Café Landtmann

Café Landtmann is a traditional Viennese café on the Ringstraße in Vienna's first district. Opened in 1873, it is one of the city's historic coffeehouses and a place closely tied to the intellectual, political and artistic life of Austria.

History

Franz Landtmann opened the café on 1 October 1873. He came from a family of coffeehouse keepers and makers of fig coffee. At the time, the Ringstraße was full of construction: the new Town Hall and the new university stood across the street, and nearby lay remnants of the Löwelbastei, where the Burgtheater would later be built.

In 1881 Landtmann sold the business to the brothers Wilhelm and Rudolf Kerl, who kept the name. After several owners, the architect Ernst Meller led a complete renovation in 1929 that gave the interior its present decoration, now protected; four wooden columns at the entrance depict scenes from premieres at the Burgtheater. In 1976 the Querfeld family took over and still runs the café.

Culture

At the turn of the century the Landtmann was a meeting place for Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud, Peter Altenberg, Felix Salten and Emmerich Kálmán, and later for figures such as Curd Jürgens and Romy Schneider. Today it is still frequented by artists and politicians and is a regular stop on Vienna sightseeing tours. Its head waiter, Robert Böck, known as Herr Robert, worked there for decades, and his farewell in 2003 drew many celebrities.