Café Hawelka

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The Café Hawelka on a quiet Thursday morning

Café Hawelka is a coffeehouse in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna located at Dorotheergasse 6.

The Café Hawelka was opened by Leopold Hawelka in 1939. Hawelka had previously operated the Kaffee Alt Wien on Bäckerstraße since 1936 and together with his wife Josefine took over the Café Ludwig in the Dorotheergasse in May 1939. This spot was originally the location of the Je t'aime-Bar opened in 1906. After the outbreak of World War II, the Hawelka had to be closed, and in Fall 1945 it was reopened in the fortunately still largely intact building.

After the end of the period of occupation after 1955, the café quickly became a meeting point for writers and critics like Heimito von Doderer, Albert Paris Gütersloh, Hilde Spiel, Friedrich Torberg and Hans Weigel. After the closing of the Café Herrenhof in 1961, even more artists gathered here and it became a central meeting place in the art scene of the time. Regular guests included Friedrich Achleitner, H. C. Artmann, Konrad Bayer, Ernst Fuchs, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Rudolf Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter, Helmut Qualtinger, Gerhard Rühm, and Oskar Werner. In the sixties and seventies the café experienced its peak. The artistic atmosphere of the café also inspired Georg Danzer's 1976 song Jö, schau (...was macht ein Nackerter im Hawelka).

Josefine Hawelka died on March 22, 2005 after managing the café for sixty-six years with her husband. She had baked the place's specialty, its Buchtel desserts (which are still made by Amir Hawelka according to the old recipe). Leopold Hawelka can still be found sitting at its entrance, greeting guests.

[edit] References

Franz Hubmann: Café Hawelka - Ein Wiener Mythos, Christian Brandstätter, 2001 ISBN 3-85498-111-2
Königin Josefine. Die Hawelkas und ihr Café (2002), a documentary film written and directed by Andrea Eckert.