Stefan Apfl

When the 39-year-old farmer’s son Wolfgang Kulturer took over as managing director of the Carinthian Hypo Bank, he formulated the bank’s destiny as follows: “Expand or die.” In order for the institution with 220 employees and total assets of €1.9 billion to balance the books, the Carinthian regional government had to take over. Three employees were put in charge of foreign business transactions. This was on Nov. 1, 1992.

Thursday afternoon in the heart of Krems-Lerchenfeld. The first pints are being downed in s’Lercherl pub. Rain clouds are lifting. The Ö3 radio station’s announcer informs the diners on the terrace about the funeral of Florian P., the 14-year-old from Lerchenfeld shot by police during a robbery in a Merkur supermarket. A headline of a daily newspaper lying on the table reads “The Lerchenfelders,” the content covering its “ghetto” and “problem youth.”

The delicate, veiled woman opens her apartment door, sees my outstretched hand and takes it. Perhaps she hadn’t stopped to think that strict Muslims forbid physical contact with strangers. Perhaps Mona S. isn’t quite the model Muslim, she has tried since her teenage years to be.