Everyone is hunting a banker
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In the eighth “country crime thriller” from Styria, which ARD is now repeating, Bergmann (Hary Prinz) and Sulmtaler (Anna Unterberger) investigate a robbery on a private banker. His “pyramid scheme” has just collapsed – and the anger in the small town of Murbruck is correspondingly great.
The whole of Murbruck lived from the private banker Rudi Stiegler (Gottfried Breitfuß). Not only did he get good interest rates – he also looked after children’s playgrounds, parks and – as a sponsor – especially the local ice hockey club. He subsidized it with many millions. But now Stiegler is broke, on the evening of the disclosure he is attacked by burglars in his house and dies. The Graz LKA officers Bergmann (Hary Prinz) and Sulmtaler (Anna Unterberger) identify as possible perpetrators in “Steirergeld”, the eighth Styria case in the “Landkrimi” series, practically all Murbruck residents who had large amounts of money in their safe deposit boxes at the private bank. The first is now repeating the film from 2022 at prime time.
The chairmen of the ice hockey club’s board of directors, to whom Stiegler left some sums, are particularly suspicious. But also craftsmen like the plumber Möttl (Reinhard Nowak), who now has to fire his people because of overdrafts, even though they had already remained loyal to “their father”. And even the mayor, who is also the local landlady, comes into consideration. Now not only does she have to do without the planned art on the building, the entire large construction site is also going down the drain.
Thin line between victims and perpetrators
Wolfgang and Maria Murnberger (writer and director) describe all the misery that such a fraudulent bank failure can bring with it. Short flashbacks flash back to the past life of the oh-so-generous Rudi Stiegler, who apparently apprenticed with Adele Spitzeder, the Munich inventor of the snowball system. “What is money?” he once boldly muses. “In reality, it’s just a few coins in your hand that you can use to buy a liver loaf roll.” But everything else is just paper, and the World Bank could probably go bankrupt one day, “but nobody checks it.”
The high number of Murbruckers being cheated means that the story becomes a bit difficult as it goes on. In any case, it doesn’t have the rousing momentum of the simultaneously filmed previous episode “Steirerstern” (Humtata vs. Rock Music). But the ironic interaction between Hary Prinz and Anna Unterberger works like clockwork again. He uses her right up to the edge of the bed as an erotic mole against a negligent auditor, whereupon he almost bursts with jealousy.
The fact that the poor inspector also has to flirt with his ex-wife and current boss Nicole (Bettina Mittendorfer) and talk about their fish in the aquarium may be tragicomic. But it stretches the case quite a bit.
But the fact that there is “a thin line between victims and perpetrators,” as Hary Prinz explained at a 2,000-person preview at the Hartberg filming location in Styria, is something they all get across from start to finish. Original sound Prinz, again: “They are all human beings and nothing human is alien to them.” Austrian realism, from which we could certainly learn a lesson or two. Even an ensemble of 25 always has a lot of life.
So far, 13 Styrian “country thrillers” have been shown on ARD, the last one in February 2026. Number 14 “Steirerstich” was already shown in Austria at the end of 2025. A German broadcast date has not yet been set. Two more films have already been shot under the working titles “Steirerhass” and “Steirerbiest”.
Immediately afterwards, at 9.45 p.m., the first repeats the second Styrian “country crime thriller”, “Steirerkind” from 2018. Together with Sandra Mohr (Miriam Stein), Sascha Bergmann (Hary Prinz) investigates the murder of a national ski coach. On Friday, July 10th, at 8:15 p.m., Erste will repeat the fifth film “Steirertod” from 2021. (This article was created in cooperation with teleschau.)