive party Alternative Liste Österreichs The...
politicians Madeleine Petrovic
Madeleine Petrovic
Madeleine Petrovic is an Austrian politician. From 1994 to 1996 she was federal spokesperson of the Austrian Green Party....
and Terezija Stoisits
Terezija Stoisits
thumb|Terezija Stoisits, 2006Terezija Stoisits [] is an Austrian politician of the Green Party. Since July 2007 she serves as an ombudswoman of the Republic of Austria...
, Wolfgang Gombocz and Minister Johanna Dohnal.
While attempting to disarm an improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
found at a bilingual school in Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
, police officer Theo Kelz lost both his hands on 24 August 1994. (Kelz subsequently became the first Austrian to receive a double hand transplant, and made an impressive recovery.)
Franz Fuchs claimed responsibility for his attacks in a letter to the foreign minister of Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
in September 1994, in the name of the "Salzburger Eidgenossenschaft - Bajuwarische Befreiungsarmee" (Bajuvarian Liberation Army). In a number of subsequent letters, he tried to give the impression of a larger organisation with different units. However, from the second wave of mailbombs in October 1994 not a single one went off.
On 5 February 1995, four Roma were killed in Oberwart
Oberwart
Oberwart or Felsőőr is a town in Burgenland in southeast Austria on the banks of the Pinka River, and the capital of the district of the same name...
with an improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
which was attached to a sign that read "Roma zurück nach Indien" ("Roma back to India.")
Between June 1995 and December 1995 he sent three more waves of mailbombs. Wave number three was targeted at TV host Arabella Kiesbauer
Arabella Kiesbauer
Cosima Arabella-Asereba Kiesbauer is a TV presenter, writer and actress. She grew up in Vienna with her grandmother after her mother Hannelore and her father Sammy Ammissah separated.While she studied journalism and dramaturgy she started to work as presenter with the Austrian public service...
, Dietrich Szameit (vice-mayor of Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
) and a dating agency
Dating agency
A dating agency is a business which acts as a service for matchmaking between potential couples, with a view toward romance and/or marriage between them.-Variations:...
. Kiesbauer and Szameit did not open their letters themselves and were not hurt. Wave number four was targeted at two medics and a refugee aid worker, Maria Loley. One medic from Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Maria Loley were injured; the other mailbomb, targeted at a South Korean medic was discovered and neutralized. Two mailbombs of wave number five detonated early in mailboxes, the remaining two were discovered and neutralized. This was the last incident before Fuchs was arrested.
Arrest, trial and death
At this stage Fuchs had obviously become highly paranoid. On 1 October 1997 near his residence in Gralla, he followed two women in a car whom he believed were observing him. When police attempted to question him on what they believed was a routine case of stalking, he produced another IED which he had kept in his car, and detonated it in his hands in front of the policemen. His suicide attempt failed, but he lost both hands, and also injured a nearby police officer. Fuchs was arrested without giving further resistance and, after a trial which many in Austria felt had fallen short of making all attempts to uncover deep details, was sentenced to life in prison on 10 March 1999. Through his unruly behavior during the trial, Fuchs had repeatedly forced his removal from court proceedings.On 26 February 2000, Fuchs was found hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
with the cable of his electric razor in his prison cell at Graz-Karlau Prison
Graz-Karlau Prison
Graz-Karlau Prison is located in the city of Graz in the Austrian state of Styria. With a capacity of 552 inmates, Graz-Karlau is the third largest prison in Austria.-History:...
. The prison physician stated suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
Unresolved questions
Although the case was officially closed after Fuchs had been sentenced, and although the "Bajuvarian Liberation Army" was determined to never have existed as a terrorist organization in the meaning of the term, doubts remained whether Fuchs had actually committed his actions without any support or tacit knowledge from sympathizers.A thorough search of the two rooms in his parents' house where Fuchs had lived revealed more IEDs but no traces of the equipment which he would have needed to produce and handle the unstable explosives (including mercury fulminate
Mercury(II) fulminate
Mercury fulminate, or Hg2, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction and shock. It is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and blasting caps...
and nitroglycerol) contained in his IEDs.
Most of Fuchs' "confession letters" exhibited an aptitude at verbal expression for which he was not known. Some had referred to internal affairs in police procedures that were not accessible to the general public.
Even more doubts remain concerning Fuchs' death. How exactly a man without hands (Fuchs consistently refused having his advanced prosthetic arms fitted to him) and under almost constant video surveillance could accomplish the manipulations required to convert an electric cable into a noose
Noose
A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot slides to make the loop collapsible. Knots used for making nooses include the running bowline, the tarbuck knot, and the slip knot.-Use in hanging:...
sufficiently robust for successful self-hanging was never properly explained. Moreover, no prisoner (especially not an obvious borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person , characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the...
case with a very recent record of suicidal behaviour) is supposed to be in possession of anything (including belts and even shoestrings) that could serve this purpose—most certainly not an electric cable.
Media
In 2007, the criminal case was portrayed in the docudramaDocudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
Franz Fuchs - Ein Patriot, the role of Franz Fuchs was played by Austrian Karl Markovics
Karl Markovics
Karl Markovics is an Austrian actor and film director.He starred as Salomon Sorowitsch in Stefan Ruzowitzky's 2007 film The Counterfeiters, which was awarded the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for that year...
.
In computer games Hitman: Codename 47
Hitman: Codename 47
Hitman: Codename 47 is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the first entry in the Hitman series, followed by Hitman 2: Silent Assassin....
and Hitman: Contracts
Hitman: Contracts
Hitman: Contracts is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the third entry in the Hitman series, followed by Hitman: Blood Money....
Franz Fuchs is an Austrian terrorist who served in Hitlerjugend as a youngster.