This is exactly what Richard “Mörtel” Lugner had wanted and had obviously prepared very precisely: a red coffin, on top of which was the top hat that he always wore at the Vienna Opera Ball, lots of cameras and all the women in his life gathered at his coffin – almost all of them!
Died at the age of 91
“We tried to prepare everything so that he would like it,” said cathedral priest Toni Faber. “His soul will notice it, and he will look down with a smile and accept it gratefully.”
Ex-wives and daughter also at memorial service
His widow Simone, who was married to him for only 72 days, came to the funeral in a floor-length black dress. She sat on one side of the coffin in the first row. She had placed a heart-shaped rosary on the coffin with the inscription “What remains is your love, your years full of life and the sparkle in the eyes of everyone who talks about you.”
Lugner’s daughter and almost all of his ex-wives from a total of six marriages were also in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Only Simone’s predecessor, the German former Playboy model Kathy, had publicly complained that she had not been invited.
