The global power of freemasonry - Gnostic Liberation Front

imagined a group patterned on the Italian masonic lodge P2, whose
organizer and later master of the chair Licio Gelli was his role model.
Ever since the P2 scandal erupted in 1981 and the secret lodge be-
came known to the public, Club 45 has been compared to P2, and
"The Red Lodge of Vienna" was called the Austrian P2. There were,
however, important differences. P2 had three thousand members
from all political parties except the communists. Club 45 only had
about three hundred members, all socialists, and "very honourable
and well-respected persons" (Kreisky).
Club 45 is indissolubly tied to Cafe Demel in Vienna. In April 1972
Udo Proksch acquired by proxy the old cafe. All the old customers
fled, when the food got worse and prices went up. To many old
customers the limit was reached when the new owners celebrated the
anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia, with the burning
Winter Palace and portraits of Lenin made of marzipan (!).
Instead of the old clientele now gathered the top of the Austrian
Social Democratic Part: Leopold Gratz, Helmut Zilk, Hannes Androsch,
Erwin Lanc, Franz Vranitzky, Fred Sinowatz, and Karl "Charly"
Blecha. Chancellor Bruno Kreisky cut the ribbon at the grand re-
opening following the renewal undertaken by the new owners.
For many years club life thrived surreptitiously in "the Red Lodge".
At their lodge meetings in the upper stories of Cafe Demel, protected
from all democratic control, the red cafe masons conspired and
constantly expanded their positions. As in Italy under P2, a state
within the state soon existed. There was a period when Austria
virtually was ruled by Club 45 from Cafe Demel. There was as well a
time when nobody could be a member of the Austrian government
without being a freemason.
Among prominent socialists that between the years 1974 and 1989
reached the government through membership in "the Red Lodge",
the following can be mentioned: Franz Vranitzky (chancellor), Fred
Sinowatz (chancellor), Hannes Androsch (vice chancellor), Leopold
Gratz, Karl Blecha, Heinz Fischer, Helmut Zilk, Karl Sekanina,
Gunther Haiden, Herbert Salcher, Franz Kreuzer, Willibald Paar, Ger-
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