| Richard Lugner |
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Richard Lugner (born October 11 , 1932 ) is a successful Austria n 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 fourth wife, Christina (born June 2 , 1968 ), is generally known as ''Mausi'' ("Little Mouse"). 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 Station s 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 Autograph s—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 image: 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. Monday s to Friday s and at 12 noon on Saturday s 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 Union s' 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
NOTE ON THE SPELLING While ''Lügner'' (with an Umlaut ) would make sense in German (" Liar "), the name of the family is ''Lugner'' (without an umlaut). EXTERNAL LINK
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