Tatort Lilienfeld: The second part of the tragedy

"You are approaching again, cycling figures / Who once showed themselves early to the dull gaze. / Will I try to hold on to you this time? Do I still feel my heart inclined to that delusion?" freely adapted from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I - Zueignung

Yes, he tries again. Not only does he try, he succeeds. By the book, with a lawyer and an injunction. We're talking about Dr Rudolf Gürtler, the leaseholder of the Muckenkogel hunting ground. Almost two and a half years have already passed since mountain biker Simon Tischhart was convicted of a very special offence by Dr Gürtler on 8 September 2013: Cycling on forest tracks. Even in the realm of the 2-metre rule, nobody could be prosecuted for this.

However, the legal situation in Austria is different. Paragraph §33 of the current Forestry Act reads as follows:

"(1) Anyone may [...] enter (the) forest for recreational purposes and stay there. [...] (3) Any use going beyond para. 1, such as camping in the dark, camping, driving or riding, is only permitted with the consent of the forest owner, in the case of forest roads with the consent of the person responsible for maintaining the forest road."

Driving and therefore cycling in the forest is only permitted with the consent of the forest owner. And it is precisely this explicit permission that is missing on the Muckenkogel, just like in most other forests in Austria. Of course, the law dates back to 1975 and at that time almost nobody thought about cycling in the forest as a popular sport and so bikers were allowed to ride undisturbed for a long time. At most, this violation of the law was regarded as a trivial offence. Until the Tischhart case against Dr Gürtler caused a furore in 2013. Instead of giving in and paying the lawyer's fees and signing a cease-and-desist declaration, Tischhart decided to serve the sentence in prison.

Another lawsuit against a biker

Now it has happened again. Dr Gürtler has once again filed a cease-and-desist action. A biker from Vienna is to sign a declaration to cease and desist in which she and Gürtler's lawyers' fees totalling 425.35 euros are to be paid. Gürtler had caught the defendant biker in the act of riding on a route that was not authorised for mountain bikers. The grounds for the lawsuit are that the rutting red deer were disturbed by the mountain biker and that the hunting tenant suffered damages of around 15,000 euros as a result. The Gürtler party is obviously not interested in an out-of-court settlement; the first hearing will take place on 16 March.

What's left for us to do as mountain bikers? Not much. Although Dr Gürtler is certainly a special case, he is by no means the real problem in this situation. A few years ago, he witnessed what he saw as a "speeding" mountain biker crashing into a cow. The cow's injuries were so severe that she had to be treated as an inpatient, whereupon Dr Gürtler reported the biker to the police. So it's no wonder that Gürtler now has reservations about mountain bikers. And anyone who uses clichés and insults or threatens Gürtler is not only putting themselves on the same level as people who invariably consider mountain bikers to be reckless, raving, troublemaking bullies, they are also ignoring the core of the problem.

Dr Gürtler is right. It's as simple as that. It is true that an agreement has now been reached on the Muckenkogel to temporarily open the route from March to October at different times of day between 7 am and 7 pm. The infamous "Green Gate" (photo above) has given way to a barrier. In addition, mountain biking on the Muckenkogel remains prohibited by law. So you can hardly argue that this ban is nonsensical or even illegal, but then point the finger at the plaintiff. The result would probably only be increasing radicalisation - on both sides.

It is the completely outdated forestry law that generally prohibits driving in the forest, not the lawsuit-friendly Dr Gürtler. And so it is completely wrong to see the plaintiff as morally responsible. If you want to eliminate the problem, the only way to do so is to change the current law. The only way to do this is through active participation in politics and through interest groups such as the Upmove Community. So if you really want to do something about the situation in Austria, you should start here.