Café Hawelka () is a traditional

Viennese café The Viennese coffee house (, ) is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part in shaping Viennese culture. Since October 2011 the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the Austrian ...

located at

Dorotheergasse Dorotheergasse is a narrow lane (German: ), terminating at the Graben to the north and Augustinerstraße to the south, part of the Old Town district of Vienna, Austria Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities i ...

6 in the

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; ; "Inner City") is the 1st municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the I ...

, the first district of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria.

History

The Café Hawelka was opened by Leopold Hawelka in 1939. Hawelka had previously operated the Kaffee Alt Wien on Bäckerstraße since 1936 and together with his wife Josefine took over the Café Ludwig in the

in May 1939. This spot was originally the location of the "Chatham Bar" opened in 1906. For two decades in the recent past, it was wrongly believed that the original venue was called "Je t'aime-Bar". After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Hawelka had to be closed, and in Fall 1945 it was reopened in the still largely intact building. After the end of the period of occupation after 1955, the café quickly became a meeting point for writers and critics like

Heimito von Doderer Franz Carl Heimito, Ritter von Doderer, known as Heimito von Doderer (; 5 September 189623 December 1966), was an Austrian writer. Family Heimito von Doderer was born in Weidlingau, which has been part of the 14th District of Vienna sinc ...

Albert Paris Gütersloh Albert Paris Gütersloh (born Albert Conrad Kiehtreiber; 5 February 1887 – 16 May 1973) was an Austrian painter and writer. Gütersloh worked as actor, director, and stage designer before he focused on painting in 1921. As a teacher of Ar ...

Hilde Spiel Hilde Spiel (19 October 1911 – 30 November 1990) (pseudonyms: Grace Hanshaw and Jean Lenoir) was an Austrian writer and journalist who received numerous awards and honours. Biography Youth in Vienna Hilde Spiel was born in Vienna in October 19 ...

Friedrich Torberg Friedrich Torberg (16 September 1908, Vienna, Alsergrund – 10 November 1979, Vienna) is the pen-name of Friedrich Kantor, an Austrian writer. Biography He worked as a critic and journalist in Vienna and Prague until 1938, when his Jewish h ...

and

Hans Weigel Julius Hans Weigel (29 May 1908, Vienna – 12 August 1991, Maria Enzersdorf) was an Austrian Jewish writer and a theater critic. He lived in Vienna, except during the period between 1938 and 1945, when he lived in exile in Switzerland. He wa ...

. After the closing of the Café Herrenhof in 1961, even more artists gathered here, and it became a central meeting place in the art scene of the time. Regular guests included

Friedrich Achleitner Friedrich Achleitner (23 May 1930 – 27 March 2019) was an Austrian poet and architecture critic. As a member of the Wiener Gruppe, he wrote concrete poems and experimental literature. His magnum opus is a multi-volume documentation of 20th-cent ...

, H. C. Artmann,

Konrad Bayer Konrad Bayer (17 December 1932 – October 1964) was an Austrian writer and poet. A member of the Wiener Gruppe, he combined apparently irreconcilable elements—violence, hermeticism, pessimism, ecstasy, banality—and influences (dadaism, surre ...

, Ernst Fuchs,

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...

Rudolf Hausner Rudolf Hausner (4 December 1914, Vienna – 25 February 1995, Mödling) was an Austrian painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. Hausner has been described as a "psychic realist" and "the first psychoanalytical painter" (Gunter Engelhardt) ...

Wolfgang Hutter Wolfgang Hutter (December 13, 1928 – September 26, 2014) was a painter, draughtsman, printmaker and stage designer. Hutter's imagery is characterised by an artificial paradise of gardens and fantastical fairytale-like scenes. His work is said to ...

Helmut Qualtinger Helmut Gustav Friedrich Qualtinger (; 8 October 1928 – 29 September 1986; also spelled Helmuth Qualtinger) was an Austrian actor, cabaret performer, writer and reciter. Biography Qualtinger was born in Vienna, First Austrian Republic, to a se ...

Gerhard Rühm Gerhard Rühm (born 12 February 1930) is an Austrian author, composer and visual artist. Biography Rühm was born in Vienna. He studied the piano and music composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Following his st ...

, and

Oskar Werner Oskar Werner (; born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer; 13 November 1922 – 23 October 1984) was an Austrian stage and cinema actor who reached international fame. His most prominent roles include two 1965 films, '' The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' ...

. In the sixties and seventies, the café experienced its peak. The artistic atmosphere of the café also inspired Georg Danzer's 1976 song ''Jö, schau'' (''...was macht ein Nackerter im Hawelka''). Josefine Hawelka died on 22 March 2005 after managing the café for sixty-six years with her husband. She had baked the place's specialty, its

Buchteln Buchteln (from Czech , pl. , also in German: pl., sing. ; also , , ) are sweet rolls made of enriched yeast dough, filled with powidl, jam, ground poppy seeds or quark, brushed with butter and baked in a large pan so that they stick together an ...

desserts (which are still made by Günther Hawelka, son of Josefine and Leopold, according to the old recipe). Until his death in 2011, Leopold Hawelka could still be found sitting at its entrance, greeting guests.

Melange

Café Hawelka serves a '' Melange'' (similar to a

cappuccino Cappuccino (, ; from German ) is an espresso-based coffee drink traditionally prepared with steamed milk, including a layer of milk foam. Variations of the drink involve the use of cream instead of milk, using non-dairy milk substitutes ...

) at a cost of €4.80 (as of December 2023). Hawelka coffee

External links

www.hawelka.at
Homepage of the café
www.café-hawelka.info.eu
Map and Information

Photos from the Hawelka

Poster of Coffee Places "where one can think"
created b
Ariel Rubinstein
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cafe Hawelka Coffeehouses and cafés in Vienna Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt

History

Melange

See also

Further reading

External links