Richard Lugner
When the very last flashlight goes out …
Farewell to building tycoon Richard Lugner. The 91-year-old entrepreneur shaped the events at the Vienna Opera Ball like no other. Society will miss him - Adabei and "Krone" postler Jeannèe remember his most dazzling appearances.
Richard Lugner mastered the media like no other. And until the very end, the society builder was never at a loss to inform the public about how he was doing - whether from his vacation in the Maldives, his mini-honeymoon in Dresden, a visit to the circus with his pets or from his sickbed. For three decades, I accompanied him as "Adabei" ...
First celebrity reporter assignment in 1997: "Off to Richard Lugner!", I was told by the editorial bosses. The interview with him in his shopping temple in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus was about some political topic. Lugner's opinion, regardless of the subject, was already in great demand back then.
Our paths crossed again and again after that. Our meetings were always human, always pleasant. Right up to the end. Even if it sometimes became too intimate for "normal" VIPs (for example, during the divorce from his First Mausi, when my photographer and I ambushed the newly divorced couple at a district court), Richard Lugner always found a charming way to get out of the affair and use it for advertising purposes.
His coup was brilliant in 2011 when he flew Berlusconi's playmate Ruby Rubacuori to the Opera Ball. I was allowed to accompany him on this flight. What a story. Richie Rich was in luck.
Our photo shoot for the "Krone" magazine "150 years of the State Opera" is also unforgettable. The master builder posed patiently for hours in a biting, icy wind with his "beetle" Sonja Schönanger, who died just last year.
Richard Lugner has been with me my entire journalistic life, which is why you might be wondering whether I'm sad . . .
Yes, but primarily I'm happy that someone like Richard Lugner lived.
The very last flashlight has gone out for Mörtel
So now the very last flashlight has gone out for our Mörtel, as "Krone" postman Michael Jeannée once christened him. What remains are the memories of the self-deprecating master builder who, as the oldest candidate of the Second Republic, even wanted to become Federal President - not just once, that would have been too boring for him. He tried it in 1998 and then wanted to try again in 2016.
When the "Society Lion" roared, he did so loudly and preferably in front of cameras. He staged his very own safari, complete with "little animals" and oysters with ketchup, preferably in his own reality TV show. Baumeister, who was born in Vienna on October 11, 1932, could afford this fun, this freedom.
A "hacker" who was not above anything
He lived to work. A "hacker" who was not above anything. What he started in 1962 with two workers turned out to be an Austrian success story. Right at the start of his professional career, he specialized in the renovation of old buildings, the construction of petrol stations and expanded his construction activities to include office buildings with underground car parks.
He made headlines with the construction of Vienna's first mosque and the renovation of the city temple of the Jewish Community of Vienna.
In 1990, he opened his beloved Lugner City, his own personal arena, with star guest Dagmar Koller. The master builder proved to have a good nose and discovered the flashy spotlight and, more importantly, Hollywood for himself and his company.
From 1992, Mörtel then shone on the smooth society stage of the Vienna State Opera with complicated and less complicated Opera Ball star guests, causing a worldwide media echo during carnival.
His outbursts became almost legendary when the press dared to get too close to his guests.
A number in itself and for every tabloid journalist: a hustle, a joke. A theater you could build on.
My dear mortar. I'm allowed to say that. After all, I invented him. When a colleague who didn't like me at all recommended that he sue me for this "mortar", this "mockery", this "mockery", he tapped his forehead with his right index finger and replied: "I'll be stupid!"
Now Richard Lugner was many things, but he wasn't stupid. On the contrary. My mortar was lightning clever. A gifted marketer of himself. A PR genius. But above all, he was good-natured. Richard Lugner didn't like and couldn't hurt anyone. Whatever we have attached to him, whatever we have written about him - Mörtel remained true to himself - he remained a good person.
Now he's gone. What will we do without him? We will forget him.
Maybe we will. But not me! That's the way it is in life, you forget. I will never forget my mortar. He has accompanied me throughout my journalistic life.
And what are you going to post today? That Richard Lugner has passed away! And that I will never forget him. Some of you may not understand what I'm trying to say: Richard "Mörtel" Lugner, wherever you may be now - you will never be forgotten by me.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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