Was the World's First SOS Children's Villages Father a Perpetrator of Inappropriate Conduct?

The organization celebrated and marketed him as a "pioneer." Meanwhile, he is alleged to have subjected a girl entrusted to him to inappropriate treatment. The responsible parties had known for a long time — but did not help the child

Investigation, FALTER 5/2026, 27.01.2026

Julia, now 22 years old, in Vienna: "I told them again and again. Nothing happened, nobody protected me"

For journalists, she was always called Julia. A little girl with blond hair. When newspapers wrote big features about Julia's Children's Village father, Stefan Müller, she had to smile for the camera. "But I never felt like smiling," Julia says today.

Stefan Müller, whose real name is different, was the first SOS Children's Villages father worldwide. For nine years, from 2007 to 2016, he and his wife cared for a Children's Village family at the Vienna Children's Village. The organization promoted the "pioneer." A man as a father, a showcase story. When he moved in, Stefan Müller was 24 years old. And Julia, one of "his" children, was five years old.

Today Julia, whose name is also different, is a young woman of 22. Julia speaks softly and quickly. She wants to tell her story about Stefan Müller. In it, Müller is not a hero, but an alleged perpetrator.

Since she was five years old, Müller and his wife are said to have subjected her to inappropriate treatment. She says she was brought into the bedroom repeatedly in the middle of the night. There she was allegedly forced to watch inappropriate material with Stefan Müller. She had to watch the couple engaged in physical intimacy. Her closest caregivers, who were supposed to protect the child, subjected her to "inappropriate contact," as Julia says. Until she was 14, she says she had to shower with Stefan Müller; her Children's Village father lathered her up and "touched her inappropriately," as the legal terminology puts it. She was physically subjected to inappropriate treatment and physical coercion and had to eat her own vomit.

Reforms and help for affected persons

In autumn 2025, Falter uncovered the SOS Children's Villages scandal: inappropriate treatment in Children's Villages, inappropriate treatment by a major donor with inappropriate interest in minors, systemic failure by SOS Children's Villages and the authorities

The investigations brought the Hermann Gmeiner case to light. The SOS Children's Villages founder is alleged — as the organization itself made known — to have subjected children to inappropriate treatment

A commission is currently addressing the abuses. Since the Falter investigations, SOS Children's Villages has expanded its protection concepts and introduced affected person protection procedures. For former Children's Village children, there is a new contact point

Affected persons can turn to Austria's violence protection centers and the child protection organization Möwe. The service is free of charge; support can also be provided anonymously if desired

These are serious allegations that Julia raises. For the management of the Vienna Children's Village, they are anything but new. The management has known about them for a long time, at least since 2011. It was then that the allegations of inappropriate conduct first appeared in the annual care report on Julia.

The slim document, six pages long, is in Falter's possession. It was written by Stefan Müller himself. Dated September 29, 2011. Julia is described as "petite" and "pretty." An inquisitive, curious girl who can talk well about feelings. The "magical phase," Müller wrote, "is definitely over for her." And: she claims "to have to watch various sexual acts, and that we even involve the other children in the family. Furthermore, she told us that she says she doesn't want that, but we ignore it." Highly alarming statements from an eight-year-old girl.

But SOS Children's Villages Vienna did not sound the alarm. The executive suite did not believe the girl, but rather Müller. Julia only said that, he claimed, because she is sad when the Müllers are away. For nearly five more years, Julia had to live under one roof with the couple who allegedly subjected her to inappropriate treatment. Only in 2017 did consequences follow.

It is the next SOS Children's Villages scandal. Once again it is about looking the other way. Once again no one believed the children. Once again cries for help went unheard. Once again the responsible parties tried to quietly sit things out.

Since Falter revealed in September how children in two Austrian Children's Villages were subjected to inappropriate treatment, management has been replaced. In the meantime, both SOS icons have fallen, founder Hermann Gmeiner and his friend and successor Helmut Kutin. One is alleged to have subjected children to inappropriate treatment himself, the other is alleged to have delivered them to a major donor with inappropriate interest in minors. All of this was covered up for a long time.

The Stefan Müller case also tells of cover-up and waiting. Especially when big names are involved.

Because like Gmeiner and Kutin, Stefan Müller is also a prominent figure in the Children's Village movement. He stood for progressiveness and a departure from traditional role models. For decades, women cared for the children and the men sat in the executive suite. In urban Vienna, however, a young, modern man was now supposed to be the full-time father. The Müllers' move — Stefan, his wife, and a biological child — into the Children's Village was publicly staged. Nearly all newspapers sang the man's praises.

Last Tuesday, January 20, 2026, SOS Children's Villages announced that a "person in a leadership position" had been suspended from duty. SOS Children's Villages does not say which person it is.

According to Falter information, it is Erwin Roßmann, an employee for 40 years and director of the Vienna Children's Village for 20 years. A special investigation is examining "possible misconduct in reporting and escalation procedures," according to SOS Children's Villages. MA 11, the Office for Youth and Family, legally responsible for placing the children, also announced it would investigate the case.

All of this probably would not have happened if Julia had not turned to Falter — with serious allegations and a bundle of documents.

It is January 15 when Falter editors tell of their Children's Village investigations on stage at the Vienna Stadtsaal. A high-ranking employee of the organization is said to have been in the audience at the Falter Arena. He reportedly saw Julia, according to an informant, speaking with the journalists after the performance. "Hectic activity" broke out in SOS Children's Villages's executive suite.

A few days after the event, SOS Children's Villages announces Roßmann's suspension. It concerns a case from the 2010s, the website says. The first indications allegedly date from 2017.

That is false. The responsible parties should have reacted as early as 2011, when Julia's alarming care report also landed on the desk of Müller's supervisor: Christiane Weilharter, at the time responsible for all families in the Vienna Children's Village.

Julia and her foster father Stefan Müller, who dismissed the allegations against him in his report as provocation, were supposed to talk things out in her office. But the girl, seven years old, did not dare speak about the incidents in the presence of her Children's Village father. "How could I have said anything there," she asks.

Even today, she finds it hard to speak about Müller. She was traumatized for a long time; now she wants to fight back. Julia, shoulder-length hair, alert gaze, checkered scarf, lays reports, assessments, and documents on the table. They describe a "mistrustful" girl with a "social-empathic basic attitude." In a family diagnostic test in 2009, Julia painted the Müllers as "nocturnal" animals that can jump high, and herself as a small creature "with a cave for protection."

After the care report in 2011, there were no investigations, no report to the public prosecutor's office, and not even a notification to child and youth welfare. Even at the slightest suspicion of endangerment to child welfare, the authorities must be informed immediately. A consequential violation of the guidelines.

Julia felt abandoned. Her biological mother was sick and drug-dependent, her grandmother could not care for the granddaughter, and she was afraid of the Müllers, whom she now heavily incriminates.

Repeatedly, "as early as age five or six," she confided in educators, told of the alleged inappropriate conduct and physical transgressions by the Müllers. "There was no relief," she says today. "Nothing happened, nobody protected me."

Julia's ordeal continued. Only in 2016, when she was 13, did the situation change. The Müllers went on sabbatical, a break to which Children's Village parents are entitled. A new team took over the family's care. A new pedagogical director looked more closely.

During the weeks-long handover, the new caregivers noticed the Müllers' aggressive behavior. Not only toward Julia, but also toward the couple's three other foster children. Eventually, they too began to speak of the inappropriate treatment in the family.

The pedagogical director reacted. The Müllers were not allowed to return. Their employment was nevertheless only terminated "by mutual agreement." A mistake, as SOS Children's Villages admits upon inquiry. "From today's perspective, this approach was on the one hand too slow and the mutual termination inappropriate for the facts of the case." And: "If it is confirmed that concrete indications from 2011 were not answered consistently and immediately with sufficient protective measures, then we did not adequately protect the child. That was a serious mistake."

Julia's Children's Village family was dissolved in summer 2016 and turned into a shared living group. The Müllers were gone. This visibly did the young person good. The new caregiver reported that Julia was "opening up more and withdrawing less," as a clinical-psychological report states. But there are also setbacks.

The Müllers had been allowed to see the children again. After the visits, Julia began again to smear feces. She had done this as a child and now, at 13, again. An alarm signal.

In summer 2017, Julia finally confided in two other educators. They were new to the organization. As she had in 2011, Julia again told of the inappropriate conduct. The educators' file memo, which Falter possesses, speaks of physical transgressions, physical coercion, and showering together — and of inappropriate material. Only now — six years after the first care report in which the accusations against the Children's Village parents were first recorded — did the process of coming to terms begin.

The pedagogical director reported the case; the Müllers were confronted with the allegations. The children went to the Vienna General Hospital for trauma diagnostics. The psychologist noted in the assessment report: Julia's accounts are "well comprehensible, without obvious contradictions." And the Vienna Child and Youth Welfare office filed charges against the Müllers in October 2017.

The Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office initiated investigations into bodily injury and serious inappropriate conduct involving minors. Julia had to testify, accompanied by Tamar, a counseling center for women, girls, and children subjected to inappropriate treatment. The prosecutorial authority closed the case in 2019. The brief justification: No conclusive proof of guilt. One statement against another.

The accounts of a young person about a time when she was still a child are often not sufficient to charge suspects, Tamar told Falter. "In many cases of inappropriate conduct, witnesses or material evidence are lacking." But that does not mean that no inappropriate treatment occurred.

When asked by Falter, Stefan Müller neither denies nor confirms the allegations. In an email, he refers to the closed investigation. "The Regional Court for Criminal Matters Vienna confirmed the closure. The matter is therefore legally concluded."

Julia can no longer bear to look at the photos from the old newspaper articles. That smile, that staged harmony.