!!!Kaffeehaus Café

Coffeehouse (Cafe): Originating in Constantinople, the first 
coffeehouses in Europe were opened in Venice in 1645, London in 1652, 
Marseille and Hamburg in 1671, and Paris in 1671. The first 
coffeehouse in Vienna was opened in 1685 by the Greek Johannes Theodat 
(Diodato). In 1686, three former scouts active during the 2%%sup nd/%  
siege of Vienna by the Turks, among them Georg... Kolschitzky, were 
also granted a permit ("Privileg") to open a coffeehouse. 
For a long time, Kolschitzky was erroneously believed to be the 
founder of the Viennese coffeehouse tradition. In 1736, in addition to 
other so-called "Hofbefreite" (persons granted the imperial 
privilege of taxation exemption for 20 years), there were 19 bourgeois 
coffeehouses as well as itinerant "Wasserbrenner" 
(distillers), who, in addition to distilling Rosolio (a spiced 
liqueur), also roasted and served coffee. In contrast to the simple 
taverns, the bourgeois coffeehouses (the first was opened by Isaak de 
Luca in 1697) were more comfortable and offered better service, 
including, from 1703 onward, the first regularly published newspapers 
and public billiards. Because of this, the Viennese coffeehouse soon 
became a social institution. In 1750, the coffeehouse proprietor 
Gianni Tarroni was the first to be granted permission to set up tables 
and chairs outdoors in front of his coffeehouse on Graben in the city 
centre in summer. The expression "Schanigarten", used to 
describe tables and chairs set up outside a coffeehouse or restaurant, 
derives from "Giannis Garten" ("Gianni's garden"). 
In 1788, M. Wiegand was the first to engage musicians for his Cafe 
Bellevue at Kaerntnertor ("Konzertcafe"). The heyday of the 
Viennese coffeehouse was the Biedermeier period; proprietors began to 
furnish their coffeehouses luxuriously with mirrors, chandeliers, 
plush, and silver tableware (for which Neuner's "Silbernes 
Kaffeehaus" in Spiegelgasse was famous). The coffeehouse had 
become the focus of politics and society, art and literature 
("Literatencafes"). It also became a favourite meeting place 
both for business as well as for private and social get-togethers. 
People went to coffeehouses to talk, to read (Austrian and foreign 
newspapers and periodicals), or to play games (billiards, chess, 
cards). Around 1870 the coffeehouses in the "Nobelprater" 
along the Prater Hauptallee became fashionable. Other famous 
coffeehouses were the Cafe Dommayer (established in 1787), the Dobner 
(1796), the Cafe Volksgarten (1818), the Casa Piccola (1830), the  
Griensteidl (1847), the Cafe Central (1860), the Landtmann (1873), the 
Cafe Museum (1899), the Prueckel (1903), and the Hawelka (1938). The 
glass of water that was served with every type of coffee used to be 
refilled without the waiter's being asked. Numerous varieties of 
coffee are served, the names of which depend on their size and the way 
milk or cream is used in their preparation: "klein" (small), 
"gross" (large), "verlaengert" (a 
"small" coffee extended to "large" size with 
water), or "kurz" (stronger than the usual), each of which 
can be black or "brown" ("ein Brauner" = with 
milk); Melange (with cream), which can be prepared either "mehr 
licht" (lighter, with more cream) or "mehr dunkel" 
(darker, with less), "Schale Braun" (a large 
"Brauner") or "Schale Gold" (a large 
"Brauner" with more milk than usual), "Kapuziner" 
(with milk and whipped cream), "Franziskaner" (light Melange 
with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles); "g"spritzt" 
(with rum, also called "Fiaker", or cognac), and "der 
Maria Theresia", which has orange liqueur in it; 
"Einspaenner" is a mocha in a glass with whipped cream on 
top, and a Melange with eggyolk in it is called 
"Kaisermelange". After 1950, many coffeehouses closed down, 
but around 1990 there was a revival of the coffeehouse culture. In 
1994 Vienna had 1156 coffeehouses and "Cafe-Restaurants", 
984 espresso bars, 222 Cafe-Konditorei establishments, and 89 stand-up 
coffee bars.

!Literature
G. Gugitz, Das Wiener Kaffeehaus, 1940; H. Singer, Im 
Wiener Kaffeehaus, 1959; G. Oberzill, Ins Kaffeehaus, 1983; C. 
Brandstaetter and W. J. Schweiger, Das Wiener Kaffeehaus, 1986; 
Das Wiener Cafe, exhibition catalogue of the Jacobs Suchard Museum, 
1989; H. Veigl, Wiener Kaffeehaeuser - frueher, 1989; B. Sinhuber, Zu 
Gast im alten Wien, 1989; T. Martinek, Kaffeehaeuser in Wien, 1990. 
Oesterreichisches Cafe & Konditorei Journal, monthly magazine of the 
Vienna coffeehouse association.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Kaffeehaus_Café|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]