The Viennese actor Florian Teichtmeister has been accused of possessing child pornography material, as it became known on Friday, and as a result he is leaving the Burgtheater ensemble immediately.

ORF films with him will also no longer be broadcast for the time being.

A spokeswoman for the Vienna Criminal Court confirmed the charges against the actor.

The trial begins on February 8th.

Teichtmeister's lawyers also published a statement confirming the facts.

Teichtmeister's legal representatives said that the artist had pleaded guilty and had been cooperating with the authorities in the investigation for more than a year.

It is said that he was guilty of a “digital crime”, but did not commit any crimes in personal dealings with other people.

Employment relationship with the Burgtheater ended

Teichtmeister ended his employment with the Burgtheater with immediate effect.

The 43-year-old, who was born in Vienna, has appeared on stage, including at the Salzburg Festival, and has also taken part in many television and cinema productions, including several episodes of "Tatort".

"It was with great horror that we learned from the media about the results of the investigation and the pending criminal proceedings against Florian Teichtmeister," says a statement from the Burgtheater.

"The press releases by his lawyers speak of 'confess' and 'confess guilty', so there is no doubt for us that we will fire Florian Teichtmeister with immediate effect." By Friday, the Burgtheater would not have had any basis for an employment law consequence.

According to his lawyers, quoted by the Austria Press Agency, Teichtmeister downloaded child pornographic images from the dark web between February 2008 and August 2021.

He himself never touched minors.

According to the announcements, Teichtmeister will plead guilty in the process.

He has always cooperated with the authorities over the past year and a half and has also been undergoing psychological treatment for two years, "with the help of which he has managed to work through the mental problems that brought him into possession of the files in question".

According to the reports, Teichtmeister took photos of actors, some of whom were underage, at film locations and made collages with speech bubbles containing pornographic content.

His partner discovered one of these pictures and informed the police.

Teichtmeister is a graduate of the Max Reinhardt Seminar, in 2005 he became a member of the ensemble at the Theater in der Josefstadt and in 2019 he came to the Burgtheater.

At the same time he played in several ORF productions, including "Kommissar Rex", "SOKO Kitzbühel", "Tatort" or "Die Toten von Salzburg".

The public broadcaster said: "The ORF takes the allegations very seriously and will refrain from producing and broadcasting productions with Florian Teichtmeister until the court has clarified them." Corsage” about Empress Elisabeth (“Sisi”) and Emperor Franz Joseph.