Club 45
The Club 45 was an Austrian club in 1973 by leading members of the Social Democratic Party was founded.
The politicians Leopold Gratz , Hannes Androsch and Fritz Marsch turned to a mutual friend, Fritz Eder, with the request to locate a club. He found a club room in a restaurant on the Fleischmarkt , and Leopold Gratz brought his friend Udo Proksch into play, who had just bought the Demel pastry shop on Vienna's Kohlmarkt for 18 million schillings (around 4.5 million euros based on purchasing power in 2011). They hoped that a suitable place could be found in this kuk Hofzuckerbäckerei. Proksch agreed, and in 1973 the club was formed.
The club was a kind of social democratic gentlemen's club, to which the top of Austrian politics (SPÖ) and economy of the 1970s belonged. At its peak, at the time of the absolute majority of the SPÖ, the club saw itself as a meeting place for Austria's political and economic elite. In the bestseller The case Lucona of Hans Pretterebner the club is also described as mafia instrument of power of the Social Democrats, by a system of corruption, Postenschacher and nepotism , the country quite successfully took possession.
In the best of times, 200 members came to the club meetings. Club president was Leopold Gratz, later Karl Heinz Demel (not related to the founder of the confectionery).
The monthly membership fee was 300 schillings (around 86 euros based on today's purchasing power).
The club included the then ministers Karl Blecha (interior minister), Leopold Gratz (foreign minister) and Karl Lütgendorf (defense minister, independent). The then Minister of Science and later Federal President Heinz Fischer , Hannes Androsch and Franz Vranitzky also belonged to the club at times.
The Lucona case put an end to Club 45. In 1992 the club was finally dissolved.
There are numerous conspiracy theories about a "secret club" in the style of the Italian secret lodge Propaganda Due . For a long time rumors circulated that Proksch had recorded all sorts of goings-on from the powerful with hidden cameras. He is said to have blackmailed them and thus prevented or delayed an investigation into the Lucona case.
Club 45 also appeared in the song Wiener Blut by the Austrian singer Falco , which deals with corruption within Vienna's high society .
Individual evidence
- ^ "Club 45": Austria's "red nobility" in Demel , Die Presse, accessed on November 19, 2012.
- ↑ Udo Proksch: The court jester and his network ( Memento from July 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Doris Piringer, Kleine Zeitung, November 10, 2009.
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 31 ″ N , 16 ° 22 ′ 2 ″ E