Richard Siegfried "Mörtel" Lugner[4] (11 October 1932 – 12 August 2024) was an Austrian businessman in the construction industry, a Viennese society figure, and an independent politician.

He also opened Lugner City, a prominent shopping mall, and became famous for inviting celebrities to the Vienna Opera Ball.

[9] After completing his general school education, Lugner graduated from the Federal Technical and Commercial College specializing in building construction in 1953.

Lugner City was opened in a working class district of Vienna, and from the start Lugner 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 had hardly any shopping malls.

[16] Ten years later, the repurchase took place at the earliest possible contractual date by way of a share deal.

[17] In September 2005, he opened the Lugner Kino,[18] a multiplex cinema with 13 auditoriums offering space for 1840 visitors.

Each year thereafter, the couple would pay a celebrity to visit the shopping centre and then accompany them as their guest to the ball.

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% of the vote, did not get any seats in the Nationalrat.

[31][32] In 2002, Lugner made a property available to the Church of Scientology for one week for public relations work.

In 2011, he wished the organization "all the best for the future" in an email to the president of the Austrian L. Ron Hubbard Foundation, which was criticized as sympathetic to Scientology.

[35][36] In September 2014, Lugner married German Playboy model Cathy Schmitz at a ceremony held at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.

After their marriage, Schmitz confirmed that she received monthly financial benefits from Lugner in the form of income.