Kaffee Alt Wien 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 Bäckerstraße 9 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 ...

first district in

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. It was established on 14 October 1922 and taken over in 1936 by Leopold Hawelka and his wife Josefine on the day after their wedding. They ran the café until 1939 at which time they moved to

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 ...

, where they opened a new coffee house, Café Hawelka. Since the 1980s, the Kaffee Alt Wien has developed into a night café with a relaxed atmosphere. Informally considered an artistic hub, in 1976, a notable

happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow in 1959 to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" i ...

by the Viennese artist

Gottfried Helnwein Gottfried Helnwein (born 8 October 1948) is an Austrian-Irish visual artist. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media. His work is ...

took place in the café. The walls of the cafe are largely covered by posters advertising music, theatre and arts events in Vienna and the surrounding areas.

References

* The information in this article is based on a translation of its German equivalent. {{austria-struct-stub Coffeehouses and cafés in Vienna Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt

See also

References