Building contractor Richard “Mörtel” Lugner is dead. He created a monument to himself as a star of the Vienna Opera Ball with his annual celebrity guests.
At the blessed age of 91 and yet surprisingly, the Viennese entrepreneur Richard “Mörtel” Lugner (1932-2024) died today (12 August) in his villa in the Viennese district of Döbling. According to the “Kronen Zeitung”, there was a rescue operation on site on Monday morning in which attempts were made to resuscitate Lugner, but in vain.
Wedding a few weeks before his death
The most famous construction and real estate entrepreneur in the world after Donald Trump (78), at least in Vienna, leaves behind his sixth wife. Just a few weeks before his death, Lugner married Simone “Bienchen” Reiländer (42) on June 1 in Vienna City Hall. The couple announced their relationship in 2021.
The weather was kind to the couple during their wedding, which was accompanied by a great deal of media hype, in this rainy summer. As planned, the two were able to drive to the registry office in an open sky-blue vintage Mercedes, where the wedding ceremony was scheduled for 2 p.m.
Mortar and the women: “Bienchen” follows “Mausi”, “Spatzi”, “Hasi”, & Co
Among the approximately 50 invited guests at the ceremony was Lugner’s fourth wife Christina “Mausi” Lugner (59). The two were married from 1991 to 2007 and had a daughter, Jacqueline, in 1993.
His last wife before “Bienchen”, wife number five, was Cathy Schmitz, known as “Spatzi”, from Wittlich in the Eifel, who was 57 years younger than him. The two got married in September 2014 in the Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn, as befits their status. They divorced in November 2016. “When I received the tragic news of your death this morning, I was in shock. Richard, you seemed immortal to me too. Your commitment, your willpower, your courage were inspiring and contagious. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the great time at your side, for everything you taught me about life. You will never be forgotten. God bless you. RIP,” she wrote on Instagram.
Lugner married for the first time in 1961. He had two sons with his childhood sweetheart Christine Gmeiner in 1963 and 1966. After 17 years together, the couple separated. His second marriage lasted from 1979 to 1983. His relationship with his third wife Susanne Dietrich had a particularly tragic ending. Shortly after the divorce, she fell into a coma after cosmetic surgery and died.
Between his marriages, “Mörtel” presented several other women with always loving nicknames at his side: Bettina “Hasi” Kofler (2008), Sonja “Käfer” Schönanger (2008-2009), Nina “Bambi” Bruckner (2009), Anastasia “Katzi” Sokol (2009-2013), Bahati “Kolibri” Venus (2013-2014).
In addition to Jacqueline and his two sons from his first marriage, Lugner leaves behind another daughter.
This is how he got his nickname
But not only his companions, but also Lugner himself was known to have a nickname: “Mortar”. The nickname was given to him by the most famous Viennese tabloid journalist, Michael Jeannée.
Among other things, Richard Lugner built Vienna’s first mosque and a shopping center named after him, Lugner City. This made him wealthy, and Lugner took care of the rest himself with his industriousness.
Lugner and the Vienna Opera Ball
He has demonstrated this for decades at the Vienna Opera Ball, the high point of Vienna’s carnival and social life. Lugner appeared there year after year in his usual costume – tailcoat and top hat – and his famous smile. He always had a famous woman on his arm, whom he invited (for a fee) to his Opera Ball box.
He was in the spotlight with stars such as Joan Collins, Sophia Loren, Ivana Trump, Faye Dunaway, Claudia Cardinale, Pamela Anderson, Grace Jones, Brigitte Nielsen, Goldie Hawn, Elle Macpherson and Ornella Muti. His last companion this February was US actress Priscilla Presley (79).
90th birthday in the Ceremonial Hall of the Vienna Hofburg
Richard Lugner has set up his world appropriately, not only between Lugner City with its cinema complex and Mausi Market, as he named the gastronomic area after his fourth ex-wife. Lugner remains represented here and in all districts of the Austrian metropolis.
He is even on display in the local wax museum of Madame Tussauds in Vienna’s Prater. Of course he is wearing patent leather shoes, tailcoat and top hat, and the wardrobe was donated by Mörtel himself. “I don’t see any difference between me and the figure,” he said.
Last October, on the occasion of his 90th birthday (October 11), he organized a large celebration for family, friends and companions in the ceremonial hall of the Vienna Hofburg, where Austria’s emperors once ruled the imperial and royal world empire. According to the “Kronen Zeitung”, a large church wedding was planned for the upcoming autumn on his 92nd birthday in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.
