The Lucona Murders - Demel (Kohlmarkt 14)
Behind the gilded windows of the emperor's favorite confectionery, its owner Udo Proksch plotted Austria's most notorious insurance fraud: in 1977 he had the freighter Lucona blown up for a 212 million schilling payout, sending six sailors to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
Sobre este lugar
Demel has sweetened Vienna since 1786 and supplied candied violets to Empress Sisi herself, but in 1972 the imperial confectionery fell into the hands of Udo Proksch, a former pig farmer turned eyewear designer and society darling. In the rooms directly above the shop he founded Club 45, an exclusive circle where Socialist ministers, bankers and industrialists dined among the pastry fumes. It was from this gilded perch that Proksch orchestrated the Lucona affair: on 23 January 1977 a freighter he had chartered exploded and sank near the Maldives, killing six of the twelve crew. The cargo, insured for 212 million schillings as a uranium ore processing plant, was in truth little more than scrap metal hiding a time bomb. Shielded for over a decade by his powerful friends upstairs, Proksch finally fled to the Philippines, had his face altered by plastic surgery, and was arrested at Vienna airport in 1989 travelling under a false name. Convicted of murder and fraud in 1991, he died behind bars in 2001, while the scandal toppled some of the most senior politicians in the country.
Datos clave
- 6 sailors killed — Crew members who died when the freighter Lucona was blown apart by a time bomb in the Indian Ocean in January 1977.
- 212 million schillings — The insurance sum Proksch claimed for a fake uranium ore processing plant that was really worthless scrap metal.
- 1991 year — Demel's owner Udo Proksch was convicted of murder and fraud; his 20 year sentence was later raised to life imprisonment.
📍 Kohlmarkt 14, 1010, Wien