Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
Two days before Christmas, on 22 December 1923, 12-year-old Grete Pilz was found by the police, utterly terrified, in the freezing cold on the Wilheminenberg in Vienna’s 16th district, Ottakring. Following an examination by the medical officer, who found bruises on her buttocks, it was clear that Grete had evidently been severely abused. The subsequent police interview brought to light some appalling facts. Grete had been living for some time with Edith Cadivec, who also called herself Edith de Cadwéc or Baroness Cadwé, depending on her mood. Grete’s governess, teacher and foster mother had been running a ‘private school for modern languages’ in her top-floor flat at 9 Biberstraße since 1916. Grete confessed that she was regularly punished in Edith’s drawing room whenever Edith had male visitors. Four days earlier, she had been so severely beaten that she could neither sit nor stand. As Grete was being privately tutored by Edith and did not attend school, nobody noticed the abuse. Grete stated that Edith received 300,000 crowns from the gentlemen in exchange for allowing them to watch her being punished. Edith set Grete unsolvable tasks so that she could then punish her. Grete was allowed to choose the instrument of punishment herself; she would then place herself over Edith’s knee – either naked or wearing a pair of fabric knickers made of white glacé leather – whilst Edith sat in an armchair. Grete had to count the blows out loud. After the punishment, she had to remain kneeling in the room, naked. She then had to kiss Edith’s hands; Edith comforted her and gave her sweets before lighting a cigarette and smoking it with relish. One of the gentlemen then knelt before Edith and pressed his face into her lap. He loved licking her there. The gentlemen watched the whole scene from an adjoining room. Alongside Grete, there were three other children, including a boy, all of whom were being punished by Edith. All the children came from the lower social classes, which is why she feared no one would find out. Even Edith’s own daughter was a victim of her sadistic displays. Following this shocking testimony, Edith’s flat in the top floor was searched immediately. Alongside numerous instruments of punishment, such as leather whips and strap whips, a Spanish cane, a birch rod, a horse’s tail, as well as sadomasochistic photographs, catalogues and letters were found. Edith possessed a considerable arsenal of instruments of punishment that left nothing to be desired for her clients, who craved the torment of children. But the most important discovery was a small booklet containing partly coded entries, as well as the real names of Edith’s clients and their daily takings – and these were considerable. Edith was arrested that very evening, along with some of her regular clients. These were the foreign policy expert and Baron Leopold von Chlumecky; the wealthy carpet dealer Paul Kotanyi, who was staying at the Grand Hotel Vienna and introduced himself to Edith as ‘the school inspector’; the university lecturer in ophthalmology, Ernst Bachstez; and 27-year-old Walter Taussig, the only son of a filthy-rich industrialist. The latter would masturbate whilst a child was being punished. All these gentlemen came from the highest social circles and took perverse pleasure in watching a child being cruelly tormented. Naturally, the crime committed against innocent children for the sexual gratification of upper-class gentlemen caused a massive scandal in post-war Vienna. The expression ‘cadivezzln’ became part of everyday language. The spectacular trial of the sadists took place at the end of February 1924 at the Vienna Regional Court behind closed doors. The distinguished gentlemen had taken precautions and secured their defence through prominent figures who testified in their favour. Baron Leopold Chlumecky called the esteemed Prince of Babenhausen as a character witness; university lecturer Bachstez had the psychiatrist Julius Wagner-Jahregg at his side, whilst the industrialist’s son presented five medical reports on his mental state, including a certificate from the psychoanalyst Ludwig Jekels. Edith herself steadfastly maintained her innocence. She had acted ‘animo corrigendi’, with educational intent. Why, however, she needed a paying audience to do so was a question she could not answer. Edith was no beauty, but she was clever. Edith was born on 27 November 1879 in Sankt Martin, the daughter of a railway official. At the age of 11, she was sent to a boarding school in Graz run by the School Sisters, where corporal punishment was standard practice. Edith was subjected to corporal punishment until she was 17. From 1894 to 1898, she attended the Ursulines’ Teacher Training College in Graz, from which she graduated successfully. In 1904 she was working as a teacher at the Lycée de filles de Notre-Dame in Paris, before becoming a governess in Viennese town houses. In 1909, Edith met Count Franz Schlick through a newspaper advertisement; he enjoyed wearing women’s clothing. Their daughter, Edith-Françoise, was conceived whilst she sat astride Franz in the forester’s lodge on the count’s Bohemian estate; he was strapped to a punishment bench until he ejaculated inside her. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1915, Edith travelled to Vienna, the metropolis on the Danube, where she passed herself off as a widowed countess. A year later, she opened her language school, until she was arrested. The trial lasted three days until, on 1 March, a lay judges’ panel sentenced Edith to six years’ hard labour, aggravated by one day of fasting every quarter, for the crime of defilement and the crime of seduction into fornication in a relationship of dependency. When Edith heard the verdict, she cried out, “I am innocent!” Of the men, only the carpet dealer Kotanyi and Taussig, the industrialist’s son, received suspended sentences; the others were acquitted. However, after two years, Edith was released from St. Pölten prison as early as December 1925, following an amnesty granted to her by Federal President Hainisch. One would have to be a real scoundrel to think ill of this. Incidentally, according to her account, her foster child Grete was sent to the Luisenheim, a home for children at risk. Edith herself caused another scandal with the publication of her book Mein Schicksal – Bekenntnisse von Edith Cadwé (My Fate – Confessions of Edith Cadwé), as its detailed descriptions of sexual practices led it to be regarded as the bible for sadists and masochists. In 1932, the follow-up volume Eros – Sinn meines Lebens was published, in which Edith described the years following her release from prison. Edith herself changed her name to Edith Christally in 1927; she was placed under partial guardianship in 1940. Edith was destitute and elderly, and the local court granted her legal aid. From 1951 to 1952, she was admitted to the ‘Am Steinhof’ psychiatric hospital and care home. A year later, at the age of 73, she claimed compensation for her imprisonment, but without success. After that, all trace of Edith was lost; what became of her remains unknown.
