Who was the gunmaker Gaston Glock?

One of the most successful weapons in the world consists of just 33 parts - and comes from an Austrian garage. The Glock came onto the market in the 1980s and sold like hot cakes to security agencies around the world. Its inventor became a billionaire and avoided the public eye as much as possible throughout his life.

With the Glock 17, made from just 33 parts, he revolutionized the weapons business: Gaston Glock's initially ridiculed plastic product quickly became an international bestseller. Today, police units all over the world rely on the self-loading pistol. But Glocks are also frequently used in shooting sprees and other crimes. The man behind the invention preferred a reclusive life, shying away from the media and publicity. Now the entrepreneur has died at the age of 94, as the company announced on its website.

The triumphant advance of Glock's product began in the early 1980s. The engineer had no previous experience with firearms. However, the invitation to tender for the re-equipping of the Austrian armed forces had appealed to Glock, who was keen to experiment. So the gun with cult status was created in a garage in the small community of Deutsch-Wagram near Vienna. The new pistol could hold three times as many cartridges as an average revolver. It was lighter, more robust, more efficient and cheaper. The military was thrilled.

Popular in films - used by people who run amok

The secret behind the weapons is also their recipe for success: "That's because we were small, so development was limited to two or three people. That's what brought us forward so quickly," said Glock in 1982 in his only known TV interview on ORF. Neither information nor profits were to be lost, which is why not only all weapons but also the production machines are still manufactured by the company itself to this day.

Initially regarded as a toy in the USA, the Glock 17 soon found many fans. In addition to the police, the FBI and CIA also relied on the weapon. Business was booming right from the start. The Glock also plays a role in Hollywood films and rap lyrics. Demand in the gun-loving USA quickly became so great that the Austrian had his own factory built there.

Assassins, such as the man who ran amok in Munich in 2016 or in Erfurt in 2009, also repeatedly used one of the 30 different versions of the pistol. "Guns can provide security, but of course they can also take security away if they are in the wrong hands," Glock told the magazine "News" in 2011.

Assassination attempt survived

The inventor and highly successful industrialist remained secretive. Secrecy was his top priority. To this day, little is known about Glock's private life. Until his death, he remained a phantom who kept the public at arm's length, even by legal means.

Glock was born in Vienna in 1929 in modest circumstances. At the age of 15, he is said to have been drafted into the Wehrmacht for a short time during the Second World War. He then graduated from a technical college and worked for companies that manufactured drilling machines and car radiators, for example.

Kathrin Glock - the gunmaker's second wife.

His relatively late breakthrough in his early 50s made him one of the richest Austrians. Forbes estimated the family's fortune at 1.1 billion euros in 2021. In 1999, an attempted assassination attempt on his life in the underground parking garage of a Luxembourg office complex made headlines. A retired French foreign legionnaire allegedly tried to kill Glock with a hammer on behalf of a former business partner. Glock survived and the men received long prison sentences.

More glamor through the second wife

After two strokes, Glock, who had long lived in a villa on Lake Wörthersee, withdrew even further. However, the war of the roses with his wife and the mother of his three children kept the courts busy. His family felt he had been unjustly forced out of the company. After almost half a century, Glock finally divorced his wife in 2011 to marry his girlfriend, who was 52 years his junior.

Since then, Kathrin Glock has repeatedly appeared alone in public as his new partner and took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board of Glock GmbH. She regularly hosted lavish parties with international star guests at her equestrian sports center in Carinthia. The couple also donated a lot of money to animal welfare organizations and hospitals. Science and research, young inventors and social projects were also repeatedly able to count on financial donations.