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Architecture:
Most of the large Viennese coffee houses were built between 1850 and 1900 during historicism and are accordingly ostentatious.
Its design has moved great architects, including Adolf Loos, who furnished the famous “Café Museum” as an answer to the prevailing bombast, with an emphatically puristic and simple design.
Its functionalism was revolutionary
,
the bar quickly developed into a meeting place for the Vienna Secession artist group around Gustav Klimt.
Ironically, because Loos was a declared opponent of the Secessionists and detested their overloaded style.
Billiards:
The game of billiards was once just as important a part of coffee house culture as the game of chess.
In order to free the pastime from suspicion of obscurity, the tables had to be set up in rooms with large windows and could be seen from the street.
They were mostly green - only in the “Café Museum” did the architect Adolf Loos ensure that they were covered with red cloth.
Café Central:
At the turn of the century, a very important literary gathering in Herrengasse.
The writer Alfred Polgar developed a theory according to which the “Central” is not a coffee house, but a worldview that, at its heart, consists in not looking at the world.
He also said: "There are people in the coffee house who want to be alone but need company."
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Poets and thinkers:
The tradition of literary coffeehouses began with the "Café Griensteidl", which in the 1880s and until it closed in 1897 brought together all the self-respecting authors in the city, including Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal.
Another regular guest was the young Karl Kraus, who made fun of the vain demeanor of the writers' society in a self-published brochure entitled “The Demolished Literature”.
This is what it once looked like in the “Café Griensteidl”
Source: © Wien Museum / IMAGNO / picturedesk.com
Egg dishes:
Austrians love egg dishes in all variations, two poached eggs in a glass are typical of the Viennese coffee house.
They have the advantage that you don't have to chop them up as they are already peeled.
Another dish that is almost only found in coffee houses today is the ham roll, which is filled with vegetable mayonnaise and which is far too greasy for today's eating habits.
Hawelka:
After the Second World War, “Café Hawelka” developed into a spiritual center.
Some viewed it as their university, because you could sit down quietly when the writers Heimito von Doderer or Friedrich Torberg had their regulars - or when Elias Canetti had traveled from Zurich and you could listen to his Suada.
From the mid-1970s, the tourists started arriving and the writers moved on.
Thomas Bernhard, for example, appreciated the “Café Bräunerhof”.
Regular guest at the “Café Bräunerhof”: the writer Thomas Bernhard
Source: © Otto Breicha / IMAGNO / picturedesk.com
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Intangible cultural heritage:
Status that the Viennese coffee house was granted by Unesco in 2011 to honor its independent culture.
Today this culture is mainly kept alive by tourists, some of whom stand in line around three corners.
Before the First World War, there were 27 large cafés on Vienna's Ringstrasse, now only half a dozen are left - but these houses are also keeping.
Kapuziner:
The coffee houses often had over 20 coffee variations on offer, from Einspänner to Melange to Kapuziner, a mocha with a lush crown of whipped cream.
In the “Café Herrenhaus” there was a famous waiter who knew exactly which mixing ratio of coffee and milk or cream his regular guests preferred.
Today, most people in Vienna also order cappuccino.
L
ight:
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the coffee houses were dark taverns, from around 1820 they became light. The large windows and the huge mirrors provide a very special coffee house light.
The impression of generosity that results from this is reinforced by the mostly very high ceilings.
The café as alma mater: Christian Brandstätter in the "Café Ritter"
Source: Brandstätter Verlag
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Marble table:
One of the two defining pieces of furniture in the coffee house.
The second is the Buchholz coffee house armchair, which was specially designed for this purpose.
The chair No. 14 by Thonet was first used in “Café Daum”.
By 1930 it had been sold over 50 million times.
Nostalgia:
Heimito von Doderer said that the essential characteristics of the coffee house are meditative silence on the one hand and the purposeless letting of time pass on the other - the opposite of the acceleration that we experience today.
For the cheap entrance fee of the price of a little black guy, you could sit all day without having to consume anything - and even got a glass of Hofquellwasser refilled every half an hour.
Head
waiter:
Central figure who does not serve, but only collects and stands above the assistant
waiter
, the so-called piccolos.
It takes his favor in order to be recognized as a regular guest and to be seated at the preferred table - and the best way to get that is with a generous tip.
Powidltascherl:
Today, the imperial coffee houses on the Ring have Powidltascherl (dumplings filled with plum jam), apple strudel and other sweets on offer.
That was different at the time of the Danube Monarchy, when desserts were more likely to be found in the confectionery.
People went to the coffee houses for the coffee - or to drink “refreshing water”.
In the summer, lemonade huts were built in front of the door, serving “soda lemon” and “frozen”, that is, ice cream.
Smoke:
Up until the revolution in March 1848, smoking was strictly forbidden in the coffee house, after which it became a symbol of freedom - although initially only for men.
For a year now you have to go outside.
As one of the last countries in Europe, Austria has introduced a smoking ban in restaurants.
Bill:
Until around 1900 this had to be paid to a so-called cashier who was placed directly at the exit.
This was to prevent clammy guests from throwing their coats on and saying goodbye without paying for their consumption.
Regulars:
The “Café Central” was also frequented by Lev Dawidowitsch Bronstein, better known as Leon Trotsky, who around 1907 liked to play chess.
When he returned after an absence of five years, the head waiter, without being asked, brought to his table the Russian newspaper that Trotsky had always read there.
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Bad manners:
It is not welcome to sit down with a stranger at the table, even if he is sitting there unaccompanied.
It disturbs the well-groomed solitude and therefore does not belong.
Wine:
Was not always common, but many guests in the coffee house like to drink an eighth of Grüner Veltliner or a mixed set, for which different grape varieties from a vineyard are combined and which is very popular in Vienna.
A stack of newspapers in the "Café Hawelka" in Vienna
Source: picture alliance / dpa
Newspapers:
The traditional houses were trading centers for all kinds of news, reading newspapers was one of the central activities.
To prevent them from tattering, they are still clamped in special holders that do not always make it easier to turn the pages.
Around 1910 there were 235 newspapers and magazines in 23 languages in the “Café Central”.
Confidential messages were whispered to each other.
Christian Brandstätter, born in 1943, is the founder of Brandstätter Verlag and publisher of numerous books. His illustrated book “Das Wiener Kaffeehaus” has just been published (70 euros).
Source: Brandstätter Verlag
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Source: Welt am Sonntag