Vienna’s Venerable Coffeehouse Tradition

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Vienna’s Coffee Houses are an

Integral Part of the City’s History

Discover the elegant world of the Viennese Coffeehouse, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage that is synonymous with the history of the Austrian empire and its dynamic capital city.

What the pub is to London and the sidewalk café to Paris, the coffeehouse is to Vienna:

A central meeting place to exchange ideas, digest news, and Austrian pastries, and meet one’s peers and linger over a libation of one kind or another.   Since the seventeenth century, Vienna’s coffeehouses have been an integral part of the sophisticated, polyglot cultural, intellectual and political capital of the Habsburg empire.

Mysterious Beans in a Burlap Sack

Locals know the legend by heart: coffee first came to Vienna in 1683, when the Ottoman army laid siege to Vienna.  They were overcome by the imperial forces, and beat a hasty retreat, leaving much of their supplies behind, including several burlap sacks of mysterious beans.   The legend goes on to tell of Koischitzky, a Polish army courier who had spent much time in the Ottoman Empire and knew that the mysterious beans were not camel food, but something much more valuable.  He asked if he could keep the sacks in place of his pay and proceeded to open a small café or coffeehouse near St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the heart of Vienna.

Cultural, Social, and Political Affinities and Associations

The rest is history.  Caffeine suited the energetic, eclectic Viennese, and soon much of daily intercourse, commerce, and politics was centered around the growing number of elegant coffeehouses in the capital. In the nineteenth century, coffeehouses served the same role for Viennese men as London clubs did for their English peers: one’s coffeehouse affiliation was a key hallmark of slotting a Viennese into a cultural, economic, or political caste.  Where he took his coffee and read his newspaper reflected a man’s politics and interests.  Many of the critical movements that shaped the twentieth century were hotly debated in Viennese cafes, and many of these storied institutions are still open today.   

Historic Vienna Coffeehouses

 Sigmund Freud pondered the mysteries of the human psyche in Café Landtmann, while Austrian politician Peter Altenberg made speeches at the Café Central, where a statue has been erected in his honor. Leon Trotsky and other liberal thinkers and writers plotted world revolution at Café Griensteidl.   

Coffeehouse tradition dies hard, and modern-day Vienna carefully preserves the rituals and traditions of its coffeehouse culture, so much so that UNESCO included Viennese coffeehouse culture in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritages in 2011.   

The elegant presentation of coffee in a Vienna Coffee Shop.  Photo Credit: Shutterstock

How to be Viennese in a Coffeehouse

Visitors to Vienna quickly learn that a Viennese coffeehouse is no place to grab a no fat triple shot latte on the fly.   Coffee is still served on an elegant silver tray with a glass of water by professional waiters in formal attire, and newspapers are still laid out on their iconic wooden poles to be lingered over. The privilege to sit in one of the old coffeehouses doesn’t come cheap, so do as the Viennese do and linger for a few hours, discuss the state of the world, read, or just ponder the mysteries of something.  

And feel Viennese.

The kitchen of Demel’s in Vienna

Jennifer Recommends:  5 Great Historic Vienna Coffeehouses

Café Demel (Demel K. & K. Hofzuckerbäckerei)

Café Hawelka

Café Hofburg

Café Imperial

Café Landtmann

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