A few months after the March memorial—in parallel to a posthumous 95th birthday party for Gaston, again leaving out his offspring—Kathrin posted on Instagram. Under the same portrait that had appeared in Ferlach, she wrote in English: “You’ll forever be my rock, my soulmate, my husband and my best friend. Happy birthday my darling!
I will always love you. ❤️”
Kathrin often dresses in black: close-fitting Gucci jackets, an Alexander McQueen knuckle duster box clutch, Fiorentini + Baker leather biker boots. On social media, where she posts regularly, Kathrin once responded to the suggestion that she resembles the bad guy in a James Bond film with “I’m not a villain...🤣👍😉”
Kathrin married Gaston in 2011, when she was in her early 30s and he was over 80, just after he had divorced his wife of decades, Helga, with whom he had built the company. At Kathrin and Gaston’s wedding, the maid of honor was a woman named Inge Unzeitig, then 76, who is the proprietor of the Hotel Palais Porcia, at the eastern end of the nearby Wörthersee.
Today, Kathrin—not Brigitte, not Robert, not Gaston Jr.—is the public face of the world’s leading pistol firm. At the time of Gaston’s death, almost all of his fortune was tied up in the system of foundations and trusts that owns Glock. The company is down from its best year, around 2019, when estimated sales exceeded 1 million units—60 to 70 percent in the United States.
Kathrin declined to speak to Vanity Fair for this story. “My husband Gaston was, is, and always will be my soulmate,” she says in a written statement, adding that “Gaston is my great love, and we will remain connected forever.
“Anyone who knew Gaston knows that he left nothing to chance. He always made clear decisions about who he would delegate which responsibilities to, and he always made all the important decisions himself, both private and professional,” the statement went on, in response to numerous reporting questions. “This continued throughout his life—and, through his clear directives, even beyond his lifetime. Gaston never allowed himself to be manipulated or used by anyone.”
Who, then, is Kathrin Glock? After she dropped out of high school, she failed to complete Austrian gendarmerie training, and never finished college. “She is a person, I would say, who basically wants to make something of her life, and who doesn’t have a particularly good starting point in life but still has the drive to the goal,” says Jan Krainer, an Austrian parliamentarian.
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