Café Landtmann

The cafe occupies the ground floor of the Palais Lieben-Auspitz, which is located near the Burgtheater, the University of Vienna, the Town Hall with the Rathauspark and the Federal Chancellery. As a result of its position, coffee is a popular meeting place for actors, politicians, officials and journalists and is often the scene of press conferences.

Café Landtmann was founded by Franz Landtmann on 1 October 1873. Originally from the Währing district, Landtmann came from a family of coffee shop owners, gingerbread bakers and fig coffee producers. At the time of the opening of the original cafe, its Ringstraße site was directly in front of two vast yards for the new town hall and the new university. Next to the cafe were the remains of Löwelbastei, where the Burgtheater was later built.

In 1881, Landtmann sold his coffee to two brothers, Wilhelm and Rudolf Kerl, who continued to run the business under the name of Landtmann. After Rudolf retired, Wilhelm managed the coffee by himself and became a local celebrity with prominent figures such as Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud and Emmerich Kálmán who visited him regularly. In 1916, after 35 years of activity, Wilhelm sold Café Landtmann to Karl Kraus, a former butcher and restaurateur. Together with Hokare Ges.m.b.H. Kraus, a limited liability company, managed the coffee for five years.

In the fall of 1926, Café Landtmann was bought by Konrad and Angela Zauner. In 1929, the couple had the cafeteria expanded and completely renovated, by hiring the famous architect and professor Ernst Meller, who was responsible for the design of numerous Viennese cafés of that time. It was during this renovation that the Café Landtmann received its extravagant and sumptuous interior decorations, which are still preserved today, including the four wooden columns at the entrance, sculpted by Hans Scheibner. After the Second World War, Konrad entrusted the management of the coffee to his son Erwin, who continued to run it successfully until 1976, when it was sold to the Querfeld family.

Under the management of the Querfeld family, the Café Landtmann was completely renovated at significant financial costs in 1982, and then again in 2001 and 2002. On 1 October 1998, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Café Landtmann, the Querfeld family has organized a big party which was attended by celebrities from the political and cultural life of the city, as well as many regular patrons. In 2003, the famous coffee waiter Robert Böck, known as "Herr Robert", retired after serving for 28 years

During its long history, Café Landtmann has been a meeting place for many of Austria's leading industrialists, politicians, thinkers and artists, and was the favorite coffee of Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Peter Altenberg, Felix Salten and Emmerich Kálmán .