Hello, What Are You Reading, Ulla Harms?
Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
At a glance
- Ulla Harms has run the Buchkontor bookshop in Viennaโs Nibelungenviertel for 17 years.
- She quickly filled the gap left after the nearby Buch & Co. bookstore closed and has since trained apprentices.
Ulla Harms has spent 17 years turning a Vienna neighborhood that once seemed to have little going for it into a place with its own bookseller. She runs Buchkontor on Kriemhildplatz, in the cityโs Nibelungenviertel.
When Harms arrived, she recalls, the area was known as โRudolfscrime.โ People thought she was out of her mind because there was almost nothing there except a Catholic kindergarten opposite the shop and a church next door. The local priest, Martin, even once arrived on horseback for the St. Martinโs festival. โGood guy!โ Harms remembers.
Back then, this was called Rudolfscrime, and everyone thought I was crazy because there was absolutely nothing here except the Catholic kindergarten opposite.
The neighborhood had also lost Buch & Co. in Lugner City, where Philipp Gerger had worked as one of the cityโs best booksellers. Harms soon filled the gap left by the storeโs closure. Since then, she has also trained apprentices at Buchkontor.
Good guy!
Originally published by Der Standard in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.