Richard Lugner

Richard Lugner (born October 11, 1932) is a successful Austrian entrepreneur in the construction industry, a Viennese society figure, and a former political candidate not affiliated with any of the Austrian political parties. Lugner has been nicknamed "Mörtel" ("Mortar", as in masonry) by the media, while his former wife, Christina (born June 2, 1968), is generally known as "Mausi" ("Little Mouse"). Since August 2, 2007 he has been divorced from Christina. The divorce was filed the same day by a mutual agreement.

Business career

Born in Vienna, Lugner got a licence to work as a building contractor ("Baumeisterkonzession") in 1962 and at first specialised in the erection of filling stations and the renovation of old buildings. His company started to prosper, and he eventually became known to a wider public with the completion, in 1979, of Vienna's first mosque, situated on the banks of the river Danube. In 1990 he opened his own shopping mall, "Lugner City", in a working class district of Vienna and, from the start, aggressively advertised his business by regularly inviting celebrities—starting with Thomas Gottschalk—who would perform there and sign autographs—a marketing strategy not very common in a city that, back then, hardly had any shopping malls.

In 1992 Mörtel and Mausi Lugner brought Harry Belafonte to "Lugner City", and also took him along to the Vienna Opera Ball. From that time on, the couple have each year paid a celebrity to visit the shopping centre and then accompany them as their guest to that prestigious function at the Vienna State Opera, an "invitation" which has often been criticised or just belittled for being a "nouveau riche" idea. However, media attention has continually been rising, also abroad, so that today any official guests of honour are usually neglected compared to the Lugners' celebrities, who invariably have a sex bomb

Through his shopping mall, Lugner was one of a small group of businesspeople who helped change Austrians' shopping habits by pushing to the limits the various regulations concerning opening hours. In a city where shops generally closed at 6 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and at noon on Saturdays to remain closed for more than one and a half days until Monday morning, Lugner strongly advocated late night shopping on at least one weekday and an extension of shopping hours to Saturday afternoon, even when that meant raising the trades unions' opposition.

Political ambitions

In the late 1990s Richard Lugner handed over his business to his two grown-up sons by an earlier marriage, Alexander and Andreas Lugner, and went into politics. In the 1998 presidential elections, where he was one of five candidates, he received an astonishing 9.91 per cent of the popular vote but was beaten by incumbent Federal President Thomas Klestil, who had been running for a second term of office. For the parliamentary elections that took place the following year, the Lugners organised a separate platform called "Die Unabhängigen" ("The Independents") but, as they only received 1.02 per cent of the vote, did not get any seats in the "Nationalrat". Nevertheless, at the end of the millennium, a survey found that more than 90 per cent of Austrians recognized the name "Lugner".

Trivia

*"Die Lugners" ("The Lugners") was a reality TV show produced by a private television broadcaster which showed Richard and Christina Lugner, their daughter, Jacqueline (born 1993), and Richard Lugner's mother-in-law, Martha Haidinger, at home, at work, and on holiday.

*Christina Lugner has co-written a book, "Fit für die Society. Wie Frauen sich erfolgreich machen" ("Fit for Society. How Women Make Themselves Successful", 2004) (ISBN 3-7015-0473-3), in which she advises career women on questions of etiquette.

*Richard Lugner's third wife died after complications while undergoing plastic surgery. In spite of that, in 2004, on his wife's advice, Lugner himself had his eyelids treated with botulin toxin "to look like George Clooney".

*Richard Lugner has an American daughter, who he attempted to get in touch with in 2005. Interestingly, Lugner brought a camera crew with him to the meeting with his daughter. Lugner made her cry when he said that he did not have any questions to ask her since he did not know her. Lugner received bad press from the meeting with his daughter and as far as anyone knows, he is not being a good father to her. Richard is an absentee father when it come to his American daughter.

*He has been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church after renting space in his shopping mall to an abortion clinic [ [http://www.cathnews.com/news/702/46.php Austrian mall owner excommunicated over abortion clinic rental] ]

Note on the spelling

While "Lügner" (with an umlaut) is a German ("Liar") word, the name of the family is "Lugner" (without an umlaut).

References

External links

* http://www.lugner.at/
* http://www.nurido.at/leuteevents/moertelmausilugner/ Interview, photos and news
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