Das Wiener Kaffeehaus

In the coffeehouse, literary schools and styles were born and discarded. From the coffeehouse, new directions in painting, music, and architecture emerged. It all began during the Fin de siècle with the Griensteidl, the literary café frequented by Hofmannsthal and Schnitzler. Later, literature found a new home at Café Central, where Peter Altenberg, Oskar Kokoschka, and Karl Kraus, among others, gathered. After World War I, Café Herrenhof opened, attracting visitors like Franz Werfel, Hermann Broch, Robert Musil, and Joseph Roth. After 1945, Café Hawelka succeeded the literary café. Some of these old coffeehouses have survived to this day. A directory of the most important contemporary coffeehouses concludes this volume.