Coffee is indispensable in Vienna. Is coffee special to Vienna?

In Vienna, a cafe can be either a way of life, a social occasion, a mental massage shop, or an oasis.

For Viennese, there are two indispensable places: one is the opera house, the other is the cafe. There are five opera houses in this city with a population of less than 2 million, while there are as many as 2500 cafes, large and small.

Does the cafe have any special meaning to the Viennese? An Austrian contemporary writer replied: "Cafe is a comfortable oasis in the desert of life." You can never think of this sentence sitting in a cafe in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, we regard the opera house as a "cultural" facility and a cafe as a "catering" place. But in Vienna, their taxonomy is different from ours, where there is a term called "cafe culture". Yes, it is a culture, and there is evidence: the "cafe culture" in Vienna is recognized by the United Nations as "intangible cultural heritage". So, when you get to Vienna, how can you not go to Oasis for a cup of coffee?

Turkish potion

Viennese coffee from the first day of birth? Legendary. It is said to be an unexpected end to Vienna's victory over the Turkish army, so coffee was jokingly called "Turkish potion". The most popular version of the legend goes like this:

In 1683, Vienna was surrounded by Turkish troops of the Ottoman Empire. A citizen named Georg Kolschitzky volunteered to venture out of the city for reinforcements. The Turkish army left behind a large amount of supplies during the hasty retreat, including many sacks of coffee beans. At that time, no one in Vienna knew the use of these black beans, so the court rewarded the coffee beans to Kolshetsky. He opened a cafe called Blue bottle and became rich. From then on, cafes have been opened all over the streets of Vienna.

Although historians have different views on the birth of the first cafe, caf é s in Austria worship Kolshetsky as the ancestor of the industry. Today, although the Blue bottle Cafe is gone, people have not forgotten the hero. There is a street in Vienna named after Kauershetsky, and there is a statue of him on the street corner, both to thank him for his contribution to the cafe and to commemorate his achievements in rescuing Vienna.

The Viennese were not subdued by the Turkish army, but were "conquered" by Turkish coffee. If the Ottoman sultan had known that he could use the "soft power" of coffee beans to conquer the hearts of Vienna, he might not have made a big fight. Today, Viennese know how to use the soft power of "cafe culture" to excite tourism and the local economy.

Coffee and? Son

Vienna's "cafe culture" is different from Hong Kong's "fast food restaurant culture", it is slow. Besides drinking coffee, there are more things to do there: reading newspapers, meeting friends, showing affection, reading new poems. According to the Viennese, the cafe is another living room outside the house.

The cafes in Vienna are also different from the chain coffee shops familiar to the people of Hong Kong and do not have the same industrial face. They have different styles, retain the personality of the handicraft era, and have formed their own cultural characteristics in the long history. So you go there not only for a cup of coffee, but also to sip their legends:

The antique "Harveka" is the window of bohemian culture, which is most suitable for admiring tourists to experience the local customs; the decent and affordable "Els" is close to the government building and becomes a gas station for civil servants and lawyers to take a break; the luxurious and comfortable "Landman" is often in and out of showbiz and politicians, and of course it has become a place for the media to listen to inside news and collect gossip. The "museum" designed by famous teachers is concise and fashionable, which is favored by artists. The time-honored "Greenstee" was once the cradle of "cafe literature", attracting? Literary fans from all over the world come here to taste a cup of dreams.

So a cafe can be a way of life, a social occasion, a mental massage shop, an oasis, or anything. As a matter of fact, there is no shortage of beautiful cafes in Hong Kong, but cafes with history and culture. Alas! In Hong Kong, it is not just cafes that lack history.

Is this talking about the smell of foreign coffee and the full moon of foreign countries? Yes. But not out of inferiority complex, but out of reflection. I really admire the Viennese, they can develop a cup of coffee into a culture, foreign culture into their own culture, and carry forward and catch up from behind. This point is really worth thinking about by us Chinese.

Coffee originated in Africa. Ethiopians began to drink coffee as early as the eleventh century. Then the coffee spread to the Arabian Peninsula. At the beginning of the 12th century, Mecca had a decent cafe. Another five hundred years passed, and it was not until the 17th century that coffee was introduced from Turkey to Europe. Even in Europe, the first person to drink coffee is not Austrian. In terms of the history of cafes, Vienna is not as early as Venice; in terms of the number of cafes, it is not as many as Paris; however, the United Nations awarded Vienna the title of "coffee shop culture", not Mecca, Venice, or Paris.

The coffee in Vienna reminds me of China? Son. Many years ago, when South Korea applied to the United Nations to include the "Dragon Boat Festival" as its "intangible cultural heritage", many Chinese people felt very angry and hurt and complained that the Koreans had moved away the Chinese. Son. But from another point of view, if we do not know how to cherish our own traditions and culture, and others take it away and carry it forward, then should we complain, or should we thank others in shame?

Central Cafe

The Central Cafe (Cafe Central) is an oasis specially visited by my husband and wife on this trip. From the end of the 19th century to the 20th century, it was the "central living room" of cultural life in Vienna. Today's "Central Committee" is still trying to maintain it? What it looked like a hundred years ago: spacious hall, marble table, red velvet chair, big chandelier, newspaper rack. Waiter of the bow tie. The traditional features of these Viennese cafes are readily available.

Walking into the Central Committee, the first person who greets us is the famous prose poet Peter Altenberg. The writer, who was active at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, took the "Central" as his living room and study, where he met and wrote. Except for going back to sleep in the hotel, he stayed in the cafe all the time, even using the "central" as his private mailing address. In memory of this loyal star customer, the cafe built this statue and asked him to continue to sit at the door of the cafe every day to welcome guests.

In Vienna, every famous cafe has its own star customers. For example, the star of Landman is the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the star of the Museum is the composer Alban Berg, and the Central is an oasis of literature where a hundred flowers blossom. There, in addition to Artemberg, the "resident writer", playwright Hugo van Hofmannsthal and colleagues of "Young Vienna" can also be seen working on "Cafe Literature", while philosopher Moritz Schlick and colleagues of "Vienna Circle" are working on "logical positivism".

Some people are planting an oasis of literature in cafes, some are weaving baskets of philosophy, others are baking the fire of revolution. At that time, Vienna was also a halfway house for exiled revolutionaries, and Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin and Marshal Tito were all regulars of the Central Committee. At that time, however, not many people believed they could change the world.

When it comes to the star customers of the Central Committee, the most legendary story takes place in July 1914. When the first World War broke out, Leopold Berchtold, the foreign minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was invited to the "central government" to have coffee with Victor Adler, the leader of the Social Democratic Party. Adler warned that the war would trigger a revolution and lead to the downfall of the European royal family. But Beshitord disagreed. He looked around and asked in a sarcastic tone, "who will lead the revolution?" Maybe it's the boastful Bronstein sitting over there. "

The result of the war proved that their "prophecy of the Central Cafe" was correct. The Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in the war, the Austro-Hungarian emperor was deposed, the German emperor retreated, and the Russian czar fell, and one of the leaders of the revolution was ── Trotsky, the coffee barista under the alias "Bronstein".

Between black and white

The Central is the most luxurious cafe in Vienna. Gorgeous arch coupons, magnificent halls, tall arched windows, beautiful mosaic patterns, carefully carved stone pillars. Full of? The romantic style of literature and art, it is not only a coffee "hall", it is simply a palace, a palace of architectural art. Therefore, in the "Central", you can not only drink authentic Viennese coffee, but also enjoy Austrian architecture.

The building where the cafe is located is a very famous historical building called Festay Palace, which was once the financial center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Founded in 186 ○, it was originally the headquarters of the Stock Exchange and the "Austro-Hungarian National Bank". It was designed by the famous architect Heinvich von Ferstel and named after him. In 1876, the stock exchange moved out in exchange for the "Central Cafe" of the Pach brothers. For such a magnificent building, it is no exaggeration to say that it is a "coffee palace".

Symbols of "Central Cafe" and "Festai Palace"? A golden age in the history of Vienna. At that time, the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire covered 15 European countries. As the capital of the empire, Vienna naturally became a place where all kinds of cultures gathered, while the cafe became a cultural salon for all kinds of elites. In that golden age, Central customers could see more than 250 newspapers in 22 languages available free of charge. From this we can see the pomp and splendor of that year.

Is today's "central government" still sentimentally attached to it? In the good old days, besides the statue of Attenberg at the door, were there still hanging on the wall? Huge portraits of Austrian emperors and queens. The clock seems to come to a standstill in the golden age of the past, temporarily forgetting the troubles of the 21 century. Nostalgia is like those two oil paintings, painting history and memory with many beautiful paints.

The afternoon sun walks lazily down the street, occasionally looking through the window into the cafe. My wife and I are sitting at the coffee table, try? Enjoy a leisurely afternoon like Viennese. I ordered the signature Central Coffee, which has three different flavors; she ordered foamy Viennese coffee in a transparent, gilded goblet. It is said that if you buy a cup of coffee in the "central", you can sit all day. Separated from us? Two tables, sit down? A couple in their seventies and eighties seem to have been sitting there all their lives (maybe they are also "resident writers"). They looked at it with a smile. We are a pair of "rookies" who are in high spirits and feel fresh about everything.

The shop is quiet, like a small resting temple. This kind of stillness is not the stillness of the sound, but the peace of mind. Sitting in a comfortable corner, with a cup of coffee in front of you, with a pure white water and a piece of oil-black chocolate, you can drink and drink and "fish alone in the cold on the river" without having to "stay alone in the mountains". The "oasis" of life is between the black and white poles.

The music sounded in the wide hall, with beautiful melodies. The pianist danced with his fingers in the ornate arcade. Beautiful architecture, beautiful music, as well as legendary history, romantic nostalgia, a cup of coffee let people get multiple artistic enjoyment. This is the charm of "cafe culture".

Source: Dagong Network